Channel C sends home journalists
C Television, flagship member of State-owned Caribbean News Media Group CNMG), has become the second television in recent times to trim staff from its newsroom.
The television company, which made over $700,000 last year after a $25 million loss in its first year of operations, appears to have run into cash flow problems, the result of declining advertising revenuers and, probably, accounts receivables.
The company sent home eight part-time staff and will, somehow, have to keep pace with the competition with reporters who also service its radio stations, 100.1 FM and 91.1 FM.
Channel C may be an incarnation of TTT, the country’s pioneer television station, but it looks loaded with bad karma and has not won back TTT’s large audience.
It looks flat in its news and current affairs coverage beaten to the punch by TV6 and CNC3 and is low in the ratings.
Not only that: a lot of talent has deserted the station including Julian Rogers, who is back in Barbados, Wendell Constantine and Skye Hernandez.
On April 1, Gayelle, which is still bravely attempting to be an all local station, had to do away with its newsroom axeing 16 reporters.
Cash-strapped Gayelle is now transmitting CNC3’s evening newscasts.
Never a dull moment in Trinidad an Tobago’s overcrowded media, multi-millionaire Jack Warner is diversifying his investments to include newspaper publishing.
Jack will be attempting to resuscitate the weekly Blast newspaper which went out of business two months ago, an event which was exclusively published by Tntinsider.
The newspaper, which folded after 25 years, is owned by accountant Rabindranath Maharaj, younger brother of Warner’s close friend and fellow parliamentarian, Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj.
Word is that Warner hopes to breathe back life into the Blast as early as next month and with a lot of unemployed journalists around that may not be too difficult a proposition.
He is a man with the midas touch and, despite falling advertising, has investments in the hospitality industry, sports, travel and other areas, including politics, where it is said he spent over $50 million to propel the United National Congress (UNC) to office.
That is the single area where his golden touch hasn’t worked.
What did the Beatles sing?
Can’t buy me love.