PN terminates media CEO Brian St John’s contract

Members of the new Nationalist Party administration team are settling into their new roles as management staff loyal to former leader Simon Busuttil are replaced.

The restructuring is being led by Pierre Portelli, the new executive chairman of Media.link – the PN’s media arm – and Clyde Puli, newly elected secretary general. Sources said the two were intent on seeing in the new year with a new team in place, loyal to the new leader Adrian Delia.

Media.link CEO Brian St John was notified by Portelli through email in the week before Christmas that, as per the arrangement Delia’s team made with the previous administration, his contract – like that of all other management staff under contract – would not be renewed at the end of December.

When contacted, St John said he did not wish to discuss his relationship with the party, but sources said that St John, who in fact did not have a contract but was on indefinite employment, had earlier expressed his desire to leave the party, once Delia was appointed leader.

St John was appointed him CEO in October 2014 and placed in charge of planning and strategy in 2016.

MaltaToday understands that St John asked to be allowed to stay on till mid-February but was told that would not be possible. Sources have since confirmed that St John – and others like him – were not even given a termination form and nor were they afforded any notice period.

One former Media.link employee told MaltaToday that not all the positions being made vacant were to be filled and added he suspected this was the case so that the new administration would have a larger salary pool to distribute among fewer top executives.