Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter

Established media in Jamaica is still playing catch up with overseas companies in developing online content, but a number of young and energetic Jamaicans have been using the platform to develop their own careers ... and are making money.

Internationally large players such as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the Washington Post have made significant adjustments to their content to compete in a market where the 'dead tree' product of newspapers, and even television and radio, cannot keep pace with the Internet.

Regularly equipped

For instance, Post reporters are regularly equipped with cameras to record video, stills and audio, while the BBC is increasingly benefiting from so-called 'citizen journalism' - people submitting their own content, typically photographs, often taken with cellular phone cameras; as well as text-messaging their thoughts and ideas.

Local photographer Peter Dean Rickards, 37, started small with his own website, www.afflictedyard.com, providing a relatively uncensored insight into Jamaican culture, but instead of a cellphone camera, he had an even more basic one megapixel digital camera.

This, he said, "accidentally" led to him becoming a professional photographer with the website functioning as an online portfolio attracting clients from here and abroad, ranging from corporate clients to style magazines.

Huge potential

"I think the potential is huge and perhaps over time, these alternative media sources - and I don't just means blogs - will put pressure on the established media to create better products," said Rickards.

"I see it happening already in television but there's plenty of room for growth. If established media houses don't respond to the increased challenges made by independents, it's my opinion that the public will simply begin to overlook them."

Claude Mills, 29, and photographer Carlington Wilmot, 26, who at one time both worked with Jamaica's most established newspaper, The Gleaner, have started www.yardflex.net, a simple online blog with daily entries covering the local entertainment scene.

Within a year, they expanded into newspaper format and after four bi-monthly issues and realising that most of their traffic came from expatriate Jamaican communities in the United States, their fifth issue has now been printed in South Florida, with distribution also in New York, Chicago and Toronto.

"It's not been easy," said Mills, a former reporter. "However, from something small we've developed a following which we're only just beginning to serve and we'll see how much that might grow."

Delroy Frazer, 28, meanwhile, has been in business for two years and within that time his www.vibesconnect.com has mushroomed into a portfolio of social networking sites ranging from a Middle Eastern audience to a soon-to-launch Christian version.

Growth

"All of these are growing at an average rate of 2,000 new members per day," said Frazer.

He now employs two others, and given the massive success of the likes of MySpace and Hi5, Frazer believes he has a solid business model.

Most of his advertising revenue, he says, comes from Google which tailors placements specifically to match a site's audience.

"There are so many niche markets to go after, which is why I have started to launch different sites," said Frazer.

"These people tend to be online for much of the day, either at home or at work, and we are talking about the 24 to 35-year-old demographic that advertisers want."

Jamaica's foremost communication school, the Caribbean Institute for Media and Communication (CARIMAC) at the University of the West Indies, is now fund-raising to expand so it can offer more courses. There are plans to include online distance learning courses and online journalism for those already in the profession.

According to CARIMAC director, Drs. Marjan deBruin, the media locally are still at a stage of merger rather than convergence, combining different media platforms. But with the level of convergence in the international media, it would be nonsensical she believes, for graduates to leave her department having learned to operate in only one platform.

"The challenge for all of us in the industry, and I am including CARIMAC in this, is that we need to keep up," said deBruin.

"However, there is the issue of resources and of course finding people who have the experience to teach the courses. Furthermore, you have to consider that with technological changes, as with these, it takes young people to bridge the gaps, but this is not the demographic of people who are the decision makers within the newsroom," she said.

The Gleaner, which has over 120 million hits per month, its online arm Go-Jamaica (www.go-jamaica.com) will launch a new suite of online content today, October 1.

Podcasts

Podcasts will provide streaming audio versions of Gleaner editorials, and specialised reports published by the newspaper, in addition to blogs, according to Gleaner Online managing director Marlene Davis.

"However, people doubted us 10 years ago when we were establishing Go-Jamaica, yet we've been successful. This is something that other media houses elsewhere are doing, and for our readers online this will provide added value."

- ross.sheil@gleanerjm.com