Maegen Kulchar - From the Anchor Desk to the Front Page

On this episode of the podcast, Dave Cunningham welcomes award-winning journalist , Maegen Kulchar, for a conversation about the evolving world of local news.

The discussion explores Maegen’s journey into journalism through Carleton University and Niagara College, early years reporting for CKWS-TV in Kingston, and the dramatic shift that followed the 2025 restructuring and layoffs at the local television station.

Now reporting for the Kingston Whig-Standard, Maegen reflects on the transition from television to print journalism, the changing habits of news consumers, the influence of social media and artificial intelligence, and the challenges — and importance — of strong local reporting.

The conversation also highlights the nationally recognized story that earned the E. Cora Hind Award for Local Reporting in a medium market.

A thoughtful discussion about journalism, community, and the future of local storytelling.

If you have a story idea that you think our guest might be interested in, send her an email ... MKulchar@postmedia.com

#LocalNews  #Journalism  #YGK  #Storytelling  #KingstonWhigStandard
 #NewsMedia
 

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Transcript

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Steve 0:08

Welcome to the Kingstonian, a podcast that profiles people who are passionate about what they do for a living, what organization they belong to, or the community they are a part of. Here is your host, Dave Cunningham.

Dave 0:24

Thank you, Steve. Hello, everyone, and welcome. Coming up on this episode of the podcast, I sit down with one of Kingston's most recognizable local journalists, a reporter whose career has taken her from the television newsroom at CKWS TV to the pages of the Kingston Week Standard. We talk about the changing world of local journalism, how audiences consume news differently today than they did 15 years ago, the challenges facing local media, and why community storytelling still matters. We also discuss a major career turning point following the 2025 television layoffs in Kingston, the transition from broadcast to print journalism, and the national recognition she recently received for award-winning local reporting. It's a thoughtful conversation about resilience, storytelling, and the future of local news. This episode was recorded in early May, 2026. Megan, welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:23

Thanks for having me. This is really exciting.

Dave 1:26

Really appreciate you doing this. And let me set the stage with a general question. How is local news being consumed now in 2026, as opposed to when you first started in the journalism business back in 2010?

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Well, I started my journalism career at CKWS TV, a local television station in Kingston. And I started as a local reporter. So for me, it always started visually on television. And so it was a local station that uh was watched by many local Kingstonians. So from there it's kind of moved from TV now to print journalism. And for the most part, it's it's online. Yes, we do have some physical papers that go out a few times during the week and the weekend, but for the most part, it's it's online. People go to their phones now for news.

Dave 2:17

I wanted to get into that social media and AI, all of that sort of thing later on. Um when it comes to you, let's go back to the very beginning when you were thinking about a career in this business. What prompted you to go down that road?

SPEAKER_02 2:31

I initially wanted to go into film and you know be someone behind the camera on uh, you know, a show or a movie set. So I took um that in at Carlton University. I took film. Um, and then from there I transitioned to college where I took broadcasting for radio and TV because I really wanted to still get into that TV aspect. But instead of necessarily being behind the scenes, I still wanted to be have my hands on a camera, but I also wanted to be in front of the camera as well. So took that, and that's where my career launched. I started applying across the country to different television stations as well as film production studios, and I landed a job in Kingston, Ontario.

Dave 3:15

Was there a point during your studying that this became real as a potential career in journalism?

SPEAKER_02 3:21

What really made it real is during my internship. Okay. So I did my internship at Fox 35 News in Orlando, Florida. Oh, really? Yeah. Well, not in Orlando, north of Orlando. So I spent uh about six months of the summer um during the rest of my college career, uh, college studies in Orlando at that station, and I got to do everything from the editing to, you know, behind the scenes to answering the phones to watching the meteorologist go to work and him teaching me how to do it. So I think that's what really solidified me wanting to get into a career broadcasting.

Dave 4:01

Now, is it unusual to get an internship and an American station?

SPEAKER_02 4:04

It is.

Dave 4:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

It really is. When I um told my professor, you know, I'm gonna apply to a station in Florida. My grandparents had a place down there, so I'd have free accommodations. Um, he said, Don't waste your time. He said, No one in Canada is gonna hire you if you have experience of an internship in the States. He said, No one's gonna see that as a positive thing. They want to see Canadian. But I said, I don't think so. I'm gonna apply to the States and see what happens. So I applied to a bunch of different internships um at three different stations in uh in Florida, and Orlando reached out and said, We've never had a Canadian. We'd love to have you.

Dave 4:45

Right place, right time.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

It really was.

Dave 4:47

Excellent, excellent. What did you enjoy most about doing television news?

SPEAKER_02 4:52

What did I enjoy most? I enjoyed the editing as well as the interviewing, especially when I moved up and became the uh co-host of our morning show. I really enjoyed having people on set and asking them questions, making them laugh, um, you know, the camaraderie with my coworker uh Bill Walechka. You know, we had so much, so much fun doing it, you know, learning new things, and um just the experience was just a blast.

Dave 5:22

They always say that if you find a job you enjoy doing, it won't be a job.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Yeah.

Dave 5:27

Which is always true.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

It was it's very true.

Dave 5:30

Was there a particular story while working at CKWS TV that really sticks out in your mind over the 15 years you were there?

SPEAKER_02 5:39

You know what? No, because I did so many. I did so many stories that I mean if I had to pick one, maybe that made that major fire to that building along Princess Street. Right. Where the gentleman was stuck on the crane and they had to have a helicopter from Trenton rescue him down. I think it was yeah, it was huge and it was dramatic, and we had to do live shots from there. So that was probably one that really stuck out and is a big memory for a lot of Kingstonians.

Dave 6:15

That's right. That's right. I want to jump ahead to 2025 because it was obviously a huge moment for local media in the Kingston area, and that was the year in which the corporate owners of CKWS decided they were going to basically discontinue having an outlet in Kingston. Although there are people who still work here, but it's not in the same numbers as once we're there. Now, I've mentioned before on this podcast that I used to work at the same station, but in radio. And when I worked there, I can remember the days in television when there would be piles and piles of people, but as it got closer to 2025, a lot of it had become automated, in which case you didn't need as many people. When you found out about this uh shutdown of the station, what was going through your mind at the at this particular point?

SPEAKER_02 7:03

Uh it didn't happen. It happened all at once. So we were ready to go to broadcast, you know, that very day. And around in the morning, they said each of us is gonna get a phone call. So one by one, we each kind of learnt what was happening. Um so when I got the news, um yeah, it was it was devastating because it was, you know, a station I had been at for quite a number of years, almost 14 years. And uh it was it was really sad. It was really sad to see all of us except for, I believe, four or five got let go. So it um yeah, it was a sad day because our station had been there for almost 80 years. So it was it was sad, and I I didn't know from there where I was going to go because this was the only TV station in Kingston.

Dave 7:55

That was my next question. Did you ever think about leaving town to pursue a career?

SPEAKER_02 8:01

You know, we didn't because we had made routes here in Kingston, and we have friends here, and our kids, you know, go to school here, and no, we really enjoy Kingston. You know, we never wanted to move to Toronto or a different province. This became our home. So we really wanted to settle here.

Dave 8:20

Now I know that there were a few people who um did stay here, some people did stay here, and some people found careers elsewhere. You found a career with the local newspaper, the Kingston Whig Standard. How did that particular relationship evolve?

SPEAKER_02 8:35

You know, it was a big surprise. I was off for four months, and you know, then I started getting that itch, you know, looking for something to do. So I started applying to various different jobs in Kingston, and uh the Whig Standard had an opening. So I thought, oh, on a on a whim, I'll apply to them. They're not gonna want me. I'm from TV. I don't I don't do long writing, you know. Uh so I applied and right away I I got an interview from uh from from Steven Service, who was the uh editor-in-chief at the time. So he was excited to to talk to me about the role and uh offered me it, you know, almost right away. So it was an exciting move. I was nervous because I was so used to writing for TV, which is of course short and sweet. And so writing for a local newspaper, I thought this is gonna be so different. So different. But the transition, surprisingly, went very smooth.

Dave 9:39

So it was a smooth transition going from TV to print.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Which I was surprised about.

Dave 9:45

You wouldn't think that.

SPEAKER_02 9:46

No, you wouldn't. But I I really surprised myself too in the long-form writing, which was uh actually easier to do because you're able to interview more people, uh provide more content, rap provide more background, and essentially provide, you know, a longer piece of news.

Dave 10:04

So is storytelling different in print? Like you said, it gives you the opportunity to talk to more people to uh get into more issues in in an in-depth kind of way. But uh I would think there would be um some differences in that. Creativity. Is that you would have more creativity with print than you would with broadcast?

SPEAKER_02 10:24

Oh, definitely. Yeah. Definitely. You can provide more description, you can provide um more elements to the story that maybe you wouldn't be able to provide in that 30-second, you know, news piece in broadcast.

Dave 10:36

For those who may not understand or know, not sitting in front of the TV with a stopwatch, what would be the average length of a TV story?

SPEAKER_02 10:45

A minute and a half. That's the average length of a TV story.

Dave 10:49

Aaron Powell And how long would it take you to pull that together? You would have to, if you were doing video stuff, you would have to edit video and all that kind of thing. But how long would it take you to put that together?

SPEAKER_02 10:59

It would typically take you anywhere from, you know, four to eight hours, maybe, depending on how how you get your elements, how you get your interviews. You know, it's all about setting up your interviews for those days, going out, physically shooting them with a camera, and then coming back and finding those clips and editing them together to make that minute and a half.

Dave 11:21

So when you're doing print, do you do most of it over Zoom or do you talk to people online or do you go out and see them, or is it a combination of the two?

SPEAKER_02 11:30

It's a combination of both. It really depends on the topic of the story. If it's something that you can do from home, from over the phone or through Zoom, um, you know, that's an easy way to go. But if it's something that where you have to go out into the community and talk to people, you know, if it's something about an issue about um downtown, or it's uh an issue where you physically have to go and see what's going on, if it's um a strike, that's something you have to go and see and talk to people. So you can describe in your words and your writing what is actually happening.

Dave 12:04

Just for my own interest, when you go out to talk to people and you're going to do a story for the paper, are you recording what they're saying or are you just trying to take notes?

SPEAKER_02 12:13

For the most part, I record. My handwriting is too messy these days.

Dave 12:18

And you can never keep up with what they're saying.

SPEAKER_02 12:21

Exactly. So recording's the the best way to go.

Dave 12:24

Now let's jump ahead a little bit. You've only been in this job for what, a year now?

SPEAKER_02 12:28

Yes. Oh, but a year and a half, I would say.

Dave 12:31

So you find yourself in Toronto recently at a national uh receiving a national journalism award, and that must have been a pretty surreal moment.

SPEAKER_02 12:41

It really was. It really was. For my short period of time to go there, it's it was quite a surprise to first, you know, be nominated out of these people across the country, and secondly to go to this award ceremony and you know sit bes close by these esteemed writers from other high markets.

Dave 13:03

The story that got you the award, can you tell us a little bit about the content of that story?

SPEAKER_02 13:08

Yes. So it was about a correctional worker at uh one of the institutions here in Kingston who was bullied at work and he was being bullied at work for quite some time. And as a result, he took his own life because he couldn't take the bullying anymore. So that's how it initially stemmed. And from there we were able to talk to the mother of the son who took his own life because of it. And this story ran in It was initially a a one-stop story. Okay. But from there, I got emails from people from across the country stating similar incidents of being bullied while they're at work inside these institutions. So from there the the story just snowballed. Blew up. Yeah, it really did.

Dave 13:59

Yeah. The award is called the E. Cora Hind Award for Local Reporting in a Medium-sized market. And do you know much about the individual who the award is named after?

SPEAKER_02 14:10

From what I learned, yes, that she was the first female reporter and writer uh back in Winnipeg, back in the sorry, 1800s is correct. Yeah.

Dave 14:21

But you cover a wide range of different stories. And maybe that's a that's a point that a lot of people may not realize. Now, you and I had talked a little bit before we started recording, and you had mentioned that most of the uh reporting and the writing is done in your own home or your own office, wherever, and you don't have a place where you go and mix and mingle with other people. Uh the business of let's take the mix and mingling. When you work in television, you would have other people that you would work with as part of a team. When you're doing print, you're basically all by your lonesome. What's that like for you in terms of getting used to that idea?

SPEAKER_02 14:59

It's different. Definitely took a little bit of getting used to because, like you said, I'm was used to being with my coworker in the morning, seeing people during the day, you know, in the office. And this has changed a lot. Yeah, working from home, you know, we have a morning meeting at around 10:30 to discuss story ideas, but after that, we're kind of on our own. We we talk to each other through Slack, this online um chat program.

Dave 15:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:25

But for the most part, yeah, on your own, just kind of digging away. So it's to go from this award, it kind of motivates me to want to dig even more when it comes to investigative stories.

Dave 15:39

Aaron Powell Now, how are stories assigned to reporters? Do you uh dig up your own stories? Mm-hmm. Yeah. As opposed to being assigned to stories.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

We self-assign, or our um editor, Jan Murphy, would you know send us an email that came in? You know, and maybe look into this, you know, concerned citizens.

Dave 15:56

Aaron Powell We have talked about it a little bit, uh skirted the issue a little, and let's uh hone in on it a bit more. These days people get their news, I would guess, from their telephones, from social media feeds, podcasts. The business of people looking at a million different things that come across your phone feeds on a daily basis as a news consumer. So from my perspective, and I'm looking at this and you see videos or you see stories and you're going, okay, is this true? Or is this some right or left-wing organization feeding something to try to influence people? How do you get to the truth of a matter and make sure you're presenting that truth and people are under understanding that you are presenting truth to them as opposed to a news feed that may come from wherever?

SPEAKER_02 16:47

I think it's about doing your research and talking to the right people. So making sure that you get that uh backup info from uh correct resources, right? It's all about making sure you're you're getting those right resources to making sure you're you are held accountable for what you're writing. So I think that is something really important and you know, double checking that we are telling the truth.

Dave 17:10

The other question related to um this sort of thing is AI. People using AI to replace real people. So having AI write the stories or AI do the research. Or uh if you use AI to do the research, which a lot of people would do, I do it with respect to these podcasts. I've been caught once where I've talked to a guest and said, What about your time playing in this band? And they go, he goes, What band? Never heard of the band before. Okay, let's double check that stuff from here on in. But that type of thing, I mean, I don't know if reporters use AI as a research tool. Because I think a lot of people instead of going to Google and saying, Find me some information on this particular story, they will use Chat GPT or some other to get them details because it's a quicker route to get the information. Now, the question is, is it accurate information? So I don't know how does a reporter do their research? I guess this is the way to phrase it, how does a reporter do their research these days?

SPEAKER_02 18:19

I mean, AI is it can be helpful in certain ways, definitely. I mean, I know what reporters do use it. I wouldn't say that they necessarily use it for information, because again, you want to be accurate. How can you trust AI if it's just AI, right? You have to talk to the people who are providing that information to get the correct information. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Dave 18:44

Which is easier to do in local news than it would be in provincial or international or national news. Aaron Powell Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

So I think in some aspects AI is is convenient and useful, but I I don't rely on it.

Dave 18:57

No.

SPEAKER_02 18:58

And I don't think a lot of other reporters rely on it for specially information.

Dave 19:04

Now generally speaking, if you and I were sitting at this table 15 years from now and looking at local news coverage, do you see that it could be changing or do people still want to get local news?

SPEAKER_02 19:17

Aaron Powell I think they do.

Dave 19:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:19

I mean, I do see it changing in 15 years. I don't know to what. I can't say to what exactly, but pe I think people still do want to know what's happening in their community. Yeah. You know, people don't want to hear about what Donald Trump is doing all the time, right? They want to know what's happening around them, you know, when within their, you know, the the city of Kingston or, you know, the police or, you know, other local establishments. They want to they want to know what's going on. So I think it's very important.

Dave 19:48

And I think one of the remarks that I've heard from a lot of different people outside the media business is with the closing of the TV station and the radio stations that are part of that company uh last year, and some of the other changes that have come about is that if something is happening in your town or someone else's town, it's really difficult to get information quickly and accurately. So if there is a train wreck in the middle of a main drag that you have to wait till the next day or a couple of days later, or you can hear rumors from people in your neighborhood that say that was a disaster or that was only a minor hiccup, that whole issue of getting low local news coverage quickly is an issue that is on the minds of a lot of people who want to know what's going on. And like you say, that speaks to your uh belief that people will still be interested in local news. How whatever form that takes, whether it's something serious or whether it's something like a local reporter winning a national award, that sort that sort of thing. People want to know that uh information as quickly as they can get it. And how that's all going to happen 15 years from now will be more of an issue for you than for me.

unknown 21:05

Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_02 21:05

I mean, luckily we have social media, so to get the you know your information out online or on the social media platforms is very very easy these days. And I think that's the quickest way people find their their news.

Dave 21:20

Do you find when based upon the fact that you are a recognizable person uh or personality from television who did reporting on television, now you're doing reporting in print, uh there is a direction that people are going in terms of how they would prefer to get their local news?

SPEAKER_02 21:37

I mean people still people still want to get their local news on on local television, on CKWS. So luckily they still have that that aspect there. Um but uh they also some people do rely on having a physical paper and reading it online. So I think there's a a mix of both still, especially in our community, because The TV station, CKWS, was around for s is has and is still around. It has the longevity of you know 80 some plus years. So there are a lot of people who still rely on it, still, you know. Wish we still had our morning show and uh our anchors and everything, but um luckily we're the Kingston Week standard is is still around and thriving, so people still enjoy it.

Dave 22:25

Is there some sort of study that you folks have done at the paper to determine whether people enjoy reading the physical paper or the iPad version or the computer version?

SPEAKER_02 22:34

That's a good question. Um I guess my only answer to that is the newsstands are still selling them. And when I went in to get one the other day because uh someone I interviewed wanted one, they were all gone.

Dave 22:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

So people are still still wanting that physical paper. I'd like to get a survey that done though to find out how many people I think it's an age thing with a lot of people too.

Dave 22:58

It's the ability to open up the newspaper and hang on to it and read it at their leisure. Of course, you can do that with a computer, but it's not the same in the minds of a lot of other people.

SPEAKER_02 23:07

Yeah, well, I I I just interviewed um a 26-year-old last week, and of course his article is online, but I said to him, Did you want a physical copy? Were you able to get one? And he said, No, I would love one though. You know, so there still is that nostalgia of having that physical paper and holding it and showing people, right? Yeah. As opposed to online.

Dave 23:27

Yeah, you don't have to scroll and look for the story and find out where it is amongst all the other things you have on your computer. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 23:33

It's like reading a book. Some people like reading it on their their tablets. I prefer paper. Yeah. I prefer the physical book. So I think it's a personality thing.

Dave 23:43

I don't know what I prefer. I tend to look I tend I guess from my perspective, I tend to consume my news uh from a video perspective, like look watching it on television. Um that's just me. Yeah. But uh everybody's different and uh the the missing link and all of that is uh serious local coverage because there's not much of it. Um I know that the local station uh still provides some TV coverage of Kingston stories, but it's not done from Kingston, is my understanding.

SPEAKER_02 24:16

Yes, it is.

Dave 24:17

The local Kingston coverage? I mean that the anchors are not in Kingston.

SPEAKER_02 24:21

Oh you're correct. Yeah. They're from Peterborough, which is used to be our sister station.

Dave 24:25

That's right. Anyway, this is a time that uh when trusted local reporting is more important than ever. I'm sure you'll agree with that. It's great to see passionate journalists like yourself continuing to tell those stories. And I want to thank you for everything you do, and thanks for spending some time with me today.

SPEAKER_02 24:44

Well, thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Dave 24:47

My thanks once again to Megan Culture for joining us today and for sharing both the personal and professional side of a career in local journalism. In a time when trusted local reporting matters more than ever, it's encouraging to hear the passion that still exists for telling community stories and keeping people informed. As always, thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend and consider rating and subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. It helps others discover the show. This episode was recorded in May of 2026. I'll be back soon with another conversation.

Steve 25:24

The theme music for the podcast is Stace's Oasis, written and performed by Kingston musician Tim Aylesworth. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions about any of the episodes, please send a note to the Kingstonian Podcast at gmail.com. For details on upcoming guests, follow us on Facebook. The Kingstonian Podcast is hosted by Dave Cunningham and produced in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.