CBC News Wants Suggestsions? Maybe? Sortof?

In what appears to be a post directed only to CBC employees they are asking for ideas to improve CBC news as part of the 'CBC News renewal process'. My first thought is that if this is meant only for employees it shouldn't be on Inside the CBC - which is available to everyone (inside and out.) The link for more details leads to IO, which is the internal portal for CBC employees. My second thought is that as the nation's public broadcaster they should be asking the question outside the organization as well. So, although you can't get 'more details' please feel free to send your suggestions to newsrenewal[at]cbc.ca.

As someone who has sent a myriad of suggestions to the CBC over the years I'm somewhat skeptical of any request for suggestions (from the inside or the outside.) It has seemed to me for the last few years that those who make the decisions inside CBC have behaved like a cheating spouse. The audience they have isn't the audience they want. Having found an audience for something they continually want a younger, sexier audience with a better job and a nicer car.

Although I personally prefer the new Radio 2 to the old one, they certainly made the old Radio 2 audience feel like they simply weren't audience enough. The same goes for the cancellation of JPod and Intelligence despite public protests. They cancelled Zed, but Al Gore is bringing it back (sort of) and making into a 24/7 network. They decided against bringing Canadian indie music to television but others are going to in the form, again, of 24/7 networks (more on that later).

So, it is a little difficult to believe that any ideas received by them, no matter how good, will be put to use. It is a bit of a catch 22 - if you are a dedicated viewer with ideas on how to make things better that probably means that you are not part of the audience they want and therefore your ideas are not likely to be of interest but I'd encourage you to send them anyway. If, as Sarah Hepola suggests at Salon.com the age of the tabloid is over (thanks to Bill Doskotch for the link), then they may be at a complete loss as to how to proceed.