Cruickshank leaves CBC News to be publisher of Toronto Star by Michael Posner and Guy Dixon
Source : Globe & Mail
November 27, 2008
After little more than a year on the job, John Cruickshank, publisher of CBC News, is leaving the public broadcaster to become publisher of the Toronto Star, it was announced yesterday.
Mr. Cruickshank, 55, was confirmed by the Torstar board of directors Tuesday. He called his boss, CBC executive vice-president Richard Stursberg, yesterday to confirm his decision to leave.
At the Star, Mr. Cruickshank will take over from interim publisher Don Babick, who in turn succeeded Jagoda Pike, who left in October to become president of Ontario's bid for the 2015 Pan American Games.
Mr. Cruickshank came to the CBC job in September, 2007, in the newly created position of publisher, after the resignation of former CBC News editor-in-chief Tony Burman a few months earlier.
Mr. Cruickshank was unavailable for comment. He and his wife, Toronto Star foreign editor Jennifer Hunter, were in Chicago yesterday visiting their children, both of whom attend the University of Chicago, and to celebrate the American Thanksgiving holiday. Executives from the Star did not return phone calls.
However, Mr. Stursberg said in an interview yesterday that, contrary to rumours, there had been no ill will between the two senior executives. "He was a great fit here. We got on great. I'm very fond of him. People in news admired him as a great leader. Sometimes these things happen.
"The truth of the matter is that he's a print guy and here was the chance to run the largest-circulation newspaper in the country, the one he actually grew up reading."
Before joining the CBC, Mr. Cruickshank had spent his entire professional career in newspapers. He'd been managing editor of The Globe and Mail from 1992 to 1995, editor-in-chief of the Vancouver Sun from 1995 to 2000, Chicago Sun-Times editorial vice-president in 2000 and Sun-Times publisher since 2003.
His tenure at the CBC saw its share of controversy. In September, he apologized for an opinion piece on CBC online by columnist Heather Mallick, who had lampooned Sarah Palin's vice-presidential bid.
Fox News in the U.S. ran several items about the article, and Mr. Cruickshank instituted a new policy that all CBC online opinion pieces be vetted by a senior editor. At the time, Mr. Cruickshank said Ms. Mallick's article was "terrific within a certain tradition of political writing." The problem, he said, was not with the piece itself, but with the CBC's decision to run it.
When he arrived at the CBC, Mr. Cruickshank thought it would be his last major job. In a memo to staff, he called his new role as publisher "a career capper, the culmination of a varied, frequently unpredictable and always surprising professional journey."
The memo said he was looking "forward to making a positive contribution to its development in these very exciting times and building for an even more exciting future."
In a formal statement posted by the CBC yesterday, Mr. Stursberg said that "John has made a significant contribution to CBC News. We consider the Toronto Star's win to be our loss, of course, but John leaves a first-class team well-prepared to meet the challenges of the future. We wish him every success in his new role."
© Globe and Mail
Mr. Cruickshank, 55, was confirmed by the Torstar board of directors Tuesday. He called his boss, CBC executive vice-president Richard Stursberg, yesterday to confirm his decision to leave.
At the Star, Mr. Cruickshank will take over from interim publisher Don Babick, who in turn succeeded Jagoda Pike, who left in October to become president of Ontario's bid for the 2015 Pan American Games.
Mr. Cruickshank came to the CBC job in September, 2007, in the newly created position of publisher, after the resignation of former CBC News editor-in-chief Tony Burman a few months earlier.
Mr. Cruickshank was unavailable for comment. He and his wife, Toronto Star foreign editor Jennifer Hunter, were in Chicago yesterday visiting their children, both of whom attend the University of Chicago, and to celebrate the American Thanksgiving holiday. Executives from the Star did not return phone calls.
However, Mr. Stursberg said in an interview yesterday that, contrary to rumours, there had been no ill will between the two senior executives. "He was a great fit here. We got on great. I'm very fond of him. People in news admired him as a great leader. Sometimes these things happen.
"The truth of the matter is that he's a print guy and here was the chance to run the largest-circulation newspaper in the country, the one he actually grew up reading."
Before joining the CBC, Mr. Cruickshank had spent his entire professional career in newspapers. He'd been managing editor of The Globe and Mail from 1992 to 1995, editor-in-chief of the Vancouver Sun from 1995 to 2000, Chicago Sun-Times editorial vice-president in 2000 and Sun-Times publisher since 2003.
His tenure at the CBC saw its share of controversy. In September, he apologized for an opinion piece on CBC online by columnist Heather Mallick, who had lampooned Sarah Palin's vice-presidential bid.
Fox News in the U.S. ran several items about the article, and Mr. Cruickshank instituted a new policy that all CBC online opinion pieces be vetted by a senior editor. At the time, Mr. Cruickshank said Ms. Mallick's article was "terrific within a certain tradition of political writing." The problem, he said, was not with the piece itself, but with the CBC's decision to run it.
When he arrived at the CBC, Mr. Cruickshank thought it would be his last major job. In a memo to staff, he called his new role as publisher "a career capper, the culmination of a varied, frequently unpredictable and always surprising professional journey."
The memo said he was looking "forward to making a positive contribution to its development in these very exciting times and building for an even more exciting future."
In a formal statement posted by the CBC yesterday, Mr. Stursberg said that "John has made a significant contribution to CBC News. We consider the Toronto Star's win to be our loss, of course, but John leaves a first-class team well-prepared to meet the challenges of the future. We wish him every success in his new role."
© Globe and Mail
