Searchlight rebrands, launching new midweek edition

Today’s Searchlight sports a brand new look, and next Tuesday, the newspaper will launch its midweek edition.{{more}}

The midweek, according to Clare Keizer, Chief Executive Officer of Interactive Media Ltd (IML), publishers of Searchlight, comes in response to calls by both readers and advertisers for more than one newspaper a week.

“The readers were asking for a more timely response to breaking news, whereas our advertisers were asking for more options for advertising their products and services,” Keizer explained.

She further stated: “We have been planning the rebranding and introduction of the midweek since 2008. It has been hard work getting all the pieces in place, but now that it is happening, we are very excited and happy that it has finally come into being.”

Searchlight newspaper is 15-years-old, the first edition having been published on April 7, 1995.
With the introduction of the midweek, some staples of the company’s weekend paper like Eye of the Needle by Renwick Rose; One Region by Sir Ronald Sanders; Eye Matters by Dr Kenneth Onu and Sugar Matters by Dr. Anita Ramsetty will now move to the midweek edition.

“We have worked hard to ensure that both our editions will give our readers value for money,” said the CEO.
“One of the things we intend to introduce on a regular basis is the results of opinion polls on social and political issues,” Keizer said.

“We have formed an alliance with a local start-up polling company and although polls are expensive, we think our readers will find this attractive, especially going into the general elections.”

Keizer stated that in 2009, a few months before the November 25 referendum on the Constitution, an opinion poll on electors’ understanding of the issues of the referendum was carried out by SEARCHLIGHT and the results “reflected fairly accurately people’s attitude towards the exercise”.

The CEO expressed her thanks to the Business Gateway Project of the Centre for Enterprise Development (CED) for assisting them with the preparation for the introduction of the midweek.

The CED, said Keizer, in 2009, made available the services of Joachim and Associates as well as newspaper consultant Roy Morris who assisted with institutional strengthening and the training of management and staff for the introduction of the midweek paper.

She also credited the staff at the newspaper, describing them as “a talented group, bursting with potential”.
“The midweek provides more opportunities for our staff to move into supervisory and management positions,” Keizer said.

The midweek paper will be edited by long-time Searchlight staffer Hawkins Nanton.

Keizer also disclosed that the newspaper’s new masthead was designed in-house by graphic artist Bryan Graham, with the new look of the weekend and midweek papers being the work of Graham and the newspaper’s Chief Sub Editor Jude Knight.

“We are really very grateful to the general public for the tremendous support they have given us throughout the years. We thank them for sticking with us and we give them the assurance that with each edition, we will strive to bring them a quality product that will educate, inform and entertain,” Keizer stated.

Interactive Media Ltd. was established in March 1995 by Dr Adrian Fraser, Renwick Rose, Sebastian Alexander and Oscar Allen. The newspaper’s founding editor and Managing Director is Norma Keizer.

The Board of Directors of IML is chaired by Corletha Ollivierre. The company is owned by 24 shareholders and currently has eighteen full time employees and 6 part time employees.