Reflections on media, business and change
by Denise Matthews
Back in 1995, I was named Young Communicator of the Year by the Gibraltar Chronicle, long before hashtags, likes or algorithms shaped how stories travelled.
Thirty years on, it would be remiss of me not to reflect on what local media has meant to my career, and to Gibraltar’s business community more broadly. When I launched my very first business, DM Promotions, at the age of 22, print media was the channel to showcase what the business was all about. This was a time with no internet, no email and certainly no social media.
Every week, I promoted different brands around Gibraltar with my young team of part-timers and students from the “Try Before You Buy” campaigns at Safeway to the Heineken and Gib Sun Club band marches down Main Street. We would be featured often weekly with a photograph by the great Orlando Charvetto on the black-and-white pages of our local newspaper. The coverage was not instant, but it was earned. Reputation travelled at a different pace then, backed by word of mouth and built on the quality of execution and delivery.
I am, by all accounts, a huge advocate of change. It is inevitable. The digital revolution, like every revolution before it, has made us more efficient and more accessible. But it comes at a price. Which raises the question: can we really afford not to support journalists at a time when online opinion is so often accepted as truth?
Traditional advertising in print media is no longer seen as a priority, yet everyone is eager for their press release to be covered or their initiative to be published. What is often overlooked is that this cannot reasonably be expected for free. Local media still matters, now more than ever and for it to survive, it requires proper investment. Independent local journalism remains one of the last meaningful filters we have. Without it, narratives are shaped by whoever shouts the loudest online. Everyone became a commentator; very few became accountable.
Now in my third decade as a local entrepreneur, I have the experience to back up this argument. Anyone can build something from nothing in today’s fast-moving world, and we must be able to move with it. Digital platforms have democratised communication, barriers to entry have disappeared and this is something I actively champion through Startup Grind Gibraltar. It has been phenomenal for innovation and inclusion. From our very small Rock, our reach today is remarkable.
I have believed in and benefited enormously from digital tools. Pretending otherwise would be misleading. Yet it is also evident that speed has replaced scrutiny.
As we enter a new year consumed by a digital world where content is shared in seconds using AI, gratification is instant, opinions are often anonymous, and the consequences of publishing whatever we want in the public domain have become disturbingly easy to ignore. Online bullying and trolling have become the quiet tax on progress. Abuse is no longer whispered, it is broadcast.
As we look ahead to access to the treaty text, one of the phrases most frequently repeated has been that “Gibraltar is open for business.” In theory, this should of course be true. We do not have natural resources or space, so we depend on business revenues to sustain our excellent public services, public-sector employment, subsidised accommodation and healthcare, student grants; a list as long as this article could easily become.
The reality, however, is more complex. I recently experienced this first-hand when the opening of a high-end coffee shop franchise on Main Street attracted hundreds of negative comments on social media. The investment into Gibraltar via refurbishment, rent, tax, suppliers, services, advertising, employment, and the hiring of local agencies like mine seemed to count for very little against outrage over pavement seating on a pedestrianised street or personal opinions about the taste of the coffee.
Gibraltar wants global relevance without global-level resilience. We cannot ask for international credibility while tolerating small-market hostility, particularly when digital platforms reward outrage rather than responsibility. Which brings me back to my central point: storytelling through real media, guided by journalists who value credibility, context and accountability, is essential.
Ending where I began, my plan for 2026 is to put my money where my mouth is, to invest in local media, and to encourage businesses that choose to work with me to do the same as part of a wider, more responsible strategy.
If none of my arguments have been persuasive enough, then let me end simply. I owe my start to local media. I owe my longevity to adaptation. And I owe the next generation honesty, even if it comes at a cost.
Denise Matthews is the founder of One Media & Events.
