Karyn Pugliese (Pabàmàdiz) named new Editor-in-Chief of Canadaland

Canadaland is thrilled to announce the hiring of its new editor-in-chief, Karyn Pugliese.

Pugliese will take command of Canadaland’s newsroom, set the editorial direction of the company, and oversee its growing slate of podcasts, including the flagship CANADALAND podcast.

She will work with founder and publisher Jesse Brown to maintain Canadaland’s strong investigative mandate, amplify its unique voice, and extend its record of breaking national news stories. As Canadaland moves into its second decade, Pugliese will be responsible for defining and expanding its editorial vision. She will start in early July.

“Canadaland’s team of talented storytellers is fearless when it comes to tackling important public debates about media, social issues, and politics. They burst onto the media landscape 10 years ago with a single podcast, and have since grown into an impressive network with a strong tradition of enterprise journalism, investigations, and advancing under-reported stories. I am delighted to join their team,” Pugliese says.

Karyn Pugliese joins Canadaland with a wealth of experience, including as an investigative journalist and newsroom manager. She has acted as the executive director of news and current affairs at Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, the managing editor of investigations at CBC, and most recently as the editor-in-chief of Canada’s National Observer. She has served as president of the Canadian Association of Journalists and was selected for the prestigious Martin Wise Goodman Canadian Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University. She is a member of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation in Ontario.

Pugliese has won numerous awards for her work, including the Gordon Sinclair Award for Broadcast Journalism, the Hyman Solomon Award for Excellence in Public Policy Journalism, and the Elias Boudinot Free Press Award from the Native American Journalists Association. In April of 2023, she was awarded the Canadian Association of Journalists’ Charles Bury Award for her “efforts to inspire change in how Canadian journalism covers Indigenous stories.”

Pugliese has appeared on the Canadaland network of podcasts over the years, most recently exploring decades of Indigenous resistance as the host and co-producer of canadaLANDBACK, in partnership with Canada’s National Observer.

“I’ve admired Karyn for years,” Brown says, “and it’s a dream come true to welcome her into our newsroom as its new leader. Karyn lives and breathes journalism. She is fearless, compassionate, highly skilled, and tough as nails. She mentors and protects her reporters and their stories, and she persistently plagues powerful people with ugly secrets. I’m proud that we built a news organization worthy of her talents, and I’m excited to go with her, wherever she takes us.”