BCBusiness

March 2016 The Most Influential Women in B.C.

With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.

Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/637065

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 44 of 71

But while she defends old- fashioned news values, she has also welcomed change. During last summer's forest fires in the Okanagan, a vacationing meteo- rologist from Global Calgary broadcast a story by iPhone. "In the old days, we would have had a crew there, a professional cam- era, equipment, a microwave truck. Instead here's Jordan with an iPhone. He provided our view- ers with unbelievable first-person accounts. To me that was a huge, 'Yeah, OK, we don't need to cover it the way television has traditionally covered these stories.' That's part of the disruption I'm embracing." lobal is the undis- puted leader in televi- sion, with the evening News Hour attracting close to 200,000 view- ers—almost triple the numbers of closest rival CTV. But other media have considerable reach as well, including the CBC. Karen Burgess was named executive producer for news at CBC Vancou- ver in June 2015 and now oversees radio, television and online news coverage. She has also embraced change, integrating the news coverage across those platforms. (CBC TV News Vancouver has an average 332,000 weekly viewers, radio's the Early Edition gets about 350,000 weekly listeners, and cbc .ca/bc gets about one million unique visitors a month.) "Peo- ple get breaking news updates on social media and on cbc.ca throughout the day, so they're often already aware of an event by 6 p.m. We always have to think about what Andrew Chang is going to show the audience on TV that they haven't heard." Crystal Kwon, who as man- aging editor took Vancity Buzz to the masses, also focuses on shaping information for a specific audience. Hers is a young genera- tion that wants "short, digestible bits of information that can be easily consumed on the go." The model clearly works: Vancity Buzz counts 2.5 million unique visitors a month. Kwon also writes a weekly column for the Province, which she considers more colleague than competitor. The playing field has changed: the once-dominant Province and Vancouver Sun together count about a million print and digital readers each day. • BCBUSINESS.CA Carolyn Cross CEO, ONDINE BIOMEDICAL INC. WHY: Her company is leading the charge in the development of non- antibiotic therapies for bacterial, viral and fungal infections. Ondine uses a patented light-activated technology called photo-disinfection, with its product, MRS-Aid, currently in use at VGH and Abbotsford General. Cross also miraculously survived a 2011 plane crash at YVR, which killed the pilot. QUOTE: "What she's doing is kind of amaz- ing–it's a hell of a story. She's been pushing to get it into hospitals, although it's quite difficult." Martha Piper INTERIM PRESIDENT, UBC WHY: After UBC's annus horribilis (which saw both its president and board chair embroiled in controversy, then resign), Piper–one of the university's most suc- cessful past presidents (1997-2006)–rode to the rescue this past September, helping to right the ship in time for the university's 100th anniversary celebrations. Staff and alumni alike were thrilled to have Dr. Piper back and driving some of the snakes from UBC's Point Grey campus. QUOTE: "We just have to thank her–she's healing a disruption and saving that institution." Shahrzad Rafati CEO, BROADBAND TV CORP. WHY: Using a proprietary algorithm, BroadbandTV searches YouTube for uploaded videos that might violate copyright law—then links the uploader to the IP holder, secures ads for the content and splits the revenue. The pioneering tech com- pany, now 11 years old, partners with the likes of global giants Bertels- mann and Huffington Post and calls itself "the second-largest multichannel network in the world," counting 5.2 billion monthly views. FACTOID: Rafati has served as a director of the Vancouver Economic Commission since Octo- ber 2014. –M.O'G. RETHINKING NEWS (From left) Jill Krop and Crystal Kwon have employed new ways of reaching their audiences Disruptive Forces MARCH 2016 BCBUSINESS 45

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of BCBusiness - March 2016 The Most Influential Women in B.C.