{UAH} It’s All Dizzy At The Observer With Staff Exodus
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A good observer is a silent one. Being silent ensures maximum concentration when you watch over things without distractions. That's how silent The Observer newspaper has been over the last nine years as it went about breaking some of the most talked about news in the country. The paper that saw the light of day on March 25, 2004, as Weekly Observer, on October 21, 2004, brought the country to the attention of former vice president Speciosa Kazibwe getting a Shs2.5 billion government scholarship for her PhD at Harvard.
It was also this paper that shouted about controversial businessman Hassan Basajjabalaba getting a Shs20 billion bailout from Bank of Uganda (October 28, 2004), how government paid Shs1.2 billion to a UK firm to polish President Museveni's image (May 19, 2005). The paper was greeted with denials and ridicule for saying, on May 4, 2006, that Eriya Kategaya was set to return to government. And so much more.
Whispers from Kamwokya say all is not well at the independent paper at the moment, with managing editor James Tumusiime in a fix.Robert Spin Mukasa is supposedly the news editor. Kavuma is the editor and Tumusiime is the managing editor. Whatever the office between the managing editor and the news editor does is for you to ponder.
The paper's 'blues' seem to have started on Thursday, March 28, 2009, when management decided that five years of weekly publication was enough test for the newspaper to use some ink on another rung of the ladder. It became a bi-weekly and rebranded into The Observer from the original Weekly Observer. Whereas founding Managing Editor John Ogen Kevin Aliro would have added his weight on how to sketch for adverts, it appears the current team did not see the possibility of a repressive government that suffocates media houses with hard stance by denying them advert revenue. Today, The Observer can be seen with just six or so adverts for the Monday edition, and just about twice that for the Thursday edition when it grosses more in revenue.
Robert Madoi became the first victim of the cost-cutting joke, as the former sports editor, who had just been promoted deputy news editor, was told his service was no longer desirable. The cricket-mad Madoi has since settled at NTV as a producer. Later, though, Hussein Bogere was found to be 'ethically wanting' and sent packing, according to sources. Bogere started hanging around the Independent, also in Kamwokya, but recently, his presence at Serena is more regular than that of the hotel's Chef de Cuisine. It's not clear whether somedeal is on the paper, or if he is getting to Madoi for a reunion, or just beating time.
Kudos to Irene Kizza Onyango, the features editor-cum-chief sub editor, who had her intuition at awake. With the axe flying recklessly over her head, Kizza felt it was coming and decided to jump the Costa Observer. She had made a good name and CV over the years, so swimming ashore wasn't that difficult. Waiting for her was a team of divers from Vision Group. She is now the deputy chief sub editor, replacing Lillian Namusoke, who I understand is now special senior sub editor—whatever that means. Kizza will probably wish she had nested at Industrial Area much earlier.
Sunday Vision did not waste time in inking a deal for a resource like David Tash Lumu. His bylines are already gracing the paper.
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H.OGWAPITI
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"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
---Theodore Roosevelt
It was also this paper that shouted about controversial businessman Hassan Basajjabalaba getting a Shs20 billion bailout from Bank of Uganda (October 28, 2004), how government paid Shs1.2 billion to a UK firm to polish President Museveni's image (May 19, 2005). The paper was greeted with denials and ridicule for saying, on May 4, 2006, that Eriya Kategaya was set to return to government. And so much more.
Whispers from Kamwokya say all is not well at the independent paper at the moment, with managing editor James Tumusiime in a fix.Robert Spin Mukasa is supposedly the news editor. Kavuma is the editor and Tumusiime is the managing editor. Whatever the office between the managing editor and the news editor does is for you to ponder.
The paper's 'blues' seem to have started on Thursday, March 28, 2009, when management decided that five years of weekly publication was enough test for the newspaper to use some ink on another rung of the ladder. It became a bi-weekly and rebranded into The Observer from the original Weekly Observer. Whereas founding Managing Editor John Ogen Kevin Aliro would have added his weight on how to sketch for adverts, it appears the current team did not see the possibility of a repressive government that suffocates media houses with hard stance by denying them advert revenue. Today, The Observer can be seen with just six or so adverts for the Monday edition, and just about twice that for the Thursday edition when it grosses more in revenue.
Robert Madoi became the first victim of the cost-cutting joke, as the former sports editor, who had just been promoted deputy news editor, was told his service was no longer desirable. The cricket-mad Madoi has since settled at NTV as a producer. Later, though, Hussein Bogere was found to be 'ethically wanting' and sent packing, according to sources. Bogere started hanging around the Independent, also in Kamwokya, but recently, his presence at Serena is more regular than that of the hotel's Chef de Cuisine. It's not clear whether somedeal is on the paper, or if he is getting to Madoi for a reunion, or just beating time.
Kudos to Irene Kizza Onyango, the features editor-cum-chief sub editor, who had her intuition at awake. With the axe flying recklessly over her head, Kizza felt it was coming and decided to jump the Costa Observer. She had made a good name and CV over the years, so swimming ashore wasn't that difficult. Waiting for her was a team of divers from Vision Group. She is now the deputy chief sub editor, replacing Lillian Namusoke, who I understand is now special senior sub editor—whatever that means. Kizza will probably wish she had nested at Industrial Area much earlier.
Sunday Vision did not waste time in inking a deal for a resource like David Tash Lumu. His bylines are already gracing the paper.
- -
H.OGWAPITI
-----------------------------------------------------
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
---Theodore Roosevelt
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