Claude David the last of the old timers

Apr 04, 2024 News, Sports

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– reflects on Kaieteur News then and now

Kaieteur News – The Kaieteur News started as a weekly edition 30 years ago, before graduating to what it is today. The company has seen a number of journalists come and go and out of all the beginners one remains in the newsroom Mr. Claude David, the current Sports Editor.

He took some time out to take us on a whirlwind trip down memory lane to give an insight on what his experience at the company has been like. Before coming to the newspaper he was at the then Guyana Broadcasting Cooperation- now National Communications Network.  “Before I came to Kaieteur News I was at the then Guyana Broadcasting Cooperation I started out in the operations department but switched to the news room because that was more my interest. On air production was more my interest and I spent 12 or more years at the then GBC,” he said.

The move from radio to newspaper proved to be a challenging one but David said he weathered the storm. “I came to Kaieteur February 1^st 2001, and I had to learn newspaper journalism because newspaper and radio are two totally different scenarios. The basic is there but the actual set up I had to learn. The structure of your story remember, radio is precise to the point everything is concise but newspaper you have to elaborate, you have to have full details and you can play around with giving the details and stuff.”

Back in 2001 David remembers the company as being a fun place. They worked five days a week and had a day off. However, in most cases the ‘day off’ ended up being spent in the office “because we have a boss who cares about his staff.” Chuckling, David reminisced that, “Sometimes on that day off the boss would call the whole crew, what y’all doing? come to the office, we have a meeting or we have something to do. When you come in here is to have a drink and have fun.”

Team work

David said that back then they worked as a team, noting that sometimes the number of stories he would produce for the sports section had many questioning how many sports reporters the department really had. “But you know I used to jump on my bike and spin around to different venues and do a set of other things. I had very good coverage.”

After a while the sports department brought on a team of men capable of reporting on sports. “You had Frankie Wilson, Rawle Welch, Edison Jeffers, Sean Devers then Zahir Mohammed came on so we had a powerful team, men who knew varying aspects of sports or played or were involved in sports at some juncture in their life. We were really the number one in terms of newspaper coverage but we are still kicking.”

Even though most of the men would have left the company David believes his new team is capable and good at what they do. “They are seasoned men- Rawle Toney, Kizan Brummel, Alexander Ross and Kester Williams has really come on and come to his own. He came on as a green horn as we say but he’s doing pretty good.”

Challenges

On the issue of challenges, David said: “One of the challenges we have dealt with is the loss of some very seasoned persons. When I came on Mike Baptiste was the sports editor, then Nigel McKenzie took over and then I took over from Nigel McKenzie. When the old team moved on, things weren’t the same but you had to fill the void, likewise with the hard news. We had some very good journalists back then, seasoned capable people and for varying reasons people moved on to different pastures.”

Even though the company now has what he refers to as a ‘young crop’ he is confident that they are capable of carrying the torch high. “We have a young crop and that young crop now have got to push themselves but I have seen much improvement in that young crop. It’s sad to see Kiana recently left because she came on as a green reporter and really evolved into a top flight journalist, especially covering the oil and gas and that kind of a thing. You got people like Renee and yourself, you were here before and you came back and then Alliyah and Shervin, Rehanna and the rest.”

“I think under the circumstances and the constraints that we face in this company this team that we have here is doing a pretty fantastic job, it’s not easy. Journalism in the whole is not easy it’s a high-stress job and it could really get to you.” While acknowledging that the company will need a few more hands on deck, David said with the correct training and correct modus operandi of the system and also journalism the Kaieteur News will continue to be a “force to be reckoned with.

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• competition, History, journalists, Kaieteur News, old timer

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