Kevin Newman can be credited for bringing the early-evening newscast to Global back in 2001, and after announcing his departure as head anchor back in April, he stepped down on August 20th and welcomed a new face to the nightly broadcast – Dawna Friesen, the country’s first full-time female new anchor of a national nightly program, who will begin her host-work next month.
Friesen, who hails from Winnipeg, started at small Winnipeg stations and slowly worked her way up, taking jobs in Brandon, Saskatoon and Thunder Bay. She worked for 11 years as a reporter and foreign correspondent for NBC News in London where she reported on numerous high-profile stories, including the murder of Daniel Pearl, a journalist working in Pakistan, as well as covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Friesen’s work has taken her to Africa, the Middle East, Russia, and across Europe, and her return to Canada will see her acting as news anchor as well as Executive Editor.
"I'm thrilled to be coming back; it feels really good," Friesen said last Friday to Postmedia News. She explained that she’s excited to get back to her roots. "You begin to appreciate what perhaps you took for granted when you lived here, particularly because of the kind of reporting I had a chance to do overseas."
Friesen takes the helm at “Global National” on September 20th, exactly one month after Kevin Newman’s final evening telecast. “Global National” airs weeknights at 5:30pm/6:30pm Maritimes on Global and 7:30pm NFLD on NTV.
