The new editor-in-chief of The Star Phoenix and The Leader Post spent his early life in Yorkton.
Rob McLaughlin, who took over the editor-in-chief positions at both papers and the deputy publisher job at The Star Phoenix last Monday, comes back to Saskatchewan from Vancouver, where he was recently in charge of digital content and strategy for the National Film Board.
"[Saskatchewan] has always been part of who I am and who my wife is, and we've instilled this sense of place even into our children who have never lived here," says McLaughlin. "So we're very excited to be back in the province and part of the community."
McLaughlin's father Roger was a familiar voice and face in Yorkton for years as an announcer and reporter for CKOS television and host of the local entertainment show Profile.
The close-up experiences with broadcasting provided to him by his father in Yorkton, where McLaughlin lived from shortly after his birth until 11th Grade in high school, were the foundation of his interest in media and journalism.
"He would take me down to the station and I would watch him voice things. In fact, I think I was a voice on a commercial or two even as a small child, and I was on the local entertainment show there where they did the kids' Christmas special," McLaughlin says.
At 42, McLaughlin is unusually young for an editor-in-chief of a major newspaper. The award-winning journalist was brought on for his history of guiding media companies through periods of substantial technological change. Before working with the National Film Board, he was the director of digital programming at CBC.
McLaughlin will be a key part of Postmedia's new digital strategy, which he calls an "exciting," "holistic approach."
"I think it's safe to say the printed product isn't disappearing anytime soon, but I think the future will really be determined by how people make choices about how they connect with each other and consume news and information."
The future of written media is uncertain, says McLaughlin, "but I think certain patterns are emerging about how people consume news and how they talk with each other and how they are entertained and live their lives through this evolving list of digital products."
For now, McLaughlin is settling back into life in Saskatchewan, a place to which he has always maintained connections.
McLaughlin's job will be based in Saskatoon.
