PressProgress Hires New Associate Editor

British Columbia Reporter, Rumneek Johal, will be stepping up to the role of PressProgress Associate Editor.

Rumneek joined the PressProgress team in 2022, and hit the ground running with strong investigative work. Her award-nominated story on international students dying at alarming rates bolstered community conversations that encouraged real-world impact and prompted a government response.

Before joining PressProgress, Rumneek received an MA in journalism from the University of British Columbia, and worked at CBC News, Daily Hive, Overstory Media, and more recently served as Editor-in-Chief at 5XPress.

PressProgress has evolved over the last decade into an outlet with full-time unionized journalists spanning across Canada, and adding staff capacity is part of the next phase of growth. Rumneek joined as a regional reporter, but has taken her investigations to specialize in Canada’s overdose crisis and covering immigrant and diaspora communities—encouraging PressProgress to strengthen its mandate to produce impact-based journalism.

“My motivation for being a reporter has always been to try to enact real world change, and tell stories that are often overlooked in mainstream media,” Rumneek says. “In this role, I hope to further advance this objective, both individually and within PressProgress as an organization.”

According to Publisher, Romy Garrido, Rumneek has been a valuable member of the PressProgress editorial team while demonstrating leadership and initiative early on.

“When I joined PressProgress, I was inspired by what this team of journalists has accomplished,” says Romy. “But there is potential to do even more. Rumneek will be an essential part of that project, I’m excited to work with her and take PressProgress to new heights.”