Newsday Tobago launched

“It’s almost perfect timing to give Tobagonians a newspaper that caters to their needs,” said Newsday’s Chief Executive Officer, Maria Cooper.

And what’s more, the paper will always be free.

The other main newspapers circulate Tobago editions but they are somewhat limited: one comes out twice a week while the other has one publication per week. By contrast, Newsday Tobago will be virtually a daily newspaper, publishing from Monday to Friday with the Friday issue being the weekend edition.

Cooper said the company recognised that the Tobago market will not generate as much news as the average Newsday in Trinidad and wanted to reach as many readers as possible in Tobago, particularly in the rural areas. “And we want to service their needs, we want to provide them with information.” She said the three main papers sold in Tobago are sold mainly in and around Scarborough, but Newsday Tobago will widen its reach and since the papers are much smaller than the one printed for the national market, it will be more economical for the company to produce “and we felt we wanted to show the Tobago reader that we wanted to reach them. We want them to be informed and therefore we decided the paper should be a free one.” While advertising would normally help pay for the paper, Cooper said that initially Newsday was making “quite a substantial investment” recognising that for the first print run advertising would not cover all the expenses involved.

“So we are putting in quite an investment into Tobago.” Part of that investment was a survey which gave the company a strong idea of what the Tobago reader is interested in so that Newsday is confident that this new venture will not result in the demise of its mainstay paper. In fact, quite the opposite, Cooper is hoping to increase the paper’s readership because it is now putting in place the arrangements to get the Newsday to all the outlying areas of Tobago as opposed to circulation in and around Scarborough alone.

Cooper said the company will be pushing the Trinidad Newsday as well as the distinct Newsday Tobago.

Newsday Tobago will have another advantage. Tobagonians generally read the news generated from Trinidad but in a note to staff members announcing the launch of the new paper, Cooper, said “Newsday Tobago’s emphasis will be on developments in all areas of life in the Sister Isle and proposes to extend its reach to the farthest districts in Tobago, interacting with people there and providing them with a channel via which they will be afforded a voice.” She said the paper will also target the island’s schools providing them with Newsday’s SEA products as a start.

While the advertising market in Tobago with a population of 50,000 is smaller than Trinidad, the CEO said that because of the smaller number of newspapers which will be printed and circulated in the Sister Isle, the company will have to achieve lower revenue in order to cover its costs as compared to the much higher print run of the regular Newsday. Still, she sees the possibility of strong advertising support because of the number of companies which have branches both in Tobago and Trinidad. “So now they can reach the Tobago readers through Newsday.

We are getting some interest from Trinidadian companies wanting to reach their Tobago customers as well as Tobago businesses and in terms of costs in order for us to be profitable it is going to be much lower than we would have to achieve if it was a paper published in Trinidad.” Newsday’s Editor-in-Chief, Jones P Madeira, said Newsday will be seeking to draw on Tobago talent in the gathering of information and the writing of stories and features for the edition and the majority of the team will be Tobagonian.

Madeira said the effort will see Tobagonians talking about themselves and their communities and having a channel for their voices to be heard as they move forward with the development of the island. The editorial team will be led by Sita Bridgemohan, a veteran journalist who has had more than two decades of experience in the industry