TV anchor: Leena Latafat. ‘Balancing self-care and career’

Leena Latafat, ‘14, has been a reporter and anchor with CP24 for six years. She started as an intern at CBC Winnipeg, and then became a reporter at CTV Saskatoon and an anchor at Global News Saskatoon. She was also a reporter at CTV Kitchener.

I really try to give the first hour of my day  to myself, because I know I'm going to be pulled in so many different directions. So that first hour is meditating. I also like to read, and that's something I do every morning, 20 minutes of something unrelated to news. Working out, meditating, having a nice hearty breakfast. And then getting into what the news cycle is looking like for the day.

By now I'm really starting to tune in to what is happening, what's happening in Toronto, what's happening in the country, what's making us internationally. I start my day by reading CP24, CTV Toronto, and then I go to the Toronto Star to see what they're up to. And then I switch to CBC, CP24, the CTV News Channel. I like to see what everybody's doing and how they're covering different events.

We're usually on top of things. We get it first so many times. I'm so proud of our team here. But it's just nice to keep an eye on what everybody's doing. And to just get a sense of what's making news, who's talking? How can I develop the stories that are making headlines? I'm a huge TV news person. I love watching different reporters, different anchors, different channels, and I'm obsessed with Canadian media.

I’m very close to my parents, usually we'll have lunch together, or we'll chat on the phone. Same goes for my sisters. And that will be my time to check in with friends, family, and see if other people are good. My friends know that I will call sometimes in the middle of a workday just because my work day hasn't started. So it's not unusual to get a call from me at like 11 o’clock or noon. And if my friends are taking a break from work, they'll pick up and we'll usually catch up at that point.

Work life balance is key, and for so many years at the beginning of my career, I didn't know how to do that. And so what I've learned now is to make sure, because my hours are so different from most people's where someone would usually socialize at the end of their day, I'm doing it at the beginning.

I try to run an errand before work. So maybe I'm picking up some groceries or I've gotta go to the dry cleaners. Again, because I'm at work from 2:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., that's the (free time) I have. Working out is really important to me and eating right is becoming very important to me. So I will always try to cook up a healthy, good meal before work.

I will shower, start getting ready for work. And then again, start tuning in and seeing if anything has changed, listening to the news again. Have there been any developments at this point? What kind of interviews do I want to set up when I get in there? What stories do I really like and think we may have missed? What are things I think we need to pursue a little bit more? How can we make sure that we're offering as many perspectives as possible?

On my drive to work, which is about 45 minutes, I'm listening to the newscasts. When you're coming into the newsroom, you don't want to be caught off guard, so you really have to hit the ground running on my shift.

I work out of 299 Queen Street West, which is an iconic building in downtown Toronto. It's a dream come true, coming into this building every day. The first thing I do is head straight to the makeup room.

When I get into the newsroom, I check in with my assignment team. ‘Hey, what's happening? Where are the crews today? Where are they going? What are our plans?’ We have such a dynamic newsroom here at CP24. We're really lucky and we get to see what CTV Toronto is doing, that's our sister station. So a lot of that initial time in the newsroom is checking in with our assignment team, then checking in with my producers, ‘What do you want? What can I help with? What do we need to work on in terms of our interviews?’

My first show is usually at 4 o'clock which means I've only got about an hour to get ready for everything.

I do the big 5 o'clock show, CP24 Live @ 5. Every show is important at our station, of course, but that show is our primetime show. So it's one that we take a lot of pride in producing. And we try to make sure it's different. We have so many CTV Toronto viewers that join us. So, it's a show we're really proud of, and we try to always put our best foot forward.

Between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., I get a bite to eat, go for a walk and catch up with my coworkers, again, just to make sure that I get a bit of a break.

After the 5 o’clock show is done, we hand it over to CTV Toronto. And that gives us a chance to think about what our evening coverage looks like. What stories have we missed out on? What do we want to further develop? Where do we want to move our crews? And so it's sort of always trying to make sure that we are following as many stories as we can. And also following breaking news.

Around 7 o'clock, I start getting into the scripts again and seeing what's coming up for the 8 o'clock show. And again, we like to give ourselves about an hour to prep for each show.

I'm on-air from 8 to 9 o’clock.

After the 8 o’clock show, I'm at my desk, getting to work with a fabulous evening team going through Twitter, and that sort of happens all day and all night. But especially in the evening hours, we're checking Twitter, we're keeping our eyes out for breaking news, any stories, again, we may have missed.

It can get very busy in the evenings, if there is a stabbing or a shooting or a big story that's just broken, it will usually involve me helping with the teams. Then getting ready for our big 10 o’clock show - that's another flagship show, called Live at 10.

It's a lot of face time. It's a lot of TV time, it's a lot of anchoring, a lot of reporting, and it sort of keeps us on our toes all the time,”

On my drive home, I’m listening to the CTV National News again. What have we missed? What are some stories that we could follow up on tomorrow?

While it's so important to be passionate about what we do, it's really important to disconnect when you can, because it just helps you recharge and become a better journalist. So I, at night will put my phone down, get ready, do my skincare routine, spend my time in the bathroom, read my book, and then I'll take a few deep breaths before I get to bed and say my affirmations, things that are really good for my mental health and get ready to do it all over.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.