North Coast Media ranks shrink by one, with departure of CFTK TV's Christa Dao

There has been a departure from the ranks of Northwest journalists, as local video journalist Christa Dao, who had become a rather familiar face on Northwest television screens over the last few months has moved on to a larger market.

The CFTK TV News reporter made her farewells on Friday and now is in the process of relocating to Global TV Regina in the  Saskatchewan capital. Part of an ongoing exodus towards the prairies, which has made for a popular landing spot of late, having scooped up more than a few CFTK employees over the last year.

In recent months Ms. Dao's workload and the exposure of the North Coast provided for a lot of the material for the 6 PM local newscast, as the Bell Media station saw a number of reporters depart for other locations, their jobs to this point not replaced.

And while that staffing situation was not so good for such communities as Smithers and Terrace, which saw fewer stories in recent months, it was a media boom time for Prince Rupert.  With this community at times featured every evening, providing a for a fair bit of exposure to local issues across the region.

The work on the North Coast clearly paid off for Ms. Dao, who has been able to showcase her time here and make it the foundation of her new career path for 2016.

On Thursday evening, the TV7 reporter filed her final video report for the station and until Bell Media hires on a replacement, the North Coast will probably find a reduced presence on the Terrace based newscasts for the time being.

That could mean that for the short term (or long, depending on the TV 7 plans) one less option will be available when it comes to news gathering in the region.

That also means reduced exposure for many issues in the region, whether it be for local politicians, both municipally and provincially looking to share word of their plans, or community groups seeking to share word for the many projects that are launched in the community.

While the main station in Terrace will no doubt be able to pick up some of that slack with telephone interviews, the ability to generate news, ask important questions of our politicians and seek out stories that need to be told in the community will be reduced without someone in the community to look further into local events and issues.

Update: As things turned out, TV 7 held one more item for Ms. Dao's farewell, you can review it here.

You can find more on the Northwest media scene from our archive page here.