She has broken the myth that women cannot rise to the pinnacle of media operations in the Caribbean.

Although there have been women heads of media institutions, particularly broadcasting organizations, in Jamaica, the Bahamas, St Vincent and Guyana. Shida Bolai has made it to the position as General Manager of the Express Newspapers.

But as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Editor in Chief, all at the same time, of Newsday - now Trinidad and Tobago's most read newspaper according to the latest national media survey - Mills at 68 has eclipsed them all.

"It might be unusual but it should not be surprising for a woman to have achieved what I have done," Mills says sitting in her office on Chacon Street in downtown Port of Spain, the ever present twinkle in her eyes, a Mills characteristic for all who know her.

As one of the country's outstanding women, Mills has received the Humming Bird Medal silver for her contribution to journalism.

She has traveled widely, from the Caribbean to far off Australia, both on journalistic assignments and as an advisory member of the Commonwealth Journalists Association. She doesn't bow to the salutations but instead chooses to raise the standard in favour of other female journalists.

"It is largely the women in the media who have made it into what it is today," she days proudly. "The women are the backbone of the media, the hardest working and most dedicated members of the profession, and I congratulate them all for the jobs they have been doing," she says in the tone of the matriarch.

For Mills herself, the positions she holds today are all demanding, sensitive posts, but she agrees that her achievements are also a source of inspiration for other women in the media.

But her enviable achievements she adds casually were all thrust upon her. The reasons for saddling her with more and more responsibility at Newsday appear to elude even her.

"I can honestly say that I have never sought any of the posts that I have held, I was invited to hold them all, even the post of Editor-in-Chief at the Guardian Newspaper from which she retired in 1993, she says was given her by-passing other senior editors. "Believe it or not," she says, her level palm slamming lightly against her desk top, I have never gone after anything of the things in life I have gotten, all the posts that I have ever held have all been offered to me.

I am not a pushy person," she says.

But never did she envision becoming captain, cook and chief bottle washer at the four-year-old newspaper.

The current responsibility of the three portfolios that fall in her lap doesn't frighten the steadfast Mills who anticipates, "no problems at all with either positions."

As newly appointed Chairman, she still has to grapple with running the company in relation to the operation of the paper but "I will cross that bridge when I get to it," she says bemused. What is important is her relationship with other members of the board. "There is mutual respect, we all get along very well," she says dispelling any notion of disagreement among Board members.

Describing herself as a news reporter, Mills though seen little in media circles or events speaks of her ability to write and present the news in any format. "I have always been contented to do just that," she quips. "I would be happy to write for the rest of my life, adding that not being able to write is the one negative of being in her position. Although daily she edits stories appearing in the paper.

She has not added to the collection of children's stories she wrote years ago and she speaks longingly of a desire to write her story during her retirement years (though she doesn't know when that will be) "I have a story in me I must tell, it deals with the evolving of the media, and the things I have done en route."

But little it seems could have her away from the challenge at Newsday. It keeps her energized and busy, an ingrained attitude she has towards life.

With her three children all grown Mills says she accepted the offer to edit Newsday because, "people called for a third newspaper, after having two dailies for years." Mills feels, Newsday offers businesses and readers outside of the borders of the country's two oldest daily newspapers, a voice.

"The people were saying they wanted a third paper I received lots of letters from people who would complain about not being able to get their letters or their opinions into the papers run by the two major conglomerates they needed a paper without those attachments.

She argues that there are some fundamental reasons why the Newsday paper has risen to such heights of popularity. But she says the $1.00 price was not the only factor in the increase of its readership.

The paper's success she feels is largely the front-page design. "The front- page design is what has made the paper," says Mills, praising the design editor Sherrifa Halal. "People tell us daily they love our front page design, it is so exciting, they say."

While she explains that Newsday deals with the news from a sensational angle. Mills says time and time again, "the paper is not a tabloid."

"Get it right, Newsday is a paper in tabloid format but we are not a tabloid in the classic sense," she says indignantly.

"We are a paper that pays attention to the dramatic and sensational in the country, we pay close attention she says to the dramatic, when we have a dramatic story you better believe we are going to dramatize, we are not going to take a dramatic story and give it a mundane headline. We approach our front page with that kind of excitement."

Asked about a recent letter to the Advertising Association in which Newsday lamented that its readership was not enjoying the level of advertising it should, given the statistics, Mills responds, "I believe the advertising agencies started off with a situation where only the Guardian and Express mattered and that was where they put their adds, they made an assumption that they must now realize is totally out of sync with reality."

Newsday like its Editor has broken tradition and after a not too encouraging start, Mills says the fact that Newsday has been able to lure the widest readership in the country speaks for itself, in all situations. "I am not going to sit here in my editorial chair and tell them (advertising agencies) where to put their ads. If they don't know where it is happening then I think they are the ones who are going to lose."

Mills says the edge Newsday has on other newspapers is that it is reader friendly.

"It covers all aspects of the news. It's a paper people can hold unlike another newspaper which is so unyielding, and so heavy, there is so much paper you just can't handle it."

The paper she says is totally independent of its association with the T and T Newscentre which also prints the Mirror and Punch newspapers. The relationship she says is purely with respect to printing the paper since Newsday does not own a press.

The change in Newsday, she says, from the good newspaper was as a result of the demand of the people. "We took the issue of the day and focused on it because crime was at its worst in 1993, some of the most horrendous crimes were taking place in that year and we could not turn a blind eye to it," she says.

When the paper changed gears after a hard week of good news, Mills explained they took a conscious decision to, "engage the concerns of the people by bringing crime to the front page, that was the reality," she says, "since for people the crime situation had become the number one issue." "We make no excuse for it" she adds, "and those who claim we used crime, that we have been sensational about crime, let them know it had to be done, in fact everybody has followed us." If imitation is the greatest form of flattery Mills believes her paper is indeed the leader of the pack.

Even as she expresses concern about her diabetic condition she says there is little more she would like to do with her life.

She returned home from England in the 1960s to become a feature writer with the Trinidad Guardian and later resigned to take up work at TESORO where she spent one year before being invited back to the Guardian. She became Sunday Guardian Editor, and then moved to the prestigious Editor-in-Chief position before retiring.

Now there is little she has not seen she is not prepared to leave her career behind because of age or health.

TOP