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Karl Schembri
At Super One they are calling it an “upgrade,” at Net TV they are calling it a “revamp”; ultimately, the audience will decide how to describe the changes at the two political television stations and media.
The PN’s media machine will see Louiselle Vassallo, a lecturer in Communications Studies at the University of Malta, appointed News Services Manager, instead of Michael Falzon, the seasoned politician, former minister and unsuccessful European Parliament candidate.
MaltaToday discovered that Michael Falzon relinquished his post at the PN media last April to contest the European Parliament elections and will now be replaced by the politically inexperienced Vassallo at the helm of Media.link Communications.
At One Productions – the Labour Party’s television and radio wing – sources say that the restructuring process just launched is “wide open” with radical ideas being floated around; from reducing drastically broadcasting hours to sharing the frequency with another station, to the outright sale of the station on condition that the Party remains responsible for news and some current affairs programmes.
Sources say the changes at the Labour station are likely to become visible in the long term as the administration is keen on sticking to the planned October schedule.
“We’re discussing every conceivable idea,” said a high-ranking source at One Productions. “From mergers to creating business units out of the existing departments with third parties… the process is still wide open and nothing is excluded. The aim is to make the station financially viable.”
The station’s critical financial situation is indeed fuelling the restructuring process, much as it is forcing other media outlets, including the national public broadcasting station, to cut heavily on staff and farm out virtually all programmes.
“Financially, it’s a precarious moment for all the media industry,” the source said.
The situation is perhaps bleaker for the political television stations which keep draining millions of liri from the two major parties.
Even if PN Secretary General Joe Saliba says that his television station is “breaking even,” Net TV has stopped the popular programme l-Isfida following disagreements with Claudette Pace on the financial package, while Andrea Cassar, the sexy young television presenter of Bugz fame, has been sacked from the station.
Saliba’s station will however give PBS a chance for some public broadcasting decency after he managed to win over none other than the Bonaci couple, Karl and Romina. The former confectioners who started occupying hours of air time on the national broadcaster, with their latest production being the aptly named “Kollox ma’ Kollox” – a hodgepodge of totally unrelated trite “discussions” ranging from etiquette (whom the Bonacis call “the ethics corner”) to tips on how to turn your house into the kitschiest thing on earth between hours of unfettered prosaic advertising. From October, they will be Net TV’s leading presenters.
Meanwhile the PN’s media company – Media.link Communications – has just concluded some internal appointments and transfers which employees there describe as “surprising” and “baffling.”
Newscaster and reporter Mario Xuereb, a relative newcomer to the station, has been appointed news editor instead of Pierre Portelli. Alex Attard, who was news editor, has been appointed deputy editor for In-Nazzjon.
Karl Stagno Navarra, the swanky journalist and news anchor, has been catapulted into virtual reality as website editor of a news portal that does not yet exist.
Joe Micallef, who preceded Lou Bondi’s sensational investigations into Satanism by at least a decade as In-Nazzjon’s former Investigations Editor, has been “demoted” from the paper’s sub-editor to head of the Features Department, instead of Joe Cassar who was appointed sub-editor of Il-Mument.
General Manager Anton Attard, said “all changes were based on extensive research carried out over the past year and were geared towards giving a more professional and comprehensive service to the organisation's media users.”
karl@newsworksltd.com
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