Bell Media is making more layoffs in management just weeks after a sweeping executive shuffle at its head office.
Among those ousted in this round of management departures are Rob Farina, Head of Content, Strategy & iHeartRadio, who had been in the role since 2016.
Tyson Parker, Director, Podcasting and Artist & Music Industry Relations, is also a casualty. Parker was upped in Jan. 2020 from his former role solely handling artist and talent relationships to oversee Bell Media’s podcasting strategy.
Lis Travers, General Manager of CTV News Channel, is also gone. Travers had been with Bell for 17 years and was a former Executive Producer of Canada AM.
Edwina Follows, General Manager of the six Discovery Networks in Canada (Discovery, Animal Planet, Velocity, Science Channel, Investigation Discovery and Discovery GO); Grant Ellis, GM of BNN Bloomberg; and Martin Spalding, Regional VP & GM, Local Radio and Television for Bell Media Quebec were also casualties. Spalding had been with the company for more than 13 years.
On the West Coast, Les Staff, News Director for CTV News Vancouver, departs. He had been in the role since late 2012, first joining CTV Vancouver as an Executive Producer in 2007. Prior to that, he was News Director at CTV Saskatoon.
Also in Vancouver, John Voiles is out after nearly eight years as VP, Bell Media Sales, Western Canada. Prior to joining Bell in 2013, Voiles was a VP and General Manager with Astral Radio in Vancouver and has also served as a sales manager for Citytv and BCTV/Global Vancouver.
Stewart Meyers, Vice President and General Manager for Bell Media Alberta, is also no longer with the company. Prior to joining Bell, Meyers was the Vice-President of Alberta operations and General Manager of the Astral Calgary radio stations, in addition to holding other management roles with Corus and Standard Radio over the years.
While declining to get into details, Mark Choma, Bell’s Director of Communications, told Broadcast Dialogue that “…any changes in roles would reflect our strategy to make Bell Media easier to work with while driving content and platform innovation.”
This week’s departures follows a sweeping streamlining of Bell Media’s executive structure the first week in January that included names like Mike Cosentino, President of Content and Programming; Tracey Pearce, President of Distribution and Pay; Corrie Coe, SVP of Original Programming; Nanci MacLean, VP of Bell Media Studios; Scott Henderson, VP of Communications; and Kevin Goldstein, VP of Regulatory Affairs. Many had been with Bell Media and CTVglobemedia for more than two decades.
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