A New Face, A New Perspective

Samantha Magick

We are pleased to announce that, effective with this issue, Samantha Magick joins Pacific Magazine as its Managing Editor. This is a position that Samantha has prepared for all of her life. Samantha is a Fiji national who has worked in journalism and communications in Fiji and, most recently, in Australia. In fact, Samantha will work for us from her current base in Sydney.

Samantha became a journalist just out of university in the early 1990s as a reporter with Communications Fiji, Ltd., the Suva-based private operator of a number of market-dominant radio stations. That company eventually expanded into Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, and Samantha worked her way up to News and Sports Director.

I first got to know Samantha in the early 1990s, when I ran a Pacific Islands News Association-Asia Foundation week-long journalism training workshop in Suva to prepare cadet reporters for the country's first parliamentary elections after the 1987 coups. She was one of the stars of that intense week, and we have remained friends ever since.

In addition to her radio work, Samantha also has experience as a television presenter, a newspaper columnist and briefly served as a journalism tutor at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, during the May 2000 coup. She has also done stints as a stringer for the BBC and Reuters, and has conducted media and communications training courses in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Australia.

In recent years, Samantha has worked as a communications officer for regional environmental organizations in Fiji and Australia, most recently with the Environmental Defender's Office of New South Wales.

Samantha's appointment is an exciting development for this magazine. It gives us a senior editor with significant South Pacific experience who is resident in one of the most important countries in this part of the world. As a result of Samantha's appointment, we expect to see continued strengthening of our coverage of the South Pacific, and regular features and analysis on the ever-expanding role that Australia is playing in the Pacific Islands (see our cover story in this issue).

Samantha will work closely with Giff Johnson, our Contributing Editor who has done yeoman's work these past few months serving as Acting Editor. Giff has been based in the Marshall Islands for 20 years, and will continue to provide us with critical perspective on our coverage of North Pacific nations and issues, as well as the insightful reporting that has been his hallmark.

Samantha's appointment marks another turning point in the history of Pacific Magazine, which has been publishing since 1976. For the first time since the magazine's inaugural issue, people born and raised in the Pacific Islands staff all three of the lead full-time positions at the publication: publisher; managing editor; and, sales manager. Samantha was born and spent her formative years in Fiji. Our Sales Manager, Florence Betham, is also a daughter of the Islands, born and raised in American Samoa. And I was born and raised in the Marshall Islands and later worked on Saipan, Guam and Fiji.

That personal link gives us, I think, a special perspective on the many issues that face the region. That doesn't mean our perspective is necessarily the "right" one, but it does mean we feel a special kinship with this part of the world. We hope that tie results in a magazine that you will continue to find indispensable in helping to understand our fast-changing region