Good job! But you have more to do

Editor: I must say hearty congratulations to the shareholders, management and staff of the Searchlight newspaper for reaching its tenth year of existence.

It must be noted that the initial period of an institution and those years immediately following the celebrating of a significant milestone are the most threatening for one reason or another.{{more}}

You must also be fully aware that the manner of your birth must have won you perennial enemies who would jump at every opportunity to see your demise.

The work put into the publication of your tenth anniversary special supplement is commendable and therefore must be recognised. You, unfortunately, failed as usual to give sports a pride of place, with just some vague two-liners with no headlines!

Your advent as a newspaper was to lift the standard of journalism. If you have succeeded in achieving this goal, the jury is still out.

In closing you did well to make mention of those persons who were there in the early years and others who supported the paper but are no longer with us.

I however noticed that you inadvertently omitted the names of a few persons who had made their contributions in the opening days of the paper.

Among those persons are Kendol Morgan and myself who contributed to the pages of the Searchlight in its first two years. A freelance typist by the name of Ferguson and another worker, Samuel, are both worthy of mention.

I was actually recruited by Morgan to do the sports pages and did so from April of 1995 to late 1996 – having to work until 2 a.m. at times at the office helping with other matters. Douglas Moses, a good friend of mine who was also not mentioned, took over that responsibility.

I know you are extremely busy and these things may slip you from time so I just thought I would mention them.

It is wise to note that the quality of a publication is not so must in the layout but a great deal in its content.

Best regards

E. Glenford Prescott

• EDITOR’S NOTE: While we recognise that the content of a newspaper is extremely important to inform and educate the reader, an attractive design and layout of the paper is equally essential to the survival of that paper.