Ashford W. Meikle, Staff Reporter
( left - right ) SEYMOUR, JOHNSTON and MATALON
THE GLEANER newspaper archive is expected to be an important revenue source for the newspaper, says its managing director, Oliver Clarke.
Mr. Clarke was speaking at the company's annual general meeting, which was held at its North Street offices, last Thursday.
He said the online archives are an invaluable, documented source of the island's history for more than 100 years.
Billed as the "gateway to searching and reading antique newspapers online", for a fee visitors to the website can have immediate access to the company's archives going back to 1834. The site was launched earlier this year and the response has been very favourable.
At the AGM, the Gleaner's Technology Manager, Errol Knight, demonstrated to shareholders a high tech display of the capabilities of the online archives.
The archives' web address is http://gleaner.newspaperarchive.com
The launch of the newspaper archives comes against the successful operation of the online edition of the newspaper, http://www.go-jamaica.com. In fact, Go-Jamaica, now in its eighth year of operation, has 120 million hits per month.
At last week's AGM, shareholders were presented with the 108th annual report of the company, outlining the newspaper's performance and achievements.
FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE
There was also an update on the financial performance of the company for its unaudited first quarter to March 31, 2005. These include:
A 20 per cent increase in revenue. The company earned over $687 million during this period compared to the $570 million earned during the comparative period in 2004.
An increase of almost 100 per cent in operating profit, which jumped to $70 million, compared to the $35.5 million in 2004.
A 28 per cent increase in profit after taxes. Net profit after taxes amounted to about $44 million, or $9 million dollars above the comparative period last year.
A concern raised by several shareholders was the inclusion of the employee benefit assets - or the Superannuation Fund surplus - in the group's profit and loss.
This amounted to $28 million for this quarter.
The shareholders argued that the inclusion of the pension surplus masked the true performance of the company.
ACCOUNTING STANDARDS
The managing director, while agreeing with the views of the shareholders, pointed out that the company had to comply with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), accounting standards adopted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Jamaica. IFRS regulations require that the pension surplus must be included in the revenue of the company.
But, as previously pointed out by the company, the surplus "is not available to [the Gleaner Company] as it represents future economic benefits to be derived from the reduction in the company's contribution to the pension scheme."
Three board members were returned en bloc at the AGM. They are Morin Seymour, Lisa Johnston and Joseph Matalon who, together, have contributed over 26 years of service to the newspaper's board.
