Pitt Media brings in training expert
An award-winning editor and trainer has been brought to the Cook Islands by the Pitt Media Group - to train staff, assist development and help edit the group’s newspapers.
Chief executive Jeane Matenga said she is pleased to announce that the well known regional journalism trainer Peter Lomas is now working fulltime for the group.
Matenga said it is part of the continuing development of the Pitt Media Group, the country’s largest employer of news media workers *.
It underscores the company’s continuing commitment to training staff and professional development, she said.
She said Pitt Media Group is very happy to have been able to bring to the country someone with the media experience and reputation of Lomas.
Lomas has 40 years as a reporter, editor, media manager and trainer in a career in New Zealand, Australia and throughout the Pacific Islands.
He has been chief editor of both daily newspapers and magazines, including the leading regional news magazine Islands Business.
Matenga said Lomas and his wife, fellow journalist and media consultant Nina Ratulele, had joined Pitt Media from Apia in Samoa.
They had been working there the past three years helping the Samoa Observer expand to publishing seven days a week and launch new newspapers in New Zealand and American Samoa.
Launching new papers is nothing new for Lomas.
He was one of the team of executives who launched the original daily Fiji Sun and Sunday Sun newspapers – well known to Cook Islanders who studied in Fiji in the 1970s and 1980s. He was the longest-serving chief editor of these successful papers.
The Sun newspapers were forced to close after refusing to accept censorship following the 1987 Fiji military coups.
Lomas then spent 13 years as editor-in-chief of the Islands Business magazine and multimedia group, during which it grew from two publications to 13.
As well as its flagship news magazine Islands Business, this Suva-based media company now produces inflight magazines and videos, and specialist trade and industry publications.
Lomas was also heavily involved in training during this time, and was an Asia-Pacific consultant and communication expert for the Paris-headquartered UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation). He is a past executive board member of UNESCO’s international journalism training and education network JourNet.
In 2001 Lomas shifted to concentrating full time on news media training and development work.
He was fulltime training coordinator for the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) before he and Ratulele were recruited to help the Samoa Observer development project.
Lomas has also worked for The Dominion in Wellington, Sunday News in Auckland, Herald in Melbourne and Fiji Times in Suva.
Ratulele is also prominent in the regional news media.
While resident in Rarotonga, she plans to continue her own international media activities.
She is Pacific director of the Dhaka-based Asia Pacific Forum of Environmental Journalists (APFEJ) and media consultant for international agencies.
Ratulele was PINA Administrator and editor in Suva from 1992 until moving to Samoa in 2003. She was in charge of the day-to-day running of the association and its secretariat and editor of its daily news service.
Before joining PINA she also worked with the Islands Business media group.
Ratulele has been awarded the International Green Pen Award and Pacific Media Freedom Award for her services to the media.
She is a past chairperson of IFEX (the global organisation of media freedom groups) and CAPPI (the Council of Asia Pacific Press Institutes). She is the only Pacific Islander to have headed these organisations.
* Pitt Media Group operates Cook Islands Television, Radio Cook Islands, the Cook Islands Herald, Cook Islands Times and Internet websites.

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