Good read

WADE ROWLAND

The CBC’s a service, not a business

Wade Rowland is the author of Saving the CBC: Balancing Profit and Public Interest. He teaches in York University’s communication studies department.

The CBC’s strategic plan to shift priorities from broadcast to digital services and outsource virtually all but news and current affairs programming is, on the whole, a sensible strategy – from a purely business perspective. It saves money by reducing production and distribution costs. Shedding more jobs will further enhance the bottom line between now and 2020; as many as 1,500 positions will be eliminated in the plan announced Wednesday.

The thing is, however, that the public broadcaster is not a business in any conventional sense. It exists not to make money or to satisfy financial goals, but to fill a public need – one that is not being served by private media outlets. The CBC is a public good, like the school system, like medicare, like our universities and colleges, our public museums and galleries.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/headline/article19354362/