Farewell, North Street - Gleaner marks exit from downtown Kgn landmark
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From left: Gleaner reporters Sashana Small, Kimone Francis, Tanesha Mundle and Karen Madden reliving the memories.
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Executive Chairman Joseph M. Matalon addresses current and former Gleaner staff at a farewell ceremony at 7 North Street in downtown Kingston on Thursday. The Gleaner's operations are now located at the RJRGLEANER Group headquarters at 32 Lyndhurst Road in St Andrew. Photos by Rudolph Brown/Photographer
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From left: Associate Editor Robert Hart, Senior Researcher Ahon Gray and Projects Coordinator Kalisha Lawrence share a laugh as they reflect on the fourth floor.
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Errent Murray, press operation manager, explains the role of the press control console in the printing process to current and former staff of The Gleaner during a farewell tour of the newspaper's former 7 North Street base in downtown Kingston on Thursday afternoon.
Past and present staff of The Gleaner gathered on Thursday evening at 7 North Street in downtown Kingston for a symbolic farewell to a building that has stood for decades as one of the country’s most recognisable media landmarks.
Perched on the rooftop of the iconic premises, journalists, editors, retirees, and support staff looked out over the city as they marked the closing chapter of a site sold as part of a wider rationalisation exercise by the RJRGLEANER Communications Group.
There was nostalgia in the air – and a sense that something larger than bricks and mortar was being left behind.
Executive Chairman Joseph M. Matalon, addressing the gathering, paid tribute to the building’s place in Jamaica’s national story, describing it as far more than a workplace.
“It has reported on every significant event in the life of this nation – events that shaped us, shamed us, and sometimes saved us,” he said. “It has held power to account when that was not a comfortable thing to do.”
He reflected on the generations of journalists who passed through its doors since it opened in 1969, calling it a vessel for something intangible but enduring.
“The presses that ran here, the editorial floors, the compositing rooms, the darkrooms, the library, and yes, the canteen, all of it has been the physical container for something that never really had a physical form – the courage to report the truth, the discipline to do it daily, and the pride that comes from knowing your work matters,” Matalon said.
While operations have now moved to 32 Lyndhurst Road, Matalon stressed that the relocation represents continuity rather than loss.
“To everyone in this area who worked here, whether for three years or 30, you are the reason this address meant something. The institution carried your talent, your judgement, and your sacrifice. The walls held the noise of it. But the journalism lives in the record, not in the real estate. It lives in the archives, in the editions, in the stories you chased and the ones you chose not to run. It lives in the standards you upheld when it would have been easier not to. We move to Lyndhurst Road carrying all of that with us. The address changes. The mission does not,” Matalon said.
For many in attendance, however, the emotions were harder to separate from the physical space.
Recently retired staff member Barrington Deer, who spent 32 years at North Street, struggled to hold back emotion as he reflected on what the building meant to him and his colleagues, saying it was “the saddest day of my life”.
“Never dreamed I would live to see this day. … It was precious. It was like a family here, each and every one of us, you know. It’s a place you look forward to coming to and seeing [colleagues] like you see your brothers and your sisters,” Deer said, noting that 7 North Street is an iconic landmark in downtown Kingston.
karen.madden@gleanerjm.com
And that’s a wrap!