Revolving Door

As originally published in the July 27, 2023 edition of The Weekly Briefing

Pascale St-Onge has been appointed the new Minister of Canadian Heritage as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced an anticipated cabinet shuffle Wednesday morning. The Member of Parliament for Brome-Missisquoi, St-Onge previously served as Minister of Sport and Minister responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec. Her background includes serving as Secretary General and later President of the Fédération nationale des communications et de la culture, where she worked to develop public policy and programs to address the challenges facing media, newspapers, and the cultural sector. Pablo Rodriguez becomes Minister of Transport and will continue to serve as Quebec Lieutenant. He had held responsibility for the Heritage portfolio since October 2021, after previously serving in the role in 2018-19. François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, retains his portfolio. Read more here.

Ginella Massa has announced she won’t be returning to helm her prime time CBC News Network show Canada Tonight in the fall as she moves on to pursue “personal projects.” Massa, who joined the public broadcaster in the fall of 2020, says going forward she’ll be focusing on further building her personal brand through media consulting, brand partnerships, and public speaking engagements. She’s also accepted a part-time teaching position at Toronto Metropolitan University in the Journalism program. Prior to joining CBC, Massa was an anchor and reporter with CityNews Toronto. She made history in 2015 during her time at CTV Kitchener when she became the country’s first hijab-wearing TV news reporter. Read more here.

Sean Davidson has left CTV Toronto. With Bell Media since 2014, where he started as a Ryerson University intern, Davidson was most recently an Assignment Editor and Managing Digital Producer. Prior to that, he was the Senior Digital Producer and a journalist for 9News Australia in Melbourne. Davidson is taking on a new role with Greater Toronto Airport Authority.

Stephen Peck has retired as Rogers Sports and Media’s Local Sales Manager, Eastern Ontario, including Kingston’s K Rock 105.7 (CIKR-FM), and 93.5 COUNTRY (CKXC-FM), in addition to Ottawa’s CHEZ 106 (CHEZ-FM), KiSS 105.3 (CISS-FM), 1310 CityNews (CIWW-AM), and 92.3 Country (CKBY-FM) and CityNews 101.1 (CJET-FM) Smiths Falls. Peck’s 41-year career started in Guelph, followed by stops in Peterborough and Oshawa before landing in Toronto to help launch Rawlco’s New Country station 92.5 KISS FM. From there, he became New Business Director for CHUM Radio National Sales before accepting the role of GM/GSM for Newcap’s Calgary stations, followed by GM/GSM for Rogers in Fort McMurray. 

Chris Ash has parted ways with Pattison Media’s NOW! Radio (CHNW-FM) Winnipeg. Ash had been the host of middays since Oct. 2021, arriving from afternoon drive on Kool FM (CKMB-FM) Barrie. Cassey Hunter moves into the 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. time slot. Before joining NOW, she worked primarily in promotions with Pattison in both Calgary and Edmonton. Macie Rae joins the station in evenings, arriving from the morning show on Sun 102.3 (CHSN-FM) Estevan, SK.

Charis Hogg has joined CBC Vancouver as a contributor. Hogg was one-half of the morning show on Pattison Media’s 102.7 The Peak (CKPK-FM), prior to the station’s flip to the NOW! Radio format. Prior to that, she was heard on the JACK FM (CJAX-FM) Vancouver morning show from 2018-20.

Jason Herring has left the Calgary Herald to join allSaskatchewan as a business reporter. He’ll remain based in Calgary. Herring had been with Postmedia since 2019, previously working as a multimedia journalist with the Edmonton Journal.

Tanuka Roy has been appointed Chief Operating Officer as part of internal restructuring at Super Channel that sees its Revenue, Marketing and Creative Services departments combined. Roy joined Super Channel in January as Chief Revenue Officer. Reporting to Tanuka will be Stacey Brooks, who joins the company as Director, Marketing, arriving from Bell, where she held a variety of senior level marketing positions over the last 16 years, most recently Senior Manager, Marketing Communications, Bell Consumer Services. Also joining Super Channel are Eva Lonoza and Ben Cheema, who each assume the newly-created role of Manager, Distribution Sales & Marketing, responsible for identifying and executing revenue generating opportunities across BDU and platform partners to drive subscriber growth and reduce churn. Lonoza was most recently with TELUS Small Business Solutions where she was Channel Manager, while Cheema was Manager, Training Affiliate Sales at Bell Media. The position of Chief Marketing Officer, which was held by Katie Lee, has been eliminated. Read more here.

Kim Robinson is moving on from Shaw TV’s community access channel in Victoria where she’s primarily been a producer for the last 15 years. Prior to joining Shaw, Robinson was a sales assistant with Corus Vancouver.

Peter Tsegaye has been appointed to the role of regional sales manager for Riedel Communications to accommodate the company’s continued growth in Canada. Tsegaye, who was most recently a technical sales and solutions manager with ES Broadcast, will report to Dave Caulwell, Regional Sales Director, East, North America, and operate out of Toronto. Tsegaye got his start at Harris Broadcast, which later became Imagine Communications, where he worked in various roles from customer service to product support specialist. 

Signal Hill Insights has named Grace Carrick as its new Head of U.S. Business Development, leading efforts to bring the company’s holistic brand lift measurement to more agencies and brands. Based in New York City, Carrick was previously VP, Advertising Partnerships with Midroll Media. She also spent 17 years with Westwood One, including six as Vice-President of Sales.