Newspaper to supply gov’t TV with content
The Cayman Compass has entered into a deal with the Unity Government to publish its local news content on the Cayman Islands Government TV station. Officials from both the newspaper and government said no money is changing hands but the local publisher will allow government to broadcast the video programmes it makes free of charge.
The news follows recent comments by the premier that he was looking to fill the void in the wake of Cayman 27 News’ demise.
“I’m very happy that an agreement has been reached with the Cayman Compass,” Premier Alden McLaughlin said in a release from his office. “The agreement enables CIGTV and Compass Media to create and promote a sense of community, providing access for more people to community news through print, broadcast and digital platforms.”
CNS reached out to the Cayman Compass to ask where this left the long standing local news outlet’s editorial independence. Publisher Kathleen Capetta said the partnership simply allowed government to utilise the content they already produce.
“There is no financial component,” she said. “It is simply an attempt to help fill the void for local television news in the wake of Cayman 27’s closing. This partnership has no impact on our independent coverage of the government,” she stated.
In a press release from the premier’s office, Capetta said the paper was “thrilled” to be working collaboratively with the government “to bring important independent community news to a wider audience”.
She added, “This partnership comes as we relaunch the Compass and its multi-media platforms at the heart of the community.” The publisher has previously announced that it will launch a ‘new look’ publication on Monday.
Donna Bush, the news director at CIGTV, said partnerships with others helped the government channel to supply the best content available to viewers.
“We have recently added national weather updates to our CIGTV news segments by partnering with the National Weather Service. This collaboration with the Compass is another exciting venture enabling us to bring even more community based content to our viewers,” she added.
In the release, the premier’s office said encouraging content sharing like this went some way towards filling the gap left by the recent closure of the local television station.
Government said it is not subsidising the content in any way and the arrangement is not exclusive, and “CIGTV continues to welcome video content from the local media and community partners”.
Now that the Cayman Compass is collaborating with the government to bring “independent” video news to the local community, CNS is the last fully-functioning, truly independent media house in the Cayman Islands. This is a very sad moment in Cayman history. The quality of reporting at the Compass has varied over the years, criticised at times for its pro-government stance and at others producing some very solid journalism, but it has for many decades provided a hugely important service to the Cayman community.
Local independent news is in crisis all over the world and it’s getting harder and harder for media houses, from the New York Times to tiny operations like CNS, to survive. But collaborating with the government, however much they insist they will remain independent, feels like a huge mistake for the new owners at the Compass because it will seriously, and perhaps irreparably, damage its reputation as a credible news outlet.
While the premier’s office stated that no money will change hands regarding this arrangement, there remains plenty of wiggle room for back scratching.
One of the interesting outcomes of the spat between Premier Alden McLaughlin and David Legge, then editor and owner of the Cayman Compass, back in 2015 was the revelation that government was at the time spending well over $1 million per year in advertising with the paper. We know this because government briefly boycotted the paper because they objected to a particular editorial, and the advertising spending power emerged during the fallout.
The Chamber of Commerce jumped in to object to the boycott, rightly pointing out that if government stopped doing business with a particular media house because it objected to the content of a publication, this would be seen as a blow to free speech in the Cayman Islands.
But the Chamber completely failed to acknowledge that if government advertises almost exclusively with one particular media house that is very often perceived as being pro-government, that is a sucker-punch to free speech. The organisation did not urge government to spread that advertising dollar around fairly and include publications with content that it objected to quite regularly. No, the Chamber urged government to restore this huge buying power specifically to the Compass (a Chamber member), noting, without irony, that the “financial sanction… sets a dangerous precedent”.
Private businesses, of course, is free to put their advertising dollar wherever it likes, and it stands to reason that they will stick to media that aligns with its business interests. But on top of that, print media in the Cayman Islands has traditionally benefited from a mandated income stream from businesses applying for work permits, since they must advertise the jobs in a newspaper before the permit is granted.
While the process has long been seen as a sham in terms of protection for Caymanian job seekers, it has been good for the recipient media, essentially being a tax on all businesses to prop up a particular business.
However, it is understood that with the implementation of the new WORC agency, print news advertising of jobs will no longer be mandatory as part of the work permit process, which, if this is actually put in effect, will put a serious dent in the income of local newspapers. This will be especially hard on The Cayman Times but will also affect the Compass.
Small local newspapers suffered with the rise of digital news — something that Cayman News Service benefitted from. Because it is internet-based, we were able to build this business with sweat equity, working very long hours for not much pay. But we did not need to find rich backers, who would have been essential for the expensive start up for print news but would inevitably have wanted their say in the editorial content.
But now news media is facing a new challenge with the rise and rise of AdSense and Facebook ads, mixed in with the proliferation of marketing companies here in Cayman, all specialising in digital media, meaning that they will manage your ad campaigns, steering them towards making Mark Zuckerberg and Google executives richer while squeezing local platforms.
Ironically, when the Chamber produced videos explaining why people should buy local, they decided to pay YouTube to run them as ads rather than pay local websites, the ‘shop local except for advertising’ campaign.
So we understand that the Compass is feeling the pinch and looking for ways to expand, but this is not the way. All media houses take positions on certain issues — and certainly CNS has never tried to hide our stance on, for example, the environment and same-sex marriage, which some support and others object strongly.
But at the end of the day, the public deserves to know that the news they are reading or watching is not tainted by government or big business influence, and that at least you can say about Cayman News Service.
So, to try and keep our heads above water, we have chosen to partner with our readers rather than collaborate with government, launching our CNS TipBox a few months back. Cayman is not big enough to make a subscription news service work, and anyway we want the news to continue to be free for those who cannot afford it, and we especially want people who disagree with us to keep reading and debating the issues in the comment section.
Democracy does not work without a truly free press and without proper debate.
The government, past and present, with its huge advertising buying power, has done little little to stem the perception that “good media” is financially rewarded, while “bad media” is ignored, sometimes literally.
But they are very foolish if they think that the answer is to grab whatever control they can over the local media. One day, maybe sooner than they think, they could find themselves back in opposition. Where do they think their voices will be heard if there is only government media left?
And as for the reading public, we hope that we survive the economic challenges because we honestly believe that the Cayman Islands would be poorer without CNS at this moment in time.
“I’m very happy that an agreement has been reached with the Cayman Compass,” Premier Alden McLaughlin said in a release from his office. “The agreement enables CIGTV and Compass Media to create and promote a sense of community, providing access for more people to community news through print, broadcast and digital platforms.”
CNS reached out to the Cayman Compass to ask where this left the long standing local news outlet’s editorial independence. Publisher Kathleen Capetta said the partnership simply allowed government to utilise the content they already produce.
“There is no financial component,” she said. “It is simply an attempt to help fill the void for local television news in the wake of Cayman 27’s closing. This partnership has no impact on our independent coverage of the government,” she stated.
In a press release from the premier’s office, Capetta said the paper was “thrilled” to be working collaboratively with the government “to bring important independent community news to a wider audience”.
She added, “This partnership comes as we relaunch the Compass and its multi-media platforms at the heart of the community.” The publisher has previously announced that it will launch a ‘new look’ publication on Monday.
Donna Bush, the news director at CIGTV, said partnerships with others helped the government channel to supply the best content available to viewers.
“We have recently added national weather updates to our CIGTV news segments by partnering with the National Weather Service. This collaboration with the Compass is another exciting venture enabling us to bring even more community based content to our viewers,” she added.
In the release, the premier’s office said encouraging content sharing like this went some way towards filling the gap left by the recent closure of the local television station.
Government said it is not subsidising the content in any way and the arrangement is not exclusive, and “CIGTV continues to welcome video content from the local media and community partners”.
Now that the Cayman Compass is collaborating with the government to bring “independent” video news to the local community, CNS is the last fully-functioning, truly independent media house in the Cayman Islands. This is a very sad moment in Cayman history. The quality of reporting at the Compass has varied over the years, criticised at times for its pro-government stance and at others producing some very solid journalism, but it has for many decades provided a hugely important service to the Cayman community.
Local independent news is in crisis all over the world and it’s getting harder and harder for media houses, from the New York Times to tiny operations like CNS, to survive. But collaborating with the government, however much they insist they will remain independent, feels like a huge mistake for the new owners at the Compass because it will seriously, and perhaps irreparably, damage its reputation as a credible news outlet.
While the premier’s office stated that no money will change hands regarding this arrangement, there remains plenty of wiggle room for back scratching.
One of the interesting outcomes of the spat between Premier Alden McLaughlin and David Legge, then editor and owner of the Cayman Compass, back in 2015 was the revelation that government was at the time spending well over $1 million per year in advertising with the paper. We know this because government briefly boycotted the paper because they objected to a particular editorial, and the advertising spending power emerged during the fallout.
The Chamber of Commerce jumped in to object to the boycott, rightly pointing out that if government stopped doing business with a particular media house because it objected to the content of a publication, this would be seen as a blow to free speech in the Cayman Islands.
But the Chamber completely failed to acknowledge that if government advertises almost exclusively with one particular media house that is very often perceived as being pro-government, that is a sucker-punch to free speech. The organisation did not urge government to spread that advertising dollar around fairly and include publications with content that it objected to quite regularly. No, the Chamber urged government to restore this huge buying power specifically to the Compass (a Chamber member), noting, without irony, that the “financial sanction… sets a dangerous precedent”.
Private businesses, of course, is free to put their advertising dollar wherever it likes, and it stands to reason that they will stick to media that aligns with its business interests. But on top of that, print media in the Cayman Islands has traditionally benefited from a mandated income stream from businesses applying for work permits, since they must advertise the jobs in a newspaper before the permit is granted.
While the process has long been seen as a sham in terms of protection for Caymanian job seekers, it has been good for the recipient media, essentially being a tax on all businesses to prop up a particular business.
However, it is understood that with the implementation of the new WORC agency, print news advertising of jobs will no longer be mandatory as part of the work permit process, which, if this is actually put in effect, will put a serious dent in the income of local newspapers. This will be especially hard on The Cayman Times but will also affect the Compass.
Small local newspapers suffered with the rise of digital news — something that Cayman News Service benefitted from. Because it is internet-based, we were able to build this business with sweat equity, working very long hours for not much pay. But we did not need to find rich backers, who would have been essential for the expensive start up for print news but would inevitably have wanted their say in the editorial content.
But now news media is facing a new challenge with the rise and rise of AdSense and Facebook ads, mixed in with the proliferation of marketing companies here in Cayman, all specialising in digital media, meaning that they will manage your ad campaigns, steering them towards making Mark Zuckerberg and Google executives richer while squeezing local platforms.
Ironically, when the Chamber produced videos explaining why people should buy local, they decided to pay YouTube to run them as ads rather than pay local websites, the ‘shop local except for advertising’ campaign.
So we understand that the Compass is feeling the pinch and looking for ways to expand, but this is not the way. All media houses take positions on certain issues — and certainly CNS has never tried to hide our stance on, for example, the environment and same-sex marriage, which some support and others object strongly.
But at the end of the day, the public deserves to know that the news they are reading or watching is not tainted by government or big business influence, and that at least you can say about Cayman News Service.
So, to try and keep our heads above water, we have chosen to partner with our readers rather than collaborate with government, launching our CNS TipBox a few months back. Cayman is not big enough to make a subscription news service work, and anyway we want the news to continue to be free for those who cannot afford it, and we especially want people who disagree with us to keep reading and debating the issues in the comment section.
Democracy does not work without a truly free press and without proper debate.
The government, past and present, with its huge advertising buying power, has done little little to stem the perception that “good media” is financially rewarded, while “bad media” is ignored, sometimes literally.
But they are very foolish if they think that the answer is to grab whatever control they can over the local media. One day, maybe sooner than they think, they could find themselves back in opposition. Where do they think their voices will be heard if there is only government media left?
And as for the reading public, we hope that we survive the economic challenges because we honestly believe that the Cayman Islands would be poorer without CNS at this moment in time.
