Michelle Richardson, BA 04, will assume the top editorial post of the newly merged newsrooms of the Ottawa papers on March 28.
By the time Richardson finished high school, she was already on a fast-track career path that would blossom at an early age. The 34-year-old was recently named the first editor-in-chief of the newly merged newsrooms of the Ottawa Citizen and Ottawa Sun newspapers.
“In my high school year book, it does say that I want to be a journalist,” says Richardson. “I’ve always been drawn to it, even as a kid.”
Richardson hit the ground running right after graduating from Concordia’s Department of Journalism, immediately taking up an internship as a copy editor at the Montreal Gazette. A few months later, a colleague went on maternity leave and, as luck would have it, so would two more in succession.
This allowed Richardson to stay on staff until landing a permanent position. She’s moved around to different posts within the editorial department, working in arts and life, sports and back to news again, sitting primarily at the national and city news desks.
She was assignment editor and city editor for many years before jumping into the managing editor’s chair 18 months ago.
Now Postmedia’s top brass is proudly touting Richardson’s appointment to editor-in-chief. She officially takes her position March 28. While she is sad to leave her city and the close-knit, family-like atmosphere at the Gazette, Richardson knows editor-in-chief job openings are rare and this one was too good to pass up.
“Ottawa is such an interesting city. It’s a city where politics intersects with community life every day and where the decision makers of the country live as well,” says Richardson. “I just thought it was such a unique opportunity.”
That opportunity, she adds, goes beyond wearing the chief’s hat in a bustling newsroom. It is a newsroom that has gone through some big changes lately as the Citizen and Sun merged. There was, in that process, layoffs at the Sun and buyouts at the Citizen.
Where even the most seasoned editors might nervously quiver at the idea of taking on such a challenge, Richardson is ready to roll in full-steam ahead. “I see this as a huge opportunity to rethink how things are done and to try to do things in a way that promotes a strong digital presence, a strong print presence and strong journalism on a day-to-day basis,” she says.
“It’s a really great challenge and I am incredibly pleased to take it on. I’m quite flattered, actually, that they have put their trust in me to do this.”
Looking back, Richardson says her experience at Concordia has played a vital role in her successful career.
“I really loved my Concordia experience and it really changed me. It empowered me. It was a really practical experience. There was no time to sit around,” she says.
“There was theory, but we also had to go out and produce things and bring them back and that’s what we were being judged on.”
Richardson adds, “It was a real work environment. But, more than that, my professors in the journalism department really backed me and I think the confidence that they had in me made me feel confident in myself.”