The PN’s newsroom will undergo a total overhaul as from tomorrow, with a new round of “restructuring” that will see the introduction of a new head of News, the moving of responsibilities within the company and the introduction of an editorial board.

Fabian Demicoli will take the top job in the Media.link newsroom after working for Where’s Everybody? (now WE Media) for the past six-and-a-half years. Mr Demicoli, the younger brother of TVM news anchor Keith Demicoli, previously worked for Media.link as a journalist between 2007 and 2008. He has also worked as a radio newscaster with Bay Radio and, following his one-year stint working for the PN media, moved to PBS where he became a journalist and producer for Xarabank. He has also been hosting a weekly radio talk show on RTK. A PN source said Mr Demicoli, although still quite young, has experience on various media platforms and is expected to bring “fresh blood and fresh ideas into the newsroom”.

Mr Demicoli will be replacing Nathaniel Attard, a veteran PN journalist, who will now become editor of the PN’s daily paper, in-Nazzjon.

Mr Attard is taking over the editorship from Alex Attard, who has served in this position for a number of years. He will, as from Monday, become the newsroom’s Parliamentary Editor.

A PN spokesman explained that this post is vital for the PN newsroom, in view of the fact that most of the Opposition’s work is done in Parliament. Furthermore, the post had been empty for some months and the newsroom felt strongly that there was a need for an editor who is solely dedicated to parliamentary affairs.

Mr Attard’s former deputy, Simon Vella Gregory, has been made Features Editor and two journalists, one of whom is a veteran of several election campaigns, have been transferred to the features section. The editor of the Sunday newspaper il-Mument, Roderick Attard, will retain his post.

The PN leadership has also appointed an editorial board to “formulate media guidelines and ensure that they are adhered to”.

All pending salaries to be fully paid up by the year’s end

The PN had admitted on several occasions that its media was going through a credibility crisis. A PN spokesman said, however, that the party is confident that the upcoming round of restructuring will turn things around. “Our media will be given a new direction. It will start focusing on human interest stories, not just politics. It will focus on subjects people want to read about.”

The spokesman explained that Media.link has not recruited any new journalists. What was once Malta’s biggest newsroom is now run by small number of people, several of whom work on a part-time basis. He said, however, that salaries are being paid out consistently at the end of each month. Many of the workers have also been given two months’ pay, dating back to the summer of 2013, which had been witheld by the company because of the disastrous financial situation at the time. “Around half of the staff have been fully paid and our aim is to pay everyone’s dues by the end of this year.”