Jamaican journalist wins Herbie Hancock Scholarship

Leighton Levy, Gleaner Writer

Jennifer Poyser-Blaize, a former Jamaican journalist, is the winner of the Herbie Hancock 2011 Scholarship for Academic Excellence at the prestigious Berklee Music College in the United States.

Currently a producer/videographer employed by Fi Reel Publishing that has offices in the US Virgin Islands and Antigua, Poyser-Blaize already holds a master's degree in journalism television and radio from the University of Westminster in London, England, and is pursuing a master's certificate course in music business at Berklee College of Music.

The scholarship is designed to reward and assist outstanding online students who demonstrate superior performance, studying in certificate programmes at Berklee Music.

At Fi Reel Publishing, a com-pany dedicated to bringing all genres of Caribbean music to the same comparable recognition, now held by reggae and dancehall, Poyser-Blaize heads the Artiste Management and Touring Departments. She is also chief PR officer, specialising in music marketing, press, promotion, distribution and retail.

She says she was very pleased to receive the scholarship. "I am obviously delighted, and it's not just about the cash prize but also the prestige," she said. "After all, it is Berklee."

At Berklee, Poyser-Blaize takes courses that include legal aspects of the music business, copyright, and marketing - both online and offline - locally, regionally and internationally. One of the stark realities she has come to face is the fact that so much is changing in the music business. More and more, she says, artistes are choosing not to sign with record labels as they have come to realise that they can keep the bulk of their earnings. As a rule, about 90 per cent of artistes signed to labels end up failing. However, because of the changes in the industry, more artistes can make a good living even if they do not have a million fans.

extensive radio experience

As a young journalist, Poyser-Blaize got her first job in media in Jamaica with JIS Radio between 1985 and 1987. She was later employed by KLAS Radio between 1992 and 1994. While employed by KLAS, she was part of a delegation of more than 140 journalists from all over the world that toured the city of Atlanta and the state of Georgia after the city was awarded the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.

Between 2000 and 2001, she was station manager at Radio Mona (now Newstalk93fm). From there, she migrated to the Virgin Islands where she was station manager for the National Public Radio.

Poyser-Blaize began the Berklee programme last year and is set to finish in 2012. However, she reveals that she is "fast-tracking" the programme with the intention of completing it by the end of this year.