Fiona Conway joins CBC News as executive director of programming

CBC has announced that award-winning news producer Fiona Conway will be starting at CBC News as its executive director of programming on July 23.

Conway returns north of the border from a senior postion at ABC News.

According to a release, Conway will oversee a wide range of news and current affairs programming on both television and radio, including The National, the fifth estate, Marketplace, World Report, World at Six  and The House, among others.

Conway began her career at CFRA radio before moving to Global and CTV, where she held senior positions. She moved to ABC News, where she won two Emmy Awards, including one for her post-9/11 coverage for ABC, and a number of other awards, including a Gemini.

She takes over the position at CBC from Heaton Dyer, who, according to his LinkedIn profile, is now the executive director of strategy at the public broadcaster.  

Her appointment comes at a tumultuous time at the broadcaster. CBC’s budget was reduced by $115 million over three years in the most recent federal budget, and staff and programming were cut as a result. Popular programs such as Connect with Mark Kelley and Dispatches on CBC Radio have aired their final episodes, and original programming as a whole for CBC Television has been reduced by 175 hours per year.

CBC president Hubert Lacroix has acknowledged that the public broadcaster “can’t be all things to all people,” but he did say in a release last month that CBC can and must “be something for, and mean something special to, every Canadian.”