By Andrew Green, Staff ReporterTHE harshly competitive news media environment is responsible for the departure of top managers of three major media houses, says the former Press Association of Jamaica boss, Desmond Allen.
Over the past week news has emerged that Angela Patterson, general manager for CVM-TV; Trevor Riley, managing director of the Jamaica Observer, and Marcia Forbes, general manager of Television Jamaica (TVJ), will all be leaving office shortly. There are also reports of some new managers being drafted from overseas.
DEMITTING OFFICE
Mrs. Patterson "is demitting office as general manager after leading the team to new heights over the last three years," CVM-TV chairman Neville Blythe said in a statement yesterday. He said CVM-TV was forming the CVM Communications Group to embrace television, radio, print and multimedia.
Wayne Smith, a CVM-TV director, will take over the management of the television station and associated companies.
Mrs. Forbes said yesterday she tendered her resignation to pursue advanced studies at the University of the West Indies (UWI).
"I have my life plans which I have put on hold for a long time," Mrs. Forbes said in a telephone interview from her office in Half Way Tree, St. Andrew yesterday. "I came to TVJ giving myself five years here. I have spent six."
ALL MEDIA SURVEY
All Media Survey, made public in April, shows a substantial separation in the market share of the two major players - with TVJ gaining an average 13.4 per cent more viewers than CVM in 2002, up from the less than one percentage point that separated them in the 2000 survey.
Mrs. Forbes said she did not wish to state the specific date when she resigned or when her resignation would become effective.
"The company will find somebody to replace me," she said, adding that "it is not easy to find a good general manager."
The television station is part of the RJR Group, which has evolved into the largest electronic media corporation in the Caribbean. The group comprises TVJ, three radio stations and a wholly owned subsidiary, Multi-Media Jamaica Ltd., and is in the process of integrating its separate arms into one coherent entity.
Sources at the Jamaica Observer newspaper said Mr. Riley has resigned his post as Managing Director effective in August. He held that position for ten months. That newspaper is carrying out a major building programme to house its operations and is expected to move its headquarters to Retirement Road, Kingston 5 in the near future. The building is expected to come in at a cost of $300 million.
"It all has to do with the intensity of the competition which was inevitable, given the dramatic increase in the number of media outlets," Mr. Allen said. He said the country now has 14 radio stations, three national television stations, cable networks, three national daily newspapers and one national weekly, in addition to community papers.
"Competition is extremely sharp and intense," Mr. Allen said. "You could say it was bound to happen that you would see casualties."
Many observers were expecting that with the intensity of the competition, "there would have been a fallout in terms of companies folding, but we are not seeing that yet," Mr. Allen said. "I think the next step is to see some of the media houses falling off."
