Sarah Millar grew up in Hamilton, Ontario and currently living in Toronto, Ontario.

She began her career writing youth and entertainment articles for the Hamilton Spectator, where she was one of the first reporters on the scene of a deck collapse in downtown Hamilton in August of 2001. The story was picked up by the Toronto Star and the Canadian Press — she was just 18.

After moving to Kincardine, Ont., she wrote for the Sun Times in Owen Sound, where she covered a coroner’s inquest and Kincardine council before she was hired by the Kincardine News, where she was a reporter/photographer. After moving to Toronto, where she attended York University and graduated with a degree in film theory, she freelanced for the Toronto Star, was Ontario Bureau Chief at Canadian University Press before being hired as a copy editor at the National Post.

She has since worked at Sun Media and completed the one-year internship program at the Toronto Star. She was also the social media and community editor at OpenFile, before leaving journalism to pursue other opportunities in the social media sphere.

Here are some story highlights:

• Toronto propane explosion, August 2008: One of the first reporters on the scene, it was partly because of Sarah that the Post was the first mainstream media outlet to have coverage of the blast. Her photos were republished in papers across Canada.
• Canadian Idol coverage: Sarah covered Canadian Idol for its final three seasons and in 2008, she ramped up coverage by interviewing each member of the Top 10 as they were voted out;
• York University strike coverage, 2008-09: Again, one of the first reporters to be on the story, Sarah followed the story from the union’s decision to strike to legislation being passed ordering the union back to work. She also used Twitter to live-tweet the Ontario Legislature as they debated the back-to-work legislation.
• “Returning to Ottawa” — a personal, poignant essay on her experiences with depression for the Ottawa Citizen after a missing Ottawa student’s suicidal thoughts became public;
• “Will vote mobs translate to actual votes” — This piece took a trend in the 2011 federal election to see what, if any, it could have on the actual election results;
• John Stamos answers Ryerson’s student’s online plea — Following John Stamos on Twitter has its benefits; the Star had the worldwide exclusive to this story;
• Saying good-bye to Johnny Mac — A personal fan says farewell to the former Blue Jay.

Interviews:

• “When video tells it better” — Interview with J-Source about using video to tell the story of the vote mobs during the 2011 election;
• “Five Questions for OpenFile’s Sarah Millar” — interview with J-Source about the move to OpenFile;
• “The 5 types of stories that make good Storifys” — quoted in Poynter piece on using the social media curation tool.

Email me

The opinions expressed here are my own and do not represent my employer.