A first at TVA Gatineau/Ottawa

If we rely on the thrill felt this week, I believe so when a woman, Karol-Ann Scott, will be the anchor of the RNC Media parent station in Gatineau.

After seven years at the helm of his news bulletins, Pierre Donais will leave the Gatineau station on December 20 in order to devote himself to more “personal” projects, which he had left on the sidelines for too long, he says.

“Each season, I told myself that I had to launch my podcast or work on this or that project,” he confided Wednesday morning on the show’s microphone. Let the Outaouais rise broadcast on 104.7. But I always had to put that aside, for all sorts of reasons. This time, I fully intend to dedicate myself to it full time.”

Obviously, when you’re running not one, but two newscasts a day, it’s no small task and the days can sometimes seem too short to accomplish everything on the drawing board.

“It’s very demanding work, but also very rewarding,” he added. I remain passionate with lots of projects, including supporting my son in his career as a DJ. And today, I will have plenty of time to make them.”

Mr. Donais will keep his office at RNC Media while he will lead some projects for the newsroom.

“Pierre is staying with us,” says information director Sébastien Côté. He is particularly good at large interviews and it is not in a four-minute format that he can assert himself best, whereas in an hour-long podcast, he will be able to go much further.”

A first

It is therefore on Monday January 6, 2025 that Karol-Ann Scott will officially occupy the position of anchor at TVA Gatineau-Ottawa, a first for the Outaouais station.

The last woman to have occupied this same chair at the rue Jean-Proulx station was Émilie Beaulieu, who had then accepted this mandate occasionally.

Karol-Ann Scott is no stranger to regional newsrooms, having nearly 15 years of experience in journalism.

Graduated from La Cité college in 2011, she studied at Unique FM — previously CJFO — ​​and then did some replacements as host on Rouge FM and Énergie.

But it was at 104.7, from 2012 to 2019, that she found her feet in journalism before making the jump for good to TV, in 2019, at TVA Gatineau-Ottawa.

After a year in the communications team at Tourisme Outaouais, she is back to her first love.

“In 2023, I questioned the news media and especially my place and my role as a journalist,” she tells us. I have always believed in the importance of regional information, especially in a market like Outaouais. Moreover, my time at Tourisme Outaouais allowed me to meet many people who make up the strength, vitality and diversity of our region. This direct contact with our reality really confirmed that I am a news girl above all. I am a journalist who wants to highlight all these people and introduce them to our population.”

This is precisely what the new anchor wants to bring to the airwaves of the Gatineau TV station.

“It’s like a wind of change. But I would also say an update or modernization of our way of presenting the news. In this business, you can’t be good if you don’t have a good team. And I have the chance to be part of a young, dynamic and very competent team. I will take advantage of this strength to reach our viewers even more.”

— Karol-Ann Scott, new anchor of the TVA Gatineau/Ottawa news bulletin

Karol-Ann Scott is a communicator of her time who aspires to present current events in a new light.

“I want to take the time to fully understand all the issues that affect the daily lives of people in the region,” she explains. I want to be able to present a story from start to finish, analyze it from all its angles with effective follow-ups as well as highlight the actors in this story. It’s a modern way of covering the news.”

The return of the pendulum

The journalist is also concerned about the influence of social networks and artificial intelligence on the quality of information.

“It is important that traditional media act as great defenders of rigor and ethics,” she assures. Today, with the blocking of media by Meta, the arrival of artificial intelligence on many platforms and also of these Internet users who hide behind their screens to report all kinds of false news, it is even more important that newsrooms like ours report the facts as rigorously as possible.”

On this subject, the anchor believes that a swing of the pendulum is occurring in the way people get their information.

“Social networks have taken up so much space in our lives that it is through these channels that people go to get information now,” she believes. But for some time now, we have noticed a change in certain habits. We see that people are asking more and more questions. That the general population returns to us, the traditional media, because of the ethics and rigor of our journalists. It bodes well.”

We will therefore have to wait until the new year to see these changes take place in the TVA Gatineau/Ottawa news room. Changes which, according to the anchor, will be made gradually, “without disrupting habits too much, at least at the beginning!”