OTTAWA - Experts say CBC/Radio-Canada's new five-year plan to grow its audience offers a reply to its many critics — but it lacks specifics and it might be too little and too late.

Earlier this week, the public broadcaster released a plan for expanding its viewership by reaching out to children and youth, newcomers and "non-users or dissatisfied users."

CBC president Marie-Philippe Bouchard told The Canadian Press in an earlier interview that the plan includes a new focus on rural areas and Western Canada through a larger on-the-ground journalistic presence.

But connecting with that estranged audience will take more than enhanced local coverage, said Peter Menzies, a former CRTC vice-chair and former publisher of the Calgary Herald, now a senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institu

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