Caroline Plante
Good anglophone Quebec City reporters are hard to find. Montrealers don’t want to move because their families are based here and there isn’t much going on for anglophones in the provincial capital. Plus, as the National Assembly reporter, the bar is higher. You need to be an expert (or at least very interested and motivated) in politics, and your French has to be impeccable.
So it’s no surprise that various Montreal anglo media have had trouble filling the position. CTV struggled for a while after the Kai Nagata fiasco before hiring Max Harrold from the Gazette. Now, with Harrold returning to Montreal, they’re back to figuring out what to do with the position.
The Montreal Gazette has been in a similar position since the departure of Kevin Dougherty last year. Young reporter Geoffrey Vendeville was recruited into the role, supplemented part-time by veteran Philip Authier doing analysis.
And then there’s Global News’s Caroline Plante, who has been filing reports for the little-watched Montreal newscast for the past nine years. It’s surprising that she hadn’t been poached by CTV or CBC during that time. (Global Montreal has surprisingly low turnover for a station at the bottom of the ratings — staff point to the feeling of family among its small news staff as a big reason nobody wants to leave for the competition.)
But Plante has finally gotten an offer she’s chosen not to refuse. The Montreal Gazette (my employer) has hired Plante to be its Quebec City bureau chief, effective Aug. 24.
To my twitter followers: I proudly announce that I will be the @mtlgazette's Quebec City Bureau Chief starting Aug. 24 #thrilled&honoured
— Caroline Plante (@cplantepresse) August 7, 2015
In addition to her reporting duties, Plante is also president of the National Assembly Press Gallery.
The hiring will mean Global needs to find a new reporter in Quebec City. Its newsroom is undergoing other changes, with the departures of Domenic Fazioli, Richard Dagenais and possibly others, and the hiring of former Quebecor Media reporter Brian Daly and former City TV reporter Kelly Greig.
Could be wrong, I always thought Caroline Plante is a Francophone working in English media(same thing with Richard Dagenais(maybe part francophone) you mention here). For CTV Montreal, they already got someone working for Bell Media in Quebec City covering Quebec National Assembly. Angelica Montgomery covering for them in the radio side, & a anglophone born & raised in Quebec City.
Montgomery can’t effectively cover the National Assembly for both TV and radio. When news breaks, both need reporters, often at the same time. A smaller network might have tried to have a reporter multitask, but both CTV and CJAD are too popular to accept such a compromise.
Heck she quits radio job to join CTV Montreal full-time(who needs CJAD). TV is more prestige & better pay.
What are you basing that on?
Did Domenic Fazioli leave Global? Who is confirming this information?
Yes.
Nobody.
It’s pretty funny to think that what should be a prestigious job, a stepping stone to bigger things, is the least desired job. It’s pretty much a dead end because once you get there, nobody wants you to leave because you are too hard to replace.
It’s pretty sad!
The job is not undesired. The problem is partly about location, and partly because of the competencies required.
Is it considered a full or part-time gig? The National Assembly is not in-session year around.
No, but Quebec City exists year-round, and there are parliamentary committees and non-political stories to cover when the legislature is not in session.
In case I wasn’t clear, I meant for the CTV Montreal Quebec City job? The only time, I saw Caroline Plante reporting from Quebec City for Global Montreal was when the National Assembly was in-session(otherwise she was off-air). That’s my memory. Max Harrold returned back to Montreal, to report for CTV Montreal when National Assembly wasn’t in session if I recall.
Congratulations, Caroline!
Felicitations / Congratulations!
You have always worked hard and so it does not surprise me
that your talents are sought by competitors in the industry.
J’ai su les nouvelle de ton pere cette semaine..
Bonne Chance/Best Wishes
Aline et Leo