Michael Melling new head of CTV News

Michael Melling has been appointed vice-president of CTV News, the network has announced. Melling is the former general manager of CTV News Toronto, CP24 and BNN Bloomberg. In this role, he will take helm of all news, information and current events programming including CTV News, BNN Bloomberg, CP24, as well as the current affairs shows Power Play, Question Period and W5.

Melling joined Bell Media in 2003, working as an editorial assistant at BNN Bloomberg. Since then, he has held senior roles in Toronto and Southwestern Ontario and has helped grow the digital news formats of CTV News Toronto and CP24.

Melling replaces Wendy Freeman who was the head of CTV News for the past 12 years. She announced in December that she would be stepping down at the end of 2021.

Ted Byfield dead at 93

 Ted Byfield, who has died aged 93, was a firebrand magazine publisher who harnessed the ideologies of Western Canadian alienation into a viable political movement that, for a time, was the bright future of Canadian conservatism.

He was also an educational pioneer whose nostalgia for the strict Christian schooling of boys led him to create three boarding schools that rejected the contemporary model of student-centred learning in favour of discipline, faith, rote learning, and self-sufficiency. (National Post)

Link to NatPost

Wendy Freeman steps down as head of CTV News

Wendy Freeman, vice president of CTV News, has announced that she has decided to step down at the end of 2021 after more than 25 years at CTV. “It is with a great sense of pride and accomplishment that I announce today that I am leaving my position as Head of CTV News,” said Wendy Freeman. “I am extremely grateful for all the wonderful people that crossed my path over the past 25 years, some of which have become great friends over the years. While I am sad to leave such a great team, I am excited for the next chapter of my career.”  

 Wendy has led the CTV News division at Bell Media since 2010, responsible for news, information, and current events programming including CTV News, BNN Bloomberg, CP24, as well as the current affairs shows POWER PLAY, QUESTION PERIOD, and W5. 

 https://www.bellmedia.ca/the-lede/press/wendy-freeman-steps-down-as-head-of-ctv-news/?fbclid=IwAR3FzjvgukRouA__OqLlqBb81OVknG-UGMnLKPpxjO69iHyojYNeaEEbW1A

Norman Webster has died

 Former Montreal Gazette and Globe and Mail editor-in-chief Norman Webster died Friday morning in the palliative care unit of the Magog Hospital from complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was 80. (Montreal Gazette)

Link to Gazette obit

Wendy Mesley retires

 Wendy Mesley has retired from the CBC after 38 years. Mesley fronted many programs during her career, including Marketplace and as a backup anchor of  The National.

Last year, she became embroiled in a controversy surrounding her use of the N-word on two separate occasions during editorial meetings in 2019 and again in 2020 while preparing for a segment of her program “The Weekly” that focused on anti-racism.

The allegations sparked an internal investigation that led CBC News to take disciplinary action against her.

Mesley later tweeted that she used the word “not as a slur,” but as a reference to what another journalist, who they were considering booking as a panelist on the show, had been called.