Fiji Sun 20th Anniversary: The Inception of the Fiji Sun

Sundip Patel and I were partners in an advertising agency, M&C Saatchi, an international group. It was to become the biggest agency in the South Pacific.

I lived next door to the Patel family home in Waimanu Road and Sundip had come back from university in Australia to run the family business.

We used to sit on the balcony overlooking the harbour and discuss the advertising business.

Sundip had no advertising experience but he was a very fast learner and saw the opportunities an agency offered any brand marketer.

We kept talking and one night Sundip raised the question of starting a second newspaper.

The Daily Post had recently closed, leaving only the Fiji Times in the market.

At that time, Fiji Times was owned by Rupert Murdoch under News Limited, a large international media business and he saw the potential for costs to increase in a monopoly market.

As by then, CJ Patel was one of the country’s biggest advertisers, he saw the need to open the competition.

Decision Made

He mulled it over for some time and talked to a lot of people (Sundip was an excellent listener and could sift the wheat from the chaff of all the advice he received).

He talked to some people working in Fiji who had the necessary expertise to run a daily newspaper, and took the decision to move ahead.

He bought a printing press and installed it in the same warehouse where the agency had started, (we had moved out to Waimanu Road), an old CJP warehouse in Walu Bay, put in was the latest technology for pre-press work.

He then set about getting together a staff of mainly local people and used his amazing charm to get some of the best journalists in Fiji to come and join him.

He also spoke to a number of other people who were running business that would be impacted by a closed newspaper market and sought their support in the venture.

Fiji Sun staff members celebrate 20 years strong. The daily newspaper founded in 1999 by the late, visionary Sundip Patel leads the Fijian market in readership and key advertising indicators. Photo: Ronald Kumar

Result of one man’s dream

From one man’s dream and the courage to step into unknown waters and support the paper with continuing investment, a truly great newspaper had grown.

It now has significantly more readers than the opposition and firmly believes in the slogan “More Fijian news than any other newspaper in the World”.

Many of us who were involved in the early development see the Fiji Sun as a monument to Sundip Patel and his unique gift for marketing.

I do know that he would be proud of how his dream has developed.

• John Ross is a Nadi-based marketing and advertising specialist with a long background in Fijian market and links with the launch of the Fiji Sun.

Feedback: johnrossfiji@gmail.com