Published on January 31, 2019
CTV’s Daryl McIntyre has been an evening news anchor longer than anyone in Edmonton.
He credits that to a willingness to embrace change. During his 30 years with the station, he’s witnessed seismic shifts in the media landscape: mergers, declining advertising revenue and the explosion of social media.
For him, the beauty of social media, including Facebook, Twitter and blogging, is how they increase the connection with viewers.
That power became evident with the Maddox Flynn story. In 2010, McIntyre accompanied the two-year-old, born with a severe facial deformity, and his family to New York for surgery. Combined with his traditional reporting, the journalist’s blog, Twitter and Facebook posts allowed people to stay fully engaged with the story, which saw the generation of nearly $300,000 in donations to help the family cover costs.
“When people decide to mobilize it’s an extraordinary thing to watch,” he says.
— Ruth Juliebo