OTTAWA — To help Canadians find and support trusted local media serving their communities, CBC/Radio-Canada has launched Local News Matters, a nationwide directory which links to more than 1,000 media outlets across the country.
The first of its kind in Canada, the directory is available on the public broadcaster’s website here. This CBC initiative to support local journalism in Canada coincides with National Newspaper Week (October 4 to 10), whose theme this year is “Canada’s News Media. Champion the Truth”.
The unprecedented challenges currently facing Canadian news organizations have been compounded this year by Covid-19, says the CBC press…
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TORONTO — Announced earlier this year, the HireBIPOC initiative created by BIPOC TV & Film and Bell Media launched today with CBC/Radio-Canada, Corus Entertainment and Rogers Sports & Media throwing their support behind the industry-wide effort to facilitate the hiring of Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) media and entertainment professionals.
With more than 500 members already registered, HireBIPOC is a web portal which provides an online roster of Canadian BIPOC creatives and crew working in screen-based industries.
Bell Media, Corus Entertainment and Rogers Sports & Media have committed to making the use of HireBIPOC a specific condition…
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TORONTO — CBC News announced Friday the appointment of Mervin Brass (above left) as senior director for CBC North and Ruth Zowdu as senior director for CBC’s Ontario region, effective October 19.
“With a longstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion, Indigenous reflection and deepening CBC’s community connections,” Brass has been managing editor for CBC North for four years, says the CBC press release. In his new role he will continue to be based in Yellowknife, overseeing all local programming for stations in Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut.
“This move to create a senior managing director position for the North speaks directly…
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By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – The federal government’s Thursday announcement to spend another $2 billion on expanding broadband access to underserved communities as part of a $10-billion basket of infrastructure initiatives through the Canada Infrastructure Bank’s (CIB’s) Growth Plan leaves many unanswered questions.
“How is it going to be delivered? What’s the timeline? What communities will be prioritized?” wondered John Nater, the Conservative shadow minister for rural economic development. “We understand these will be loans, but we don’t know whether the interest rate will be competitive and how it will differ from commercial lending agencies.”
“I don’t have a ton of…
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By Catherine Tait
THE PAST SIX MONTHS have transformed Canada and the world. It has changed how we work, how we shop, how we interact with friends and family. It has been an unsettling lesson in how quickly everything we take for granted can change. And as we head into autumn and winter, we are all worried about a second wave, and the health of our families and our society.
At CBC/Radio-Canada, Covid-19 has redoubled our attention on what is most important about serving Canadians: trusted news, serving local communities, and supporting Canadian creators who depend on us.
Canada’s media industry was…
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TORONTO – Calling itself a broadcaster “where all voices matter,” The News Forum launched with a press release late Tuesday evening saying its mandate is “to encourage critical thinking and to celebrate diversity of opinion.”
The channel, which features a show called Boom and Bust hosted by former Conservative cabinet minister Tony Clement but will also offer domestic and international news, launched on all Bell television platforms (as well as Telus satellite TV and Regina’s Access Communications) and is partnered with two Canadian companies, Nextologies, for master control and distribution, and Ethnic Channels Group for sales and advertising, says the…
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TORONTO and LONDON — Julie Bristow, the former CEO and president of factual and kids content maker Bristow Global Media, has launched the Content Catalyst Fund (CCF), a development and funding company focusing on content developed, delivered and designed by women and about women.
Based in Canada but with an international reach, the CCF will develop and invest in unscripted and scripted content, but with an initial focus on unscripted, says a press release on Tuesday. To help female creators find an audience for their work, the CCF will invest in end-to-end strategic support in viable female-led projects, says the…
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TORONTO — Blue Ant International announced today a new commissioned special, After the Wildfires, which looks at Australia’s recovery effort a year after the country’s devastating bushfires in 2019, will premiere on Love Nature in November.
Shot during and in the aftermath of Australia’s worst fire season in recorded history, the one-hour special is “a gripping account of the wildfires that ravaged Australia, centred on the animals that struggled to survive the disaster and the people who gave their all to save them,” reads the press release announcing the new program.
Produced by Sydney-based Northern Pictures, the documentary includes dramatic…
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TORONTO and MONTREAL — CBC/Radio-Canada announced today it is partnering with the Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF) to launch new fellowships for Black journalists.
The CJF-CBC/Radio-Canada Black Journalism Fellowship (open to all genders) and the CJF-CBC/Radio-Canada Black Women’s Journalism Fellowship will provide early-career Black journalists with mentoring and training in a CBC News or Radio-Canada Info newsroom. Early-career journalists are defined in the CBC press release as those with one to 10 years of experience.
Over a six-month period, selected fellows will receive mentoring and training in video and audio editing, writing, research and investigative reporting. Each fellow will receive a…
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OTTAWA — Ahead of International Podcast Day on September 30, CBC/Radio-Canada’s Media Technology Monitor (MTM) released today a new report on the podcast listening habits of English Canadians, which finds podcasts remain a sizeable piece of the online audio market among Anglophones.
According to MTM’s report, listenership among English Canadians has grown more than 50% from the fall of 2017 when 20% of those surveyed then saying they listened to podcasts, compared to 30% of respondents in fall 2019 saying they do so.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the study found people who use public transit or walk to work are more likely to…
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