Monitor Executive Editor resigns

The Executive Editor of Monitor Publications Limited, Mr. Malcolm Gibson, has resigned slightly after a year into his two-year tenure.

The resignation was announced by acting MPL Managing Director Stephen Gitagama in an email to staff on Wednesday, 11 March.

“This is to announce the resignation of Mr. Malcolm Gibson from the position of Executive Editor of MPL,” Mr. Gitagama wrote. “Malcolm had expressed desire to spend more quality time with his family, and on behalf of the Board of Directors, Management and staff of MPL, I extend our appreciation for the great service Malcolm has rendered to the business during the period he has presided over the MPL Newsroom and wish him the best in his future endeavors.”

Mr. Gibson’s resignation comes on the heels of an announcement last week that MPL had hired a new managing director, Mr. Anthony Glencross, to take over from Mr. Alex Asiimwe, who was asked to leave last November.  

Mr. Glencross, the former chief commercial officer at Vision Group, is to report to work this week.

It is not yet clear whether Mr. Gibson’s departure is related to Mr. Glencross’ arrival.

But the two movements continue a high attrition rate at the top at Monitor. Mr. Gibson was the fourth executive editor at the Monitor since the position was created in 2005. Mr. Glencross, on the other hand, is the fifth managing director at the Monitor in the same period.

The managing director is supposed to be in charge of the whole business while the executive editor heads the editorial/journalism operations. He takes final responsibility for what appears in the papers and the news and public affairs programmes on KFM.

Mr. Gibson joined Monitor in March 2014 and his two-year tenure was due to end in March 2016. He told staff at the beginning of his tenure that he would not seek another term after two years.

During his tenure, Mr. Gibson oversaw the reorganisation of the newsroom, which included, most recently, the laying off of some staff, including the Managing Editor (in charge of reporting) Don Wanyama. He was replaced by Ms. Carol Beyanga, the first woman to serve in that position at Monitor.

In an interview with ACME in January 2015, Mr. Gibson said he planned to turn around the fortunes of Uganda’s independent newspaper by eliminating ‘brown envelope journalism’, ensuring better remuneration for staff, offering training, and improving content.

“When I came here, I made two promises to NMG – one thing they wanted from me is basically to raise the quality of journalism,” he said. “I have gone through a lot of difficulties to make that happen because I had to do other things first but we are not yet there.”

The second promise, he added, was that “when I leave, a Ugandan takes my place. I have a commitment from NMG that that could happen”.

In his communication to staff, Mr. Gitagama asked them to co-operate with Managing Editor Beyanga, and Associate Editor, Weekends, Mr. Charles Odoobo Bichachi.

“During the interim period, both the Managing Editor and the Associate Editor shall take charge of their respective dockets and shall report to the Managing Director until a new Executive Editor is announced,” he said.