AND NOW THE NEWS
CBC-TV on a ratings mission

BY RITCHIE GAGE

On Friday, August 31, 2007, inside the rabbit-warren headquarters of CBC Winnipeg at 541 Portage Avenue, another news day is unfolding.

At about 1:30 pm, seven CBC television news editors gather in a boardroom. Theyre here to talk about the story line-up for the suppertime news package, News At Six, which for the past several months has expanded to a full hour of news.

Its an adjustment.a After filling a small news hole, there is now a much larger one for the same number of staff. Its a rapid-paced business at the best of times. Now, its a daily sprint to deadline in a market where they are in third place at 9 per cent of news viewers far behind runaway leader CTV at 44 per cent and second place Global Television at 13 per cent.

In the meeting are Cecil Rosner, newsroom managing editor; Melanie Verhaeghe, TV assignment editor; Chris Armstrong, show producer; Pat Kaniuga, CBC radio assignment editor; John Drabble, executive producer of CBC Radio and Television; and news anchor Janet Stewart. Defecting from CKYs leading news show in January, there is a lot on her shoulders. She is the new face of the show, as CBC tries to gain back viewers it lost several years ago through budget cuts.

Here she is, six months after the move, the former competitor, surrounded by CBC staffers. Its almost like a NHL player being traded and getting used to new teammates. You almost have to wonder if shes a mole to find out how CBC works. But shes actually partly responsible for reshaping it herself.

The meeting is one of many mini-meetings that go on throughout the days as the face of news changes.

Verhaeghe, back only six days from maternity leave, is new to Stewart. She reads a list of the stories slated for airtime at 6:00 pm. She talks of an exclusive healthcare story. A woman called the newsroom complaining she had no homecare worker to calibrate a ventilator for her aging parent who is being cared for at home. The public often uses the media to vent.

On hearing Verhaeghe, Stewart explodes the placid surface of the meeting and chomp the sugary, girl-next-door anchor, with the friendly face becomes a news shark, fracturing the placid, surface of the meeting.

I love that story, she exclaims enthusiastically, knocking the soft-spoken Verhaeghe back a few inches.

How many people face that same thing everyday, looking after aging parents? Thats a real human story that will touch everyone, says Stewart.

Verhaeghe says The Winnipeg Health Authority, which is responsible for the service, has not responded to a call from a CBC reporter with their take on the issue.

Stewart asks, How long has it been since we called?

Verhaeghe says, About two days.

Stewart says, Theres our answer.

Rosner says, No, we cant do that. Are you sure its been two days? Check on that; we need more information on why its taking so long.

Other stories are reviewed. The Bell Hotel is closing and Main Street souls and other resident must find a new home and somewhere else to drink. Nothing else is a revelation. The meeting, the second one that day, breaks up. Stewart stays behind to talk.

She says of the meeting, I like to really go at it over stories. I wish there was a little more action at these meetings. Oh, well, I really dont know Melanie (Verhaeghe) yet.

The day grinds on with people flying down hallways and the grand open newsroom is crammed with people standing while others are on the telephones monitoring the news. Nothing is long term here really, its all about today and tomorrow.

The clock ticks inevitably towards 6 p.m. and the tension mounts to get the product packaged for a time delivery. Stewart puts on her make up in a small room off the hallway and checks her teeth for salad. When the news hits there is no healthcare story but, there is a breaking story and shes live talking to a reporter at the federal virology laboratory. A suspicious package has been found in the building and fire trucks and a police cordon accented by yellow tape surround the place. Perfect action television.

The healthcare story airs days later and runs well down the ladder. Mike Beauregard, the sports guy, isnt in because hes taken the day off and there is no replacement, because he is the sports department. Stewart does the sports as well on this shift.

CKYs newscast leads with the 10th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana, then goes to a weather brief, then more weather, then a sport briefing.

The CBC the news set is cramped, its background an annoying window where cars whiz by on Portage Avenue a distraction as Stewart talks to a reporter live at the virology lab. It appears as if they are immune to it.

High on Stewart

CBC is high on Stewart. Shes going to be a star, we are told.

Besides her on-air image, she is skilled in writing the conversational style of television reporting and, according to Rosner, is working with staff reporters to share that ability. She has become a valuable resource since leaving from CKY.

Stewart describes her defection where she had spent six years having been imported from Halifax.

In the later part of 2006, I was having a bad day and I called Cecil Rosner. He suggested we have coffee, and we agreed to meet at the Paddle Wheel in The Bay. That led to a later meeting with John Bertrand, head of CBC Winnipeg, at the Osborne Starbucks.

She says she didnt want the anchor job.

The competition for that had closed. But these guys were very smooth, and I accepted anchor, but with more involvement.

Stewart says the reason she came to CBC was the corporations training programs for journalists and the tradition of quality in news. She studied journalism at the University of Kings College in Halifax. She was on the air with CTV and was brought to Winnipeg as a co-anchor.

Why I came here and why I love it is because I there is room to grow here and change. I can become involved in long-term planning and thats is not part of the management structure at CTV, says Stewart.

The reporters she introduces nightly are younger and, at this time, mostly women. They appear late in the day, flying down the hallways, disappearing into editing suites. It is a fast-paced business where, if you dont have the stamina and nerve, you cant cut it.

No middle-aged reporters of either gender are in sight, but they are all from different ethnic backgrounds and deliberately so, according to Rosner, who says news people should represent the demographics of the viewers.

At CBC, the list of reporters includes Waubgeshig Rice, Crystal Goomansingh, Lyndsay Duncombe, Mychaylo Prystupa, Donna Carreiro, Joni Nikolou, Gosia Sawicka, and Barbara Brunzell (currently on maternity leave). The I-Team features Alex Freedman (reporter), Vera-Lynn Kubinec (associate producer), Mike Beauregard (sports), the timeless Murray Parker (weather), and Marisa Dragani (national reporter).

Stewart is self-effacing, funny, energetic, and doesnt want the show to be all about her. She works with show producer Chris Armstrong to shape the package.

She says of television news: Our medium is intrusive it very difficult as a reporter as I still like to think of myself. You walk up the door with your friend the newspaper reporter and the radio reporter and your asking someone a personal difficult question. Your newspaper reporter is gently scribbling which no one notices, your radio reporter is pressing on their recorder and I have to say: excuse me do you mind if this guy behind me turns on this bright light and try and act natural and try not to look at the camera.

The point taken on the medium.

There are a lot of people involved in this process, and its very fast paced, she says. I just introduce their news. Its not all about me.

Self depreciation noted but it doesnt work that way. In the business for 16 years, she is now the face of the News at Six, just as Anderson Cooper is CNN in Iraq, in a hurricane in Florida, or in any other breaking story. She like all anchors in U.S. television is a brand name. And the product will reflect her language. She is already at work customizing the word flow.

Has the Looks

Stewart has the TV look and the talent for the medium, and the will to be at the top. She has the flaming blond-red hair, the megawatt smile, and she is naturally friendly. Stewarts off-camera personality is the same as on camera. Her nonchalant energy radiates its own charisma. She is outgoing and speaks her mind, but all like the girl-next-door.

Strong Journalism

Viewers often struggle to tell them the difference between being well informed and just informed. For some, television news is thin stuff that runs war scenes, accidents, and crime scenes for the curious. Others see television news a punctuation mark sandwiched between the America-made sitcoms from a multi-channel universe.

Television news is being challenged in Canada, but U.S. networks have made news a wow factor by branding it with news personalities. As the highest rated host in the history of NBCs Today Show, Katie Couric, left her throne and walked over to be solo anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News for a reported $15 million and she hasnt been able to lift the shows third spot rating.

Stewart had been CBC anchorwoman since January and CBCs news package is still third in the BBM ratings behind CanWest Global. But, News at Six has gone from 22,000 to 35,000 viewers. A gain, but not enough yet to get past Global or first place CKY. But to be fair, CKY has two more news packages per day noon and late night television that bags a lot of viewers.

CKY late news gets a curtain raiser on from CTV National News with Lloyd Robertson. So, CTV has made news a priority. CKY also has weekend newscasts, far more breaks during the programming day than CBC local news, and more time to promote their newscast, particularly during the heavily watched American network programs CTV broadcasts.

Television in Winnipeg is competitive, and being third is not good, especially for Rosner. He gets edgy when you talk of his shop being in third place; he claims CBC news reportage is better.

We have a talented and diverse staff and I think we inform our viewers the best, but the ratings dont show it yet, he says, were gaining ground.

So if Stewart is to lead the march to No. 1, how much is Stewart worth?

Slightly less than Couric about $13 million, Rosner deadpans.

How much?

CBC doesnt disclose those kind of things, he says.

Stewart says she negotiated a salary in the triple figures.

When I switched stations people were coming up to me in the supermarket and asking me how I could do such a thing. There were more people angry with me than not. People are loyal to the station they watch.

One reporter in the CBC newsroom says Stewart has transformed the place with her attitude. But can she attract viewers to catapult CBC to top newscast?

Rosner, the author of a soon-to-be-released book on investigative journalism in Canada, admits that its a big challenge. He predicted several years ago that the television audience would be fragmented by multi-channels and viewers would be scattered by the plethora of programs the tube offered.

He was right. And he says these days, all networks, including CBC, have consultants to analyze viewership and to tell programmers what people want to watch.

Do people want to see the bodies in Iraq, Afghanistan, the third world drummed into their psyche? Do they want to hear about shootings on Winnipeg streets or about the soap opera known as politics on which most have a soured opinion?

CBC itself is trying out a new form of presenting the news starting first in Vancouver. The project is called MyCBC, and, according to Rosner, its goal is to enhance and expand local news coverage by taking advantage of the integration between CBC radio, television, and the Internet. Sound familiar? And there might be a late night news package to match that of CKY and Global, which are currently alone in that time slot.

For television news consumers and for democracy in general, the more news angles the better, because competition forces the competitors to improve.

That, in the end, is good news for those who think all hard news in a democracy is bad. (Ritchie Gage is Editor of MANITOBA BUSINESS Magazine) MBM