Mirko Bibic has been named the new Chief Operating Officer for BCE Inc. and Bell Canada. Current CEO and president George Cope was the last person to hold the COO title prior to taking the company’s top job in 2008. Bibic, with the company since 2008, has been a key driver in the success of Bell’s broadband investment and innovation strategy as EVP of Corporate Development and Chief Legal and Regulatory Officer, overseeing the acquisitions of Astral Media and Manitoba Telecom Services Inc., among other initiatives. Bell also announced the appointment of Wade Oosterman as vice chair. In executive roles with the company for the last 12 years, Oosterman assumes a senior advisory and oversight role on the Bell executive team, in addition to his existing leadership of Bell Media as group president and Chief Brand Officer.
Steve Ladurantaye has been appointed head of news at Scottish broadcaster STV. Ladurantaye has been with the CBC since 2016 when he was brought in to help lead digital strategy after five years at Twitter. He joins Glasgow-based STV as head of News & Current Affairs in the wake of restructuring which saw the closure of the broadcaster’s STV2 Channel and 59 jobs cut. Ladurantaye was most recently managing editor of CBC’s entertainment, business, health, science, tech and opinion units, in addition to managing the interactives team. Read more here.
Janice Goudie is the new host of CBC Radio’s Labrador Morning. Goudie, a CBC NL veteran who inspired a character in Broadway musical Come From Away, will be joined by new producer Rebecca Martel from Quebec and reporter Alyson Samson from St. John’s. The previous producing/reporting team of Matt McCann and Bailey White have both moved to CBC St. John’s where McCann is producing the morning show and White is reporting and reading weekend news.
Paula Simons is one of three new senators appointed last week. The Edmonton Journal’s City columnist, Simons was the winner of the 2017 National Newspaper Award for column-writing. Prior to joining the Journal in 1995, she was a producer with CBC Radio in Edmonton and Toronto, producing network shows like documentary program IDEAS and The Arts Tonight.
Fredric Karen, an award-winning Swedish editor and publisher, has been hired by Torstar to lead the company’s digital news initiatives. Karen takes on the role of senior vice-president, Editorial, effective Jan. 2, 2019. He has most recently been CEO, Chief Editor and Responsible Publisher at Svenska Dagbladet AB.
Corus Entertainment’s Kids Can Press has announced a number of management and structural changes, with president Lisa Lyons Johnston, adding publisher to her title. Lara Caplan has joined the company as associate publisher, Operations and Business Development. Naseem Hrab, formerly marketing director, has been promoted to associate publisher, Creative, overseeing marketing and leading development of the publishing list in concert with editorial director Yvette Ghione. Alison Van Ginkel has been promoted from sales and rights associate to international sales manager and brand manager, KCP Loft, reporting to sales director Molly Helferty. In Editorial, Katie Scott, formerly associate editor, has been promoted to editor. Kathleen Keenan also joins Kids Can Press as editor, with previous experience at Inhabit Media and Nelson.
Martin-Luc Archambault will no longer appear on the ICI Radio-Canada French-language version of Dragons’ Den. The digital entrepreneur had been on Dans l’oeil du dragon since 2015. An investigation by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada found that Archambault’s company Wajam.com violated many provisions by storing the raw data of millions of non-consenting users in a gigantic database in Montreal, and failed to use proper encryption methods to protect that information.
Dan Robson is leaving Sportsnet after seven years. Robson started with the network in 2011 as a senior writer for Sportsnet Magazine. Robson’s biography on Toronto Maple Leafs goaltending legend Johnny Bower comes out Oct. 30 (HarperCollins Canada), in addition to another book project Robson has on the go for Penguin Canada.
Ryan Forsyth has been promoted to promotions coordinator at Corus Entertainment Ottawa. Forsyth started with the company in 2014 as a street team leader for JUMP! 106.9 and Boom 99.7.
Ramraajh Sharvendiran is the new host of CBC Manitoba’s North Country. The weekday morning show, which originates from Thompson, MB and is heard on 28 frequencies in Northern Manitoba, relaunched this week after a year-long hiatus following the retirement of former host Mark Szyszlo. Sharvendiran has a background in public health and community radio with previous hosting stints at 96.9 Radio Humber (CKHC-FM) and Ryerson University campus station CJRU-AM.
Bob Ezrin is joining the board of directors of the Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF). The legendary music and entertainment producer and entrepreneur is a co-founder of The Nimbus School of Media Arts and Wow Unlimited Media Inc., both in Vancouver, as well as 7th Level Inc. in Richardson, TX and Enigma Digital in Los Angeles.
Ishmael Daro is leaving BuzzFeed News in Toronto to freelance in New York. Daro had been with BuzzFeed for the last three years.
Bernadette Whitty, who has been a creative writer at Newcap Halifax stations Q104 (CFRQ-FM) and Mix 96.5 (CKUL-FM) for 17 years, is leaving to write for the company’s stations in Cape Breton. She’ll join 101.9 the Giant (CHRK-FM) and 103.5 New Country (CKCH-FM) in November.
Jacob Weisberg, chairman and editor-in-chief of Slate, is leaving the company to start a new audio venture with Canadian author Malcolm Gladwell. Weisberg joined Slate as chief political correspondent in 1996 and took over as editor in chief in 2002. The new, unnamed company will handle production for Gladwell’s podcasts Revisionist History and Broken Record. It will also develop podcasts, audiobooks and short-form audio content.
Blue Ant Media has announced a number of senior executive appointments in a move to help develop the company’s production slate in the U.S. and Canada. Laura Michalchyshyn, based in New York, has signed on as an original programming consultant/producer; Julie Chang has been appointed VP, International Co-productions; Dan Lubetkin has been promoted to SVP, U.S. Production & Development; and Sam Sniderman, EVP, Global Production has relocated to Los Angeles to further bolster the global production unit’s profile in the U.S. market.
Nick Ianelli has joined Take 5 Productions as EVP of post-production, replacing Bill Goddard, who will continue with the company as a consultant. Ianelli has been SVP of post-production at Deluxe Toronto for the last 15 years.
Rachel Giese is Xtra’s (dailyxtra.com) new director of editorial, effective Nov. 5. Giese will lead the company’s team of journalists in Toronto and Vancouver. Giese writes a column on politics, pop culture and feminism for Chatelaine, where she has been editor-at-large for four years. She is a regular contributor to CBC Radio and is also host of the Doc Soup screening series at Hot Docs Cinema.
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