from Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette,

“It’s just a number,” the modest McKenzie added. “Obviously, the more followers the better in terms of promoting stuff for TSN or whatever. The more eyeballs you can get your message to in media the better. But I’m not sure I attach any tremendous amount of significance to it other than getting old and being around for a while.”

While Twitter is generally considered a tool for a younger generation, the 58-year-old McKenzie has embraced it and become a star in the Twittersphere as the most followed media personality in Canada. However, he has a long way to go to catch pop-star Justin Bieber, who leads all Canadians on Twitter with 63.4 million followers.

“I recognized pretty quickly that this is an invaluable tool, and not so much for disseminating information as acquiring information,” McKenzie said. “And what I realized is that this is a personalized news feed and that the more good people are on it the better.”

McKenzie has seen plenty of changes in the media business since getting his start covering junior hockey at the Sault Star in 1979 after graduating from Toronto’s Ryerson University. He then had a short stint at the Globe & Mail while also writing for The Hockey News. In 1982, at age 25, he was named editor in chief of The Hockey News, a position he held for nine years before becoming a hockey columnist at the Toronto Star, where he stayed for seven years before going back to The Hockey News in 1998. He joined TSN full time in 2000.

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