Wednesday, August 24, 2005
CBC lockout XXI: The talent raids have begun
Timing, as we know, is everything.
CNN and possibly the other American networks are raiding CBC talent. At least three high profile CBC correspondents apparently have received generous offers from CNN.
Why now?
It is generally thought that CBC management timed the lockout to as a pre-emptive strike against the CMG so that the Guild would not be in a better bargaining and strike position just before the start of the hockey season. If Guild members have been on the picket lines for six weeks, the thinking goes, they would be more inclined to settle in time for Canadians to hear that familiar theme music.
But the butterfly in all this (Chaos theory: remembering a butterfly flapping its wings causing a storm elsewhere) is Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera is setting up an English-language satellite service to compete with CNN and the BBC. (See story in the Times Online in June)
As the CBC counted down to the lockout, Al Jazeera, I am told, was raiding its rivals. There already have been some significant defections, among correspondents, producers and better technical people at what we call the "Amnets" and in the U.K.
That means the network world is churning. With Al Jazeera hiring and the other networks now forced to fill the gaps left by people who jump to Al Jazeera, one place everyone is going to look at is the talent that CBC management has forced on the street.
(That happened in a smaller way here in Canada 11 years ago when the speciality channels began. After a couple of years when nobody moved because of the recession, suddenly people were jumping every day, including me, I went from being a badly treated casual at CTV to a somewhat better treated casual at CBC)
Antonia Zerbisias of the Star reported last week that Robert Hurst at CTV was also planning a raid. So far as I know, he hasn't made his move. The consensus among the ordinary folks at CTV is that Hurst is holding out until CBC people get a little more desperate so they might come a little cheaper.
When I worked with Bob Hurst at CTV, he was a wide-ranging foreign correspondent and I was a writer on the desk. In those days we called him "Rambo." It may be time for Hurst to put on his old vest and move fast if he doesn't want to see the people on his list on another network's screens.
(There is a job button on the Al Jazeera website, but there is no information about the new network).
I am told Al Jazeera wants a diverse set of faces on the air so it has legitimacy around the world, the kind of people CBC has been recruiting for the past few years. Of course, one of the problems is that while CBC may lose some of its stars or potential stars, it won't help many of the people now pounding the pavement.
Technorati tags
writing, journalism, CBC, blog, news, CNN, Al Jazeera
6:38 PM posted by Robin Rowland
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CNN and possibly the other American networks are raiding CBC talent. At least three high profile CBC correspondents apparently have received generous offers from CNN.
Why now?
It is generally thought that CBC management timed the lockout to as a pre-emptive strike against the CMG so that the Guild would not be in a better bargaining and strike position just before the start of the hockey season. If Guild members have been on the picket lines for six weeks, the thinking goes, they would be more inclined to settle in time for Canadians to hear that familiar theme music.
But the butterfly in all this (Chaos theory: remembering a butterfly flapping its wings causing a storm elsewhere) is Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera is setting up an English-language satellite service to compete with CNN and the BBC. (See story in the Times Online in June)
As the CBC counted down to the lockout, Al Jazeera, I am told, was raiding its rivals. There already have been some significant defections, among correspondents, producers and better technical people at what we call the "Amnets" and in the U.K.
That means the network world is churning. With Al Jazeera hiring and the other networks now forced to fill the gaps left by people who jump to Al Jazeera, one place everyone is going to look at is the talent that CBC management has forced on the street.
(That happened in a smaller way here in Canada 11 years ago when the speciality channels began. After a couple of years when nobody moved because of the recession, suddenly people were jumping every day, including me, I went from being a badly treated casual at CTV to a somewhat better treated casual at CBC)
Antonia Zerbisias of the Star reported last week that Robert Hurst at CTV was also planning a raid. So far as I know, he hasn't made his move. The consensus among the ordinary folks at CTV is that Hurst is holding out until CBC people get a little more desperate so they might come a little cheaper.
When I worked with Bob Hurst at CTV, he was a wide-ranging foreign correspondent and I was a writer on the desk. In those days we called him "Rambo." It may be time for Hurst to put on his old vest and move fast if he doesn't want to see the people on his list on another network's screens.
(There is a job button on the Al Jazeera website, but there is no information about the new network).
I am told Al Jazeera wants a diverse set of faces on the air so it has legitimacy around the world, the kind of people CBC has been recruiting for the past few years. Of course, one of the problems is that while CBC may lose some of its stars or potential stars, it won't help many of the people now pounding the pavement.
Technorati tags
writing, journalism, CBC, blog, news, CNN, Al Jazeera
6:38 PM posted by Robin Rowland
Permanent Link
