2021 President's Award

Journalist Cheryl McKenzie joined APTN 19 years ago as a reporter, then went on to host the APTN National News shows, APTN InFocus and APTN Investigates. She is now executive director of news and current affairs, running the entire news division of APTN. 

McKenzie looks back on the two decades with awe and pride, as the network is a multi-award-winning platform for journalists. 

“We have new people coming on, straight out of journalism school,” McKenzie said. “We show them how to file a national news story. They already come with a lot of those skills already they just need some opportunity to put that into practice. So, we show them how to do this and they step up and do these news stories. Then they graduate from school, a job will happen to be open in our newsroom and they apply, then they will get the job.” 

“So, they go from journalism school straight to a national correspondent job. We have provided that space for numerous journalists to bring them into Indigenous news. It’s refreshing to see those new voices coming in and bringing in those new ideas. We’re delighted to provide that space for Indigenous journalists in our newsroom.” 

With nearly two decades under her belt, McKenzie is now in a position to direct the next 20 years and beyond. 

“We have to grow digitally. We have to get our newscast out there to grow our audience, probably into another country” she said. “Definitely getting more of our voices out there, especially from our remote communities. We have to establish ourselves in locations that aren’t being reached.”