Government Senator Walton Brown is behind a new company planning to launch Bermuda's second daily newspaper.

The PLP politician, cousin of Premier Ewart Brown, registered Vista Mar Ltd. with the Registrar of Companies last November.

The firm, which started off with $10,000 worth of shares and had $2.5 million by April this year, is now advertising for a general manager to "run Bermuda's newest daily newspaper".

An advert for the post in The Royal Gazette last Friday said the successful candidate would need at least five years management experience and would be tasked with ensuring an honest and trusting relationship with the community.

Sen. Brown, Junior Minister for Education, Energy, Telecommunications and eCommerce, would not comment on the venture when contacted by this newspaper yesterday.

But the 47-year-old is no stranger to publishing.

He has launched several publications in the past, including the monthly Bermuda Business and Investment Review in 1997 and the Um Um Magazine earlier this decade.

He was also an editorial consultant for the now defunct weekly newspaper set up by Ewart Brown, the Bermuda Times, and is a former director of Island Press (Holdings) Ltd.

Sen. Brown has worked in other areas of the media: he presented a television show called Behind the Headlines, founded the public relations and advertising agency Evoke and is behind the Bermuda Network News (BNN) website, which has not been operating since May but is due to relaunch on September 1.

He is also president of market research firm Research Innovations Ltd., a former politics and history lecturer at Bermuda College and former chairman of the Committee for the Independence of Bermuda. Christen Pears, a former employee owed more than $10,000 from Sen. Brown in unpaid wages, told this newspaper yesterday she was still waiting for the money, despite a court ruling in her favour on June 13.

The former managing editor of BNN, now living in Australia, said: "I have not received any payment from Walton despite the court case. His behaviour continues to astound me.

"I am in the process of setting up a business here in Australia.

"I am finding it difficult to get started without the cash that is owed to me and I may end up having to borrow more than anticipated."

Ms Pears said she had written to the Magistrates' Court last month to seek advice on how to make Sen. Brown pay up but had not had a reply.

Asked to comment yesterday, Sen. Brown said: "I just think it's inappropriate to be discussing internal matters in the public domain."