NAME OF FEATURE | THE GLEANER | FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2024 31 THE GLEANER 190TH ANNIVERSARY FEATURE Published May 30, 2014 THE GLEANER Company can no longer be considered just a newspaper business but is rather a multimedia operation, says Managing Director Christopher Barnes, a goal it has been steadily working toward for about four years. At the close of 2013, the newspaper’s online readership had climbed to almost one million unique visitors per month, 30 per cent from inside Jamaica and 70 per cent from overseas, and the company also pulled off the launch of its mobile platform for both Android and Apple IOS smartphones – each hovering around 30,000 users. The company is rolling out a new content-management system, but the debut of the mobile news app was described as the “biggest success” of its digital strategy last year. For more than a century, readers of The Gleaner have been fed a staple of the paper-based product, but knowledge consumers the world over are increasingly demanding information on the go, pushing companies like the Gleaner to leverage the Internet and mobile platforms to satisfy their markets. The global challenge has been how to do it profitably. “Growth is going to come from the transition to digital,” Barnes told shareholders of the near 180-yearold company at its 117th annual general meeting on May 22. The clearest sign of that growth is online readership, which has risen by nine per cent since yearend 2012, and 41 per cent over five years. Advertisers have begun to catch up, with online ad sales now growing at an annual rate of 13 per cent. Digitally, Jamaica is “five to 10 years behind what is happening in developed countries, which gives us the opportunity to learn from their mistakes,” the MD said. Barnes has led the multimedia project for the past four years, but not all of the company’s investment dollars have been focused online. Gleaner introduced a pilot solar energy system, producing 15 kilowatts of energy from solar panels positioned on the building’s roof. That has now been expanded to 45 kilowatts, with room for further expansion. A conversion project to increase LED lighting has also had a positive effect, and the upgrade of an outdated air-conditioning system with a new chiller unit has cut electricity consumption by 25 per cent, Barnes said. CHALLENGING YEAR Both Barnes and Gleaner Chairman Oliver Clarke said 2013 had been a very challenging year. Revenue was basically flat at $3.19 billion, but a modest three per cent increase in production costs led to an operating loss of $35 million for the company, reflecting a decline from an operating surplus of $14.6 million in 2013. Operating expenses were also flat at $1.5 billion. Savings seen in distribution and other costs were wiped out by rising administrative expenses, which were explained to contain one-off costs associated with restructuring efforts. The operating loss was offset entirely by gains in investment income, enough to grow pre-tax profit by five per cent to $91 million. The company has also contained costs through the relocation of the Power 106 and Music 99 radio stations to new studios at the North Street building, and the outsourcing of some of its delivery routes. The initiatives have continued into 2014 – for example, the reduction in the width of the newspaper at the top of the first quarter has saved on the cost of newsprint. “We are coming up with many valuable ideas on how to cut costs and we are implementing them,” said the managing director. “This (2013) was a year of uncertainty, but I think we pressed all the right buttons.” Minority shareholder Orrett Staple appeared to agree, offering his congratulations to the company and its employees “from the top to the bottom, right down to the security” on a job well done. Another shareholder, Arthur Ellison, said some articles needed more careful editing, to which Editor-in-Chief Garfield Grandison responded that the Editorial team would “work very hard” to eliminate errors, both in print and online. Barnes touted the 14 out of 22 Gleaner continues to look to digital platforms for growth PLEASE SEE GROWTH, 32
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