Changes are afoot at media organisation MaltaToday with managing editor Saviour Balzan relinquishing his role to focus on finances and former TVM head of news Reno Bugeja starting a new online-only show Jistqasi.

All editorial matters for MaltaToday will be handled by executive editor Matthew Vella.

Bugeja used to host a popular interview programme Dissett on the national broadcaster. The show was cancelled after he was replaced as head of news by Norma Saliba last July. Prime Minister Robert Abela had promised reform at PBS, the company that owns TVM. The changes  had also led to the axing of the broadcaster’s most popular show Xarabank.

The changes at MaltaToday were announced in yesterday’s newspaper, but Balzan had also elaborated on the move in an opinion column earlier this month.

“Today, I am taking a step back. It is not a question of age. I am not dumping Mediatoday of course. But I will be doing solely what I have been doing for a long time, that is raising the finance to keep this project going,” he wrote.

“I will retain my role as a managing director and also my column and TV programme, but I will be working on new projects and sustaining the operation, as well as work on my forthcoming memoirs.”

“I am not proud of everything I have done. I have made many mistakes of which I have also admitted and written about. But I am full of pride that I gave birth to MaltaToday, and that I did bring about change. Mediatoday has been a media company that has stood for something good, for news and debate. And all this in a year that has been one enormous challenge,” he concluded.

What do you think of the changes?