In the beginning was PIM

ACCORDING to media veteran Sir Leonard Usher, August 16, 1930, was the day South Pacific people began to rediscover their common origins and interests. On that day, 61 years ago, R.W. Robson founded Pacific Islands Monthly [PIM), the first journal in the Central and South Pacific.

A former editor of The Fiji Times (1958-73) and organising director of the Pacific Islands News Association (1974-85), Sir Leonard said in his book Mainly About Fiji : “A powerful new element was introduced into the 20th Century history of the South Pacific when the people of the various island nations rediscovered common origins and interests.”

He said: “It is not too fanciful to compare what happened to the 14th

Century Renaissance in Europe.”

Sir Leonard, 84, who came to Fiji from New Zealand in 1930, said island countries saw themselves as individuals, mainly due to colonial rule. PIM helped them reflect on their origins and common heritage, and fostered events including the South Pacific Games and the South Pacific Festival of Arts, and bodies including the South Pacific Commission.

Sir Leonard said Robson travelled the region constantly to build up a first-hand knowledge for PIM.

The first issue was a 12-page tabloid

size, newspaper-style

publication covering issues from trade to personality profiles.

On July 1, 1988, Fiji Times Limited took over PIM from News Limited in Sydney and moved

headquarters to

Suva. The first Suva published issue was August 1988 and editorial was trans ferred in June 1989.

At the time PlM’s

publisher Geoffrey

Hussey said; “Its new horizons will reach to the extremities of the Pa cific Rim and be yond. Now that it is in Fiji the “hub” of the Pacific Pa cific Islands Monthly is

better placed to offer broader and more up-to-the-moment editorial coverage and analysis of events and developments throughout the Pacific. We plan to broaden the scope of our coverage, too, with greater emphasis on business, travel and people, while maintaining the tra ditional editorial values that have made

Pacific Islands Monthly the most authoritative and reliable publi cation of Pacific affairs.”

Today Hussey believes those aims have been achieved, but that PIM will de velop and grow with the region.

It is the most widely read news

magazine exclus

ively covering the

Pacific Islands

and circulating

worldwide. He thanked readers, especially sub scribers outside the region, for their support. □.

First PIM: August 16, 1930