Beth Fagan
Beth Fagan reports news for VOCM with a focus on how business decisions, public policy and institutional change land on everyday people. Her coverage moves between labour disputes, heritage properties, public safety and human-interest features, but the through-line is a consistent attention to community impact and individual voices. Alongside her newsroom work, she is a familiar on-air presence for the station’s summer roadshow programming.
Business, labour and community impact
Fagan covers local business and labour stories by pairing economic developments with the people affected by them. In her reporting on the Fish, Food and Allied Workers’ demand for a new price system as a crab dispute intensifies, she tracks marathon negotiating sessions and upcoming meetings between union and government officials, translating a complex standoff into clear stakes for the broader industry. She also brings a business and consumer lens to end-of-life services in a piece on “Parting Stones” as an alternative to cremation, framing a new memorial product through the experience of a local woman grieving a pregnancy loss. Across these stories, she favours concise, straight-news formats that centre direct quotes from union leaders, officials and residents to show how economic and policy choices shape livelihoods.
Heritage properties and institutional change
A recurring strand in Fagan’s work looks at heritage buildings and what happens when they are repurposed or lost. In coverage of the loss of heritage buildings in Harbour Grace, she documents criticism of demolition and redevelopment decisions, capturing how residents and advocates react when historic structures disappear from the built landscape. She follows the other side of that story in pieces such as “From Schoolhouse to Community Centre: A New Chapter for Historic Church Hall,” tracing how a historic religious building is converted into a community space and what that means for local users. Her reporting on Memorial University’s Harlow Campus fits the same pattern, explaining how institutional projects inhabit historic sites and how those sites are reimagined for education and community use. Together, these articles mark her out as someone who approaches heritage not as nostalgia but as an active question of planning, investment and identity.
Public safety, environment and emergencies
Fagan regularly handles fast-moving local news around safety and environmental risk. When the province releases updated fire hazard ratings, she turns official notices into accessible summaries, giving listeners and readers a clear sense of risk levels across different areas. In her coverage of Labrador West fires, she follows ministerial updates, charting the status of firefighting efforts and what they mean for nearby communities. She also reports on incidents such as serious collisions on routes like Blackmarsh Road and searches for missing people led by detachments such as the Glovertown RCMP, providing timeline, location and law-enforcement detail in a compact format. These pieces show her role as a go-to reporter for timely, fact-forward coverage when safety, weather and infrastructure converge.
On-air roadshow and community connection
In addition to her newsroom bylines, Fagan is closely associated with VOCM’s summer promotional and events coverage. She is promoted as the VOCM Summer Roadshow host, described as “the new face” of the station’s “Your Summer on Your VOCM” campaign. In that role she hits the road for the Summer Roadshow, popping by festivals, concerts and other seasonal events and appearing as the on-site representative of the station. Campaign materials emphasise that she takes audiences along to “all kinds of fun events,” positioning her as a bridge between the newsroom and listeners during the busy summer season. This on-air work complements her reporting by keeping her visibly embedded in the same communities, institutions and public spaces that her news stories cover.
4 more business journalists.
Aarjavee Raaj
Aarjavee Raaj focuses on how corporate decisions, government warnings and economic trends affect everyday Canadians, using clear, data-driven business and related news coverage. She is a CTVNews.ca journalist with experience reporting on arts, culture, business and more, and her name is pronounced Aar-Za-Vee. Her work links institutional and corporate developments to practical consequences for workers, consumers and families, including corporate losses, retail restructuring, tax schemes and compliance warnings. She reports on workplace trends, economic strain, consumer recalls and health impacts, using survey data, charity reports, regulatory notices and clinical stories to show how macroeconomic and policy issues touch daily life. A digital journalist, she keeps to tight headlines, clear summaries of official statements or data, and a steady focus on what developments mean for people who work, shop and rely on public services.
Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams reports human interest stories that follow how sudden conflict, loss and long-running mysteries reshape the lives of ordinary people in everyday settings. She is a writer-reporter on PEOPLE’s Human Interest team, a role she has held since joining the brand in June 2021. Her work centers on routine days that turn into major events, giving equal weight to what happened and the human cost. She covers minor disputes and errands that end in tragedy, sudden accidents, law enforcement and public safety incidents, and missing-person cases with new developments after years of uncertainty. Her reporting is concise, event-led and built around individual lives, often framed with clear emotional cues while staying grounded in verified facts. Business and workplace contexts appear as backdrops, but the person and their circle remain at the heart of the story.
Akshay Kulkarni
Akshay Kulkarni is a data-led reporter who explains how economic, policy and social forces play out in British Columbia through concrete numbers, records and local case histories. He has worked as a journalist at CBC British Columbia since 2021, focusing on business, labour and resource developments, including tariffs, trade rules, corporate strategies and regulatory decisions. His coverage of critical minerals, Amazon’s impact on jobs and wages, and responsible investment links market shifts to the lived experience of workers, consumers and small businesses. He also reports on infrastructure, energy and land use, such as the Site C project and high-value property disputes, and on policy and social systems, including Indigenous deaths in custody, social media use in harm reduction, and mandatory inquests. His stories are built around original interviews and quantitative detail that show how systems affect communities on the ground.
Allison Stephen
Allison Stephen stands out for connecting everyday life with money, work, and the built environment through vivid local examples instead of abstract business coverage. She is a staff writer at Daily Hive, where she covers how jobs, housing, major projects, and consumer experiences shape economic reality on the ground. Housing and real estate are central to her work, including detailed, accessible stories on distinctive homes, high-end rentals, and monthly shifts in home prices and cost of living. She regularly covers employment, especially public-sector and institutional hiring, highlighting well-paid roles and urging readers to act on new opportunities. Her reporting on major civic and recreational projects explains what is being built, how much it costs, and where it stands in approvals. She also writes about local businesses, food, and attractions, using concrete numbers, specific locations, and direct calls to action.