Based on what it says is ‘careful review and evaluation” the Jamaica Gleaner on Monday launched a monthly publication, Small Business Today, which, it says, underscores the company’s commitment “to erase the gap in rural coverage by reaching out to communities across the island to tell of their triumphs and unveil their challenges in search of solutions.”
By launching the new publication that will focus on small business issues in the CARICOM territory, The Gleaner says that it is “challenging the false notion that Kingston is Jamaica by introducing a “business-focused product that shines the light on rural companies and business interests.”
According to the Gleaner the new publication comes in the wake of concerns expressed by businesses outside of the metropolitan areas of Kingston and St. Andrew regarding the need for “greater visibility.”
As previously stated, what Small Business Today seeks to do is “to erase the gap in rural coverage by reaching out to communities across the island to tell of their triumphs and unveil their challenges in search of solutions,” a sentiment to which the Stabroek Business can relate, having itself, over many years sought, as far as possible to keep readers in the capital ‘in the loop’ as far as businesses in coastal and to a lesser extent, hinterland regions are concerned.
We consider this a particularly important mission given the fact that those regions house business pursuits in the agriculture and mining sectors that are the mainstay of the Guyana economy. Initiatives by Amerindian communities to integrate their business pursuits into the country’s mainstream economy.
Contextually, the Stabroek Business has been seeking, albeit with less success than we had anticipated, to provide local business support agencies with enhanced media access through which business-related developments in distant coastal and non-coastal areas can be reported and where the points of view of these entities can be more adequately reflected.
It is not without significance, we believe, that the Gleaner in Jamaica is partnering “with various stakeholders in business, including the Chambers of Commerce, to publish this niche product.” It goes on: “Like the chambers, we believe that the economic future of the country lies in the hands of small and medium-size companies and facilities because they are nimble enough to reconfigure themselves to take advantage of new markets and new technologies.” This, needless to say, is a sentiment that the Stabroek Business would wish to be put in a position to echo here.
“With its unique presence in print, online and electronic platforms, the information will reach the widest possible audience in Jamaica and the diaspora, underscores The Gleaner’s commitment to erase the gap in rural coverage by reaching out to communities across the island to tell of their triumphs and unveil their challenges in search of solutions,” the newspaper says.
