We use this editor’s blog to explain our journalism and what’s happening at CBC News. You can find more blogs here.
We have long believed that being close to you — close to where you live, close to how you consume content, close to what you care about, close to how you think and what you need help with — is the key to maintaining our relevance with Canadians.
Proximity drives our core CBC News promise to the audience: “We are with you every day making sense of our world together.”
Proximity is how we build trust and grow relationships with you, the people we serve, including those of you with whom we have weak or little connection. It’s how we find great stories that need telling and how we help this country understand itself.
What does proximity look like at CBC News?
First, we have built out our digital proximity to Canadians, getting closer to people by being on the emerging platforms they use for local, national and international news and current affairs. That ambition has driven our local streaming channel expansion and FAST strategy, our YouTube efforts, our local and national podcasts, our digital publishing feeds, the importance of Gem, TikTok and the integration of local Radio One streams on the news app, to name just a few examples.
Second, we make sure to be there when it counts. Nothing tests your commitment to proximity more than when a crisis hits a community. Be it snow, wildfires, floods or hurricanes, we will be there for the communities we serve, helping them make sense of what’s happening.
Third, we show up, in person and in real life. We’ve committed to more community outreach, activations and listening sessions. We’ve taken more programs out into all parts of Canada (this month alone, you heard The Current in Iqaluit and Morning Live with Heather Hiscox will broadcast from four locations in Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec and Ontario. The Signal in N.L. was live from the southern Avalon Peninsula for its 12th in-person program of 2025. And in January, we announced a major expansion of local boots-on-the-ground reporting for communities that deserve more coverage by CBC and other media, with a particular focus on Western Canada.
Today that big local service expansion is real: people have been hired (just a few left to go); leases have been signed; stories are being told.
I want to officially introduce you to the journalists we’ve hired, sharing with you the same personal introductions we made to CBC News staff in an internal note.
You’ll be able to put faces to names, learn the locations in which we’ve set up shop and see a few samples of the stories they’ve already produced.
Our proximity goal is to be of real service to these communities, building local relationships and trust, one reporter and one story at a time.
Red Deer
Hinton
Lloydminster
Lethbridge
Medicine Hat
Banff/Canmore
Example of a recent Alberta story:
Steinbach
We will fill a second Steinbach position soon.
Example of a recent Manitoba story:
Prince Albert
North Battleford
We hope to fill this reporter position soon.
Abbotsford
Fort St. John
Nanaimo-North Island
Penticton
Squamish
Salmon Arm
Examples of recent B.C. stories:
Okanagan Falls may need to change its name in order to become B.C.’s newest municipality
Mission Couple find wedding rings in landfill
Dawson Creek, B.C., eyes $100M water pipeline as deepening drought threatens drinking supply
Campbellton, N.B.
Truro, N.S.
Yellowknife-based travelling reporter
Laurentians/Lanaudière
Andie Bennett
Andie will cover the Laurentians and Lanaudière regions of Quebec. Andie, who lives in Morin Heights, is a familiar face and voice to many, being a former sports columnist for Daybreak and CBC Television. In addition to covering Montreal’s major sports teams, Andie went out of her way to highlight people making a difference in their community through sport. She left CBC to join TSN’s Team 690. Andie also did community development work in the MRC des Pays-d’en-Haut in the Laurentians. Andie has an office space in the Piedmont area.
Vaudreuil-Soulanges
Chloë Ranaldi
Chloë is returning to CBC where she previously worked as a video-journalist, current affairs radio producer and assignment editor. Chloë is also completing her master’s degree at Concordia University with a focus on how Canadian women present themselves through podcasts and traditional radio. Chloë has a deep understanding of the vibrant off-island communities including Vaudreuil, Hudson and Saint-Lazare from her reporting over the past decade. Chloë has an office space in Hudson.
Oshawa
Rochelle Raveendran
Rochelle joined CBC Toronto in February 2024 as an intern while finishing her bachelor of journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University and has been on the digital team ever since. No stranger to covering the news in Oshawa, her first field assignment with CBC Toronto was an Oshawa court case. She is excited to get to know Oshawa better and help us expand our coverage there.
Christian D’Avino
Christian has wanted to be a journalist since high school when he volunteered for local cable television before completing his diploma at Fanshawe College in London. While he’s spent most of his life in Ontario, his career started in the small northern B.C. city of Dawson Creek. He moved back to Ontario to be a reporter for CTV in Sault Ste. Marie and most recently has been working for CTV Barrie as a reporter, producer and anchor. Christian is passionate about local news and strongly believes in reporting on underserved communities.
Sault Ste. Marie
Alex Flood
Alex has dreamed of working for CBC since he was a young boy watching the evening news from his childhood home in Sault Ste. Marie. Soon after completing his diploma from the College of Sports Media in 2021, Alex began working as a television reporter and news anchor with TBT News in Thunder Bay. From there, he joined Village Media where he told hyperlocal stories for his hometown publication SooToday and later for TorontoToday when it was launched in 2024. When he’s not covering the news, you’ll find Alex watching sports (Go Canucks!), playing piano and watching Schitt’s Creek for the millionth time.
St. Catharines
Diona Macalinga
Diona is a bilingual video journalist who’s curious to explore new places and ways of telling stories. She studied journalism at Concordia University in 2021 and complemented it with further training in data journalism from King’s College in Halifax. During her studies, Diona has dabbled in investigative journalism, podcasting and documentary filmmaking. Diona was born and raised in Montreal, where she started her journalism career working as a VJ for CityNews, specializing in community and political stories. In 2025, she moved to St. Catharines as a multiplatform reporter for the CBC.
Examples of recent Ontario stories:
