Creative Communications Inc. has new editor

Olivia Leigh Campbell

Olivia Leigh Campbell has been named to the position of editor of Creative Communications Inc. Limited (CCI), publishers of SkyWritings, Air Jamaica's in-flight magazine.

She will be responsible for the full range of publications of CCI, based in Kingston. In addition to SkyWritings, these publications include Caribbean Shipping Journal and the Kingston One Stop Visitor's Guide, the official event magazines of the Air Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival and Reggae Sumfest, and destination maps and guides for cruise ship passengers to Jamaica.

Ms. Campbell comes to CCI after four years at the Jamaica Observer where in her most recent position she was a Sunday Observer reporter with focus on energy issues, crime and tourism. Prior to that, she edited the Observer's All Woman magazine, coordinated the events guide DoGoSee, and covered the entertainment, politics and education beats as a staff reporter.

She was a Web content developer on the Jamaica Tourist Board's visitjamaica.com creative team, and a media coordinator with American Minorities Media in Santa Barbara, California.

background

Born and raised in Jamaica, Ms. Campbell attended Campion College in Kingston and Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where she was named the 1999 John Kryder Evans Scholar.

Hospitality Jamaica asked the new CCI editor a few questions:

How early in life you knew you wanted to enter the field of journalism?

I honestly never thought about journalism until quite recently, because during college especially, I strongly believed that I was going to get a PhD and teach history and write unreadable history books. When I came back to Jamaica from California, I immediately landed a job working at the JTB.

What did you study at Lancaster?

I studied history, anthropology and Africana studies

How easy was it for you to return home after studying?

When I left Jamaica, I always knew I'd be back home, the only question was when. After college, I actually started making a pretty nice life abroad, a good job, friends, and a life in California, coming home wasn't high on the list. As well off as I was, I wasn't happy, or ever totally comfortable, being so far away from family, friends, my people and culture. When I did decide to come home, the hardest part was the fear factor. I spent God knows how many night stressing and worrying about coming home - what was I going to do, would I get a job, could I stand living back with my parents - and in the end, none of it mattered. I remember how I felt the exact day I came home - to quote Andrew Salkey ' Jamaica make me feel like me natural self'.

What impact do you think Skywritings has had on the island's tourism industry? Describe the publication:

Wow! What a question! I know first-hand how many small - and large - tourism-related entities have gotten priceless publicity from being mentioned in a publication that has a captive audience (airplane travellers), so that's certainly the most obvious impact. But in my view, one of the most significant impacts that SkyWritings has had, has to do with the fact that for decades it has not only been the standard bearer of Jamaica to tourists, but that in many ways it has been critical to helping Jamaicans and Caribbean people learn more and want to explore their countries and cultures more.

What do you take to this job, which will make a real difference?

My background in print has been overwhelmingly in news, but also somewhat in travel/tourism marketing. I think I've been successful in my career so far because I have the well-crafted skill of being able to see something new and something positive in everything and then to relate that to readers. In an industry that is so vital yet so sensitive, this will be a critical skill, I think. For instance, after over 30 years in publication, Sky has probably featured just about everything there is about Jamaica. It will now be my job to look at the same subject matter - Jamaica - and try to see something new, something positive and to relate that to our readers.