The production department could be considered the bedrock of the company, as three of its four members have been with Searchlight for most of the company’s existence.

Department head Jude Knight came to Searchlight in 1997 on a two-day-a-week loan from The Nation newspaper in Barbados. After six years of straddling two jobs, Jude made the decision to stay with Searchlight on a full- time basis. He is our chief sub-editor, which means it is he who designs the newspaper’s pages, selects photographs to illustrate stories and writes headlines.{{more}} A loyal, committed, soft-spoken and hardworking employee, Jude is the company’s longest serving member of staff.

Joining Searchlight in 1998, just a few months after Jude, was senior graphic artist Neal Jackman, another Barbadian, who had also worked previously with The Nation. A very knowledgeable, hard-working and well-rounded individual, Neal is also an avid photographer. His main responsibility is the design and placement of advertisements submitted to the newspaper for publication.

The person whose name gets called most often on any given working day is network administrator Adrian Shallow. Another veteran of the company, this black belt karateka came on board in 2002 as distribution officer. After a few years, he was transferred to the production department. Through diligent study and application, this loyal, energetic and hard-working employee is now certified as a computer technician and has made himself almost indispensible to the company. Adrian also assists with page layout and design.

The new kid on the block in the production department is ‘A’ level college graduate Makemba Nanton. This enthusiastic and amiable youngster joined the company in 2013. He assists the network administrator and also does page layout and design of classified and business card advertisements.