Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar with, from left, ANSA McAL chairman and chief executive officer, A Norman Sabga, chairman emeritus Anthony Sabga, Finance Minister Winston Dookeran and Grenfell Kissoon, board member
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar headed the list of dignitaries who witnessed history yesterday with the launch of Guardian Media Ltd (GML) at the Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain.
The new entity, one of the largest media enterprises in the region, incorporates print, radio and television, as well as new media, in a dynamic operation which replaces the Trinidad Publishing Company. Here are some highlights of the gala function at which the new GML identity and logo were unveiled.
In a bid to remain relevant in this digital age, the Trinidad Publishing Company Limited is seeking a new direction.
The 93 year-old company has rebranded itself and it is now known as the Guardian Media Limited (GML). Speaking at the official launch of the renamed company at the Hyatt Hotel yesterday, GML managing director Gabriel Faria said: “Guardian Media is on the leading edge of truly converging our traditional and new media platforms, connecting to consumers on their terms and to suit their lifestyles.
“The environment is changing at the speed of light—to survive and moreso prosper we must not only embrace it, we must be on the leading edge of change where we create the landscape for the future. Not following the road but creating new paths and letting others follow us.”
“It embraces the digital age we are operating in and clearly signals our multimedia strength which we will leverage to the benefit our customers and the 700,000 connections we have with consumers everyday,” he said at the on Tuesday. Faria boasted that GML’s multidimensional campaign across its media network will keep consumers connected. It’s not just a name change. “It is a fundamental shift in how we will do business going forward. We clearly understand our role in connecting you to your consumers and that we must satisfy our three stakeholders to succeed,” he said.
To support this change, the company has invested in technology, human capital, consumer insights and content. The company will now offer online classifieds.
“We have introduced the most advanced & comprehensive on line classifieds with a mapping structure specifically set up for Trinidad. Our customers can upload their own photos or video of the homes, cars or anything they want to sell. Our e-commerce package also allows you to pay for it on line with your credit card. This will change the landscape of classified advertising. We will also be introducing additional features early next year. The advertising opportunities here are limitless,” he said. Faria pointed out that while the newspaper industry in the US and some other first world markets are going through challenges the statistics show that the industry in the Caribbean and Latin America continues to be extremely strong as behavorial patterns are different.
To this end, the company has introduced a Special Publications Unit.
The SPU creates creates a number of focused “magazines” which are not only distributed through our daily paper but also through direct distribution to hundreds of outlets which cater to the specific consumer. Faria noted that guardian.co.tt will now provide the most comprehensive news and entertainment portal in T&T—the Guardian Newspaper, streaming of CNC3 news, other current affairs content and video on demand. “There is no media group who can do this better than we can. We offer the most comprehensive platform to cast your message to the widest base of consumers by multiple niches and diverse demographics through our unmatched multimedia capability,” he said.
