Robson’s vision of success
FEBRUARY 1956, R W Robson bought the Fiji Times from Sir Alport Barker.
Mr Robson, a journalist by profession, was faced with the problem of bringing the paper in line with economic, social and political developments in Fiji at the time.
Luckily, he had a wealth of experience behind him.
He was known to possess a natural flair for words, an eye for news and an instinct for injecting efficiency in an organisation.
From 1904, he was a reporter with several New Zealand and Australian newspapers.
About two decades later, in 1921, he became the general manager of the Daily Telegraph in Sydney. From 1924 to 1929, he was in London and when he returned to Australia, he set out to fulfil a dream he envisioned while he was on a tour of the Pacific Islands with the governor general of New Zealand.
He wanted to start a magazine that would provide news from the various territories of the Pacific and help them to realise they shared many common problems and interests.
So the Pacific Islands Monthly was born in 1930, and Mr Robson followed it up with the Pacific Islands Yearbook.
Later he took on the production of other publications, together with the control of a printing works in Sydney, the Sydney and Melbourne Publishing Company.
When he took over the newspaper, he reached three major objectives.
First was to grow The Fiji Times in the colony by installing modern plant and machinery.
Second, was increasing the news cover required of a national newspaper and expanding the editorial and reporting staff.
Third, was having same day delivery of the newspaper throughout the scattered islands and towns after publishing in the morning, making use of the colony’s improved and growing air services.
So on April 30, 1956, morning publication began. He also decided to go back to the original name of The Fiji Times.