OTTAWA – Citing “economic and market realities” the Canadian Association of Broadcasters will be a far smaller organization going forward, concentrating more on policy and copyright matters.
As Cartt.ca reported first yesterday, the private broadcasters’ lobbying group fired 14 people, about half its staff. Included in the purge are COO Tina Van Dusen, SVP member relations and administration Sean Kiely, executive director of events and member services Marye Menard Bos, VP regulatory and policy Jay Thomson and VP communications Pierre Pontbriand.
The new CAB will be “a streamlined and effective advocacy association representing private radio and television broadcasters to the federal government. The renewed organization will operate with reduced resources and a more focused approach to advocacy relating to broadcasting sector policies and copyright matters,” reads the press release.
“The economic and market realities require an advocacy organization that is directed to achieve policy results for broadcasters”, said CAB chair, Charlotte Bell, who is also SVP regulatory for CanWest Global. “The board agreed that we need CAB’s voice in Ottawa with more forward-looking industry research to affect federal broadcasting policy, including copyright matters. We will be recruiting a new president to implement this vision in the very near future.”
CAB President and CEO Glenn O’Farrell announced his intention to leave late last year and this is his final week.
In the interim, a management committee comprised of the CAB executive council: executive vice-president policy and public affairs (Elizabeth Roscoe), chief financial officer (Sylvie Bissonnette), general counsel (Margot Patterson) and chief regulatory officer (Pierre Louis-Smith) will oversee the organization.
There’s no word yet on the details of the new direction the association will take (which is something the board of directors has been working on for two months, as we first reported) and the annual convention, held every year in the fall and scheduled for Vancouver in 2009, has been cancelled. In a bit of coincidental timing, the first annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters actually took place today, January 28th, 83 years ago, in Toronto.
Also no word yet on what will happen to the Gold Ribbon Awards or the CAB Hall of Fame, which had been presented annually at the convention.
The organization has been reeling since September when Quebecor-owned broadcaster TVA quit the CAB and according to many sources CTV also was mulling over walking away completely in the fall. All broadcasters, especially the conventional private television broadcasters, are struggling with a poor economy and are also looking to trim costs and cutting fees to their association will help the bottom line, too.
“On behalf of the board of directors, and all the members of the CAB, we want to acknowledge our appreciation for the professionalism and the dedication each of these individuals in furthering the interest of private broadcasters over the last number of years,” added Bell in the press release.
– Greg O’Brien
