Jamaica Observer...Killing CHAT!! Slowly

Launched earlier this year, Jamaica’s Observer’s CHAT!! Magazine has been viewed by many in the Reggae Fraternity as one of the most welcome platforms of exposure for the local Entertainment Scene, shedding a whole new light on the business of Reggae.

The daily tabloid sized paper has become noted for its delivery of solid, accurate articles related to the local and international entertainment scene, in addition to world news and sports reports.

Regarded by its many ardent readers as the current entertainment paper of choice, the daily mag has rapidly earned the street credibility of being fresh, fair and factual surpassing long time runners, X-News and the Gleaner’s Star in on-the-ground popularity.

“If you no get a chat by midday, you salt. You haffi go borrow one” quipped one earnest reader in Half-way-Tree recently.

The papers presence has given life to the doldrum entertainment scene, creating a platform that has exposed many new talents, and personalities.

One such person has been the new sensation Chi-Ching. A noted dancer, trend setter and upcoming artists who has been featured in the CHAT!! numerous times and this fact even he cannot dispel… CHAT!! has been one of the important platforms which exposed the entertainer’s marketability and consumer magnetism, landing the once unknown a major endorsement deal with Tonic Wine powerhouse, Magnum.

Less than a year old, the papers innovative columns such as Carlene SuSu and Ragashanti, keep Jamaicans across the social spectrum up to date on the happenings of the Jamaican social arena. The Center Spread 13 Question has become a coveted spot by professionals in all facets of the Entertainment scene, and in turn gives readers an in-depth outlook of the featured personalities.

From pre-teen to peppy elders, CHAT!! current format gives readers a balanced perspective digestible for all age groups, and has quickly found a place in the hands of thousands of Jamaican readers.

But with all the begoggle about the papers obvious impact on the Jamaica society, the big boys and girls at Butch Stewart’s Jamaica Observer have seemingly decided to abandon the format and flair which has catapulted the paper to become a household name.

Over the last few days, the paper has diluted its format to an almost benign caricature of The Gleaner’s Daily Star, in order to as some industry insiders assume, “attract ad dollars”.

The paper has turned its meteoric rise into a deathly nosedive riddled by reduced readership, quite evident by the increasing quantity of papers left on the shelves of news stands and in the Hands of Vendors island wide. These new, tasteless barrages of left over articles from the Observers new desk is a very misguided judgment of their potential target audience’s sentiment and taste, serving only to further stifle its once growing popularity because of an uncalculated attempt to capture already scare advertising dollars.

Many papers have come and faded away. It was almost a blessed phenomenon that CHAT!! was so quickly embraced by the fickle Jamaican consumer whose first choice has always been the Gleaner’s Star.

The “Bigger Heads” need to become cognizant of the fact that they have been lucky to have garnered some measure of success and viability, unlike tens of other news publications that litter the Jamaican readers past.

The once popular "Hardcopy" being the last addition to the newsprint graveyard.

I must express adamancy that the old formula had all the right ingredients to create a winning daily paper focused on the Local entertainment scene. CHAT!! was never an imitator, it was always an initiator, an innovative paper that captured thousands of people looking forward to grabbing by Midday, each day, their scope of last nights happenings and todays “going ons”.

It kept the people of all social strata’s in tune with everyone else and laid out a landscape of the “otherside” from a different perspective, breathing fresh air into a catatonic entertainment scene.

This new gilded attempt is doomed to failure…and the clock is ticking.

As the colloquial saying goes…When Jamaica people done wid you, you salt!!”



Regards,

Lloyd Laing
Group Director

The Reggae News Agency


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