Georgetown: The Board of Directors of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited (GNNL) has taken a decision to fire General Manager (GM), Michael Gordon and Former Editor in Chief (ag) Editor Mark Ramotar with immediate effect. The decision was announced Tuesday.
“The Board of Directors has taken these two decisions with a view to strengthening both the administrative leadership and management and the editorial department as the newspaper seeks to rebrand and reposition itself as a credible national newspaper,” the board said in a statement.
GNNL and the Chronicle newspaper have been suffering from weak management and circulation numbers have been steadily declining, the statement added. The Board of Directors is of the view that fresh and competent leadership is needed administratively and new editorial direction and support is required.
“The Board of Directors thanks Mr. Gordon and Mr. Ramotar for their service to GNNL and wishes them both the best in their future endeavours,” the board said.
It said Mr. Godfrey Wray will serve as acting editor in support of Mr. Nigel Williams, Editor-in-Chief and Mr. Neil Marks, Sunday Editor.
Meanwhile, Mrs Moshamie Ramotar has been appointed Acting General Manager for the period of three months.
The board promised to immediately commence the search for a substantive General Manager following the decision to discontinue with the services of Mr. Michael Gordon. The post will be publicly advertised and an appointment made following the successful completion of the process.
Efforts to contact Gordon for a comment proved futile, while Ramotar declined to comment.
This publication was made to understand that the two Officers could lose their benefits given the manner in which they were fired.
Ramotar became Editor-in-Chief (ag.) of the Chronicle newspaper in January 2008, one month shy of his 30th birth anniversary, making him the youngest Editor in charge of Guyana’s oldest newspaper company.
However, he recently stepped down from that position and was serving as an editor in the Editorial department.
In 2004, Mr. Ramotar was awarded a Government of Guyana scholarship to study Journalism at the Jawaharlall Nehru University in New Delhi, India. He won the Best Graduating Student award and the Press Trust of India award. Over the years, he attended numerous Media workshops and seminars, and acquired several certificates in Journalism, including from Thomson-Reuters and the prestigious Commonwealth Press Union (London, 1997).
Meanwhile, Gordon who served in the media for more than two decades took up the post of General Manager at GNNL last year after serving in the capacity of Chief Executive Officer (ag) at the National Communications Network (NCN) for some time.
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