Today The Royal Gazette goes where it has never gone before with the appointment of a new Sports Editor from the Caribbean.

In a significant coup for the newspaper, the highly acclaimed André Lowe has been lured from The Gleaner in Jamaica, where he had served in the same capacity for the past seven years.

The 38-year-old, who recently broke the world exclusive on American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson’s positive drugs test at the Olympic trials and her subsequent exclusion from the team that travelled to Tokyo, comes to Bermuda with vast experience in almost 20 years in journalism.

At The Gleaner, he oversaw a team of 20 across multiple titles, including Gleaner Sports, Star Sports, Track and Pools, and Gleaner Sports Online.

With Tokyo 2020 being the most recent, he has reported from four Olympic Games, the World Athletics Championships, Commonwealth Games, World Relays, Fifa Women’s World Cup, international cricket and the Uefa Champions League.

He has worked in every major print organisation in Jamaica during his rise through the ranks, with further stints in television plus appearances internationally with ESPN, CNN and English newspapers The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian.

Apart from four Sports Journalist of the Year gongs from the Press Association in Jamaica, Lowe was recognised internationally as 2013 Journalist of the Year by Nubian Times Media, a British organisation based in Manchester.

He remains a member of the Media Committee at the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletics Association and is a director at the Caribbean Sports Journalists Association.

With such a background, the opportunity to move to Bermuda for a different challenge was too good to resist.

“I consider myself to be an ambitious, dynamic and determined individual, a lover of people and life, who is always on the hunt for the next challenge,” he says.

“In my last role, I served as Sports Editor for The Gleaner in Jamaica, which is of course one of the most important newspaper brands in the world, and have won several local and international awards for sports journalism, having developed a global reputation for breaking news items and for producing on a consistent basis in-depth, investigative reportage.”

He adds: “From what I have seen over the years, The Royal Gazette’s sports team has proved itself to be able to produce top-quality work and is a well-respected voice among ʽregional’ sports media. I believe we have all the necessary tools to become an even stronger player where global influence is concerned.

“Our readers are extremely important and we want to connect with them on a closer level. We will be discussing this as a sports desk, but strong and consistent multimedia engagement is crucial, so widening our footprint in the digital space, fostering greater interaction with our community is also necessary. So, too, is developing a focus on in-depth reporting and widening our platform for Bermuda’s many sporting personalities at all levels — from the grass roots to those enjoying global attention.

“These are just some of the major target areas that we will be discussing and developing as a team going forward.”

Dexter Smith, the Editor of The Royal Gazette, who has doubled up as Acting Sports Editor the past 13 months because of the Government’s moratorium on work permits, welcomes the belated arrival of Lowe and first appointment in this position of Afro-Caribbean descent.

“The Royal Gazette is pleased and excited to finally have André in position to wield his influence over our sports product,” he said. “I have no doubt he will adapt very quickly as one who is in step with the pace of life in a community such as ours. I look forward to great things.”

Lowe concludes on exchanging one big island for a smaller one: “I would say that I was born into it, after all, I am a proud island boy myself. I do have a very strong appreciation for other cultures and experiences, having travelled the globe several times over both on a personal and professional basis.

“However, being from Jamaica, which in itself is a melting pot of cultural influences and exchange, has definitely prepared me for the lifestyle one would expect in Bermuda.”