Joe Duggan (Reporter)
IT was a gargantuan effort, but short of pigeons, the Olive Press had no choice other than to involve its entire team in distributing its brand new paper in Gibraltar.
After new distributor, John Munn, failed to arrive to pick up the 10,000 copies as agreed this morning, it left the paper’s staff with little option but to do it themselves.
And in an effort not dissimilar to D-Day (or Distribution Day as we’re now calling it) the whole team rallied around to ensure the first edition got into the hands of as many Gibraltarian residents and business people as possible.
Delivering the 10,000 papers in a record five hours, a team of 12 journalists, admin staff and sales people set off to The Rock with the brand new papers in their cars.
Wearing special red and green Olive Press Gibraltar t-shirts, they got papers into all the regular two dozen drops as well as an estimated 50 more.
Then walking up Main Street and around Casemates Square they handed out over 1,000 papers to business people, tourists and shoppers.
Publisher Jon Clarke was delighted with his ‘hard-working’ team who did not question for a second the importance of their role.
“It was incredible how well everybody pulled together and made sure that the day went with such great success,” he said.
“We got papers into government HQ, all the gaming companies and other international businesses, including the new international bank, not to mention practically every business on Main Street and Irish Town.
“We hope the Gibraltar public rallies to our cause and I thank my team for doing such a good job.”
Should anyone know of Mr Munn’s whereabouts, or indeed, wants a job distributing the Olive Press on the Rock, please get in touch at [email protected].
