Paule Beaugrand-Champagne has held management positions at all major media outlets in Quebec. Michel Lacombe gave him an overview of his rich career.
Since 2014, he has been president of the Quebec Press Council, which he will step down at the end of the spring. For him, it’s important to define what the news medium is, and journalists should be more stringent.
Paule Beaugrand-Champagne grew up in Laval, north of Montreal. During the Silent Revolution, “an extraordinary time”, he went to university in literature and history. He joined student newspapers, which “contributed greatly to the active life and reflection of students”.
His newspaper career began Student lifeand in The Press, two years later. Rejecting the misogynistic views of his directors, he left the world of journalism for unionism and the office of deputy minister, where he experienced the kidnapping and death of Minister Pierre Laporte in 1970.
A few years later, he took advantage of a golden opportunity to return to the media and was one of the first to be part of everyday The day. He was its editor in his senior year. “That’s when I discovered that I liked managing a newsroom,” Paule Beaugrand-Champagne said.
After the short adventure of Dayhe returned to The Presswhere he became desk editor when the Parti Québécois was elected in 1976. He became assistant news director and, after a burnout of two or three years, joined Have as deputy editor and directs special publications.
Followed News, of which he was deputy editor-in-chief, with Jean Paré. “What interested me was making a high-quality magazine,” Paule Beaugrand-Champagne said.
He then moved on Montreal Journal in 1998 as editor-in-chief. “I’ve always had a huge interest in the news. […] I saw there a lot of reflection on society and its behavior, “he explains. He left Quebecor when the content convergence approach took over.
After stints on Radio-Canada and Télé-Québec, Paule Beaugrand-Champagne took over as President of the Quebec Press Council. At the dawn of a true retirement, he laments that “very little media provides space for adult debate”. “Can the media provoke debate, encourage it, give it space? “
Source: Radio-Canada
