Staff across the country were filled in yesterday on the changes, which are an extension of a reorganization in November that put Richard Stursberg in charge of all English-language services including television, radio and the internet.

Stursberg had previously been in charge of CBC-TV.

A management committee has been put in place to ensure there are close and regular conversations between staff in the radio, television and digital media divisions, and to ensure staff are making "fully integrated" decisions, Stursberg said. Staff were told the revised organizational structure is "to provide support for creating programming across different media lines" but that each unit will continue to pursue its existing strategies.

CBC has traditionally sent crews from each division to the same event. In some cases, teams from several television and radio shows would convene at a news conference.

Nevertheless, the reorganization unveiled yesterday drew criticism from staffers who convened for a meeting moderated by radio personality Michael Enright, according to InsideCBC. com, the "official blog" of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Enright cited the experience of another public broadcaster to express his skepticism.

"They tried this with BBC Radio and it was a disaster. They're reorganizing and trying it again," he said, questioning whether the integration will make CBC stories less distinctive.

CBC News publisher John Cruickshank said the aim is not to water down the news, but rather to expand what the CBC does well across targeted properties, and to create a 24-hour news organization.

"Right now, we're not coordinated in that way," he said. "We send too few or, worse, too many people [to cover the same story]."

As part of yesterday's reorganization, two of the CBC's radio executives have been moved to a new integrated news division.

Jennifer McGuire, executive director of English Radio, will become executive director of news programming, setting the mandate and tone of news programming across all media platforms. Until a replacement is found for her radio position, McGuire will continue to do that job as well.

Todd Spencer, formerly head of radio production, will also move to the integrated news organization as executive director of news content.

According to InsideCBC.com, Enright "confronted" Stursberg on the moves, saying he was "seized with the feeling that TV is strip-mining radio of its senior management."

Stursberg disputed the claim that the changes would come at the expense of radio. Rather, he said, the aim is to take advantage of "incredibly gifted" staff responsible for the successes of CBC radio "for the purposes of all."

bshecter@nationalpost.com