Family to press on with Cayman Net News

(CNS): Despite the sudden death of its editor in chief, Desmond Seales, the newspaper man’s family are determined to ‘press on’ with Cayman Net News. The family has established the Seales Legacy Trust in an effort to assist his widow, Susan Seales, to keep the paper alive. Seales will be laid to rest this Saturday afternoon (10 July) at 3pm at the Agape Family Worship Centre, Fairbanks Road, George Town, followed by an interment at the Eden Cemetery. Seales, who was 71, died on Saturday 3 July in hospital in Miami following surgery for a heart problem. A controversial local character, Seales’ came to the Cayman Islands in 1969 from his native Trinidad via the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

He began the Nor’wester magazine in 1971. The publication was the first of its kind in Cayman, covering politics, culture and history, and was a hit with the local community. Despite its continued success for many years, the magazine came to an end in 1984 as a result of financial troubles, but not before Seales received an MBE in 1982 for his services to publishing.

Seales then turned his hand to television in the early 1990s but a complex set of financial problems with the station led to dark times for Seales, who served a period of time in jail. However, although he was down for a short time, Seales was certainly not out and came back with vengeance in time for the new millennium. In 1999 he launched Cayman Net News on-line before introducing the print edition in 2000.

Over the last decade the paper has undergone a number of changes in size, shape and style – as Seales always said “change is good” – and it enjoyed mixed fortunes. The recent recession hit the Cayman Net Group hard but Seales never gave up and despite the constant battering from government and struggles to keep the paper financed, Net News still rolled off the press in Miami.

Seales fought a number of hard battles with the authorities through his long career as a publisher and is considered by many to have been a voice of the people and to have advanced the cause of free press in the Cayman Islands.