Sir Gerald complained this morning that he was asked to pay over EC$1400 for an article he submitted to the paper.
This is Gemma’s response:What the Speaker failed to point out is that the article in question was sent to the advertising department.
Consequently, it was never received by myself or anyone in the editorial department.
This also explains why he was told his five-page article would cost more than EC$1400 to publish.
Sir Gerald also acknowledged he did not follow up with a phone call.
It would have been appropriate to have contacted me directly before making his comments in Parliament this morning.
OBSERVER MEDIA HAS ALSO RESPONDED:
Observer would like to clarify a matter that arose in Parliament this morning during comments made by Speaker of the House, Sir Gerald Watt.
Sir Gerald claimed that he had sent an article to the newspaper by way of a rebuttal to a guest opinion piece.
He went on to state that the article had not been published and declared he was holding the editor personally responsible for this.
Sir Gerald also lamented the fact he had been asked to pay in excess of EC$1,400 for the piece to be published
Observer would like to point out that Sir Gerald’s article – which was more than five pages long – had been sent to the advertising department’s email address.
Consequently, it was never received by either the editor or anyone in the editorial department. Advertising and editorial departments operate separately for obvious reasons.
This also explains why Sir Gerald was given the standard cost for publishing a piece of this length.
During his comments, Sir Gerald acknowledged he should have called the Observer offices to follow up on his submission. It is indeed regrettable he did not do so.
