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Karl Schembri
The Times journalist Vanessa Macdonald has been short listed for the PBS hot seat of news manager, MaltaToday has learnt.
Rumours that Macdonald was selected for the post spread like wildfire at The Times and the national broadcasting station last week, but PBS Chairman Andrew Agius Muscat said the selection process was still open and no decision had been taken yet.
Contacted Friday, Macdonald admitted that “talks are underway” but “nothing has been concluded so far”.
“I know everyone is speculating … it’s a very awkward situation,” Macdonald said, confirming that she was short listed for the job. “It’s too early to discuss with certainty.”
The PBS Chairman said: “I can’t comment … we’re about to decide after we had to give priority to the October schedule. As you know it’s quite a sensitive post, so we didn’t want to rush through our decisions.”
The station has been without a news manager for more than a year despite the massive restructuring ordered by Investments Minister Austin Gatt. One of the short listed applicants who then turned down the job was MIC head and former RTK news manager Carmel Attard.
Macdonald resigned last year from news editor of The Times and The Sunday Times – both Allied Newspapers publications – to have more time with her family, but she remained employed in the newsroom as journalist focusing on the business section.
“I wanted to have time with my children, who were doing their ‘O’ levels and ‘A’ levels, and they did very well,” she said. She was short listed for the PBS vacancy following a call for applications last March. “One of the reasons why I considered applying for the job was that I am so convinced of the changes there, and of the other changes ahead, that whoever takes this job will be working with a new team of competent people with a completely new outlook.”
Macdonald started her media career on Island Sound radio after returning to Malta with her English husband and children in 1993, then moving on to The Times lifestyle supplement, before becoming news editor.
Asked how she intends to cope with Maltese if she is selected as PBS news manager, she said: “I hope that in 12 years I have learnt Maltese. The job is really about news. Although for me it would be a new medium I know the journalists at PBS know how to do their job very well.”
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