Vanuatu loses media pioneer

March 11, 2025 9:51 pm | Posted in Business News | Share now TwitterFacebook

Marc Neil-Jones came to Vanuatu with $8000 in his pocket, and modest dreams. Almost by accident, he became one of the most prominent journalists in the Pacific and co-founder of the Vanuatu Daily Post newspaper. 

Born in England on October 14, 1957, Marc Neil-Jones passed away last night, aged 67.  

He fought a life-long battle with type 1 diabetes, remaining active socially and professionally until the physical and mental stress forced him to slow down. He succumbed to post-operative complications on March 10, 2025.

In his retirement speech, Neil-Jones said: “I screwed up when I first arrived by putting girls in mini dresses wrapped around tamtams on a wall calendar and was fined by paramount chief Willie Bongmatur, but I was lucky and my little business started growing.” 

His ‘little business’ became a paragon of media freedom.  

Founded in 1993, by Mark Lowen, and subsequently acquired by Neil-Jones, the paper began as a buy-and-sell rag with a bit of gossip inside to spice up sales.  

Along with managing partner Gene Wong, he grew it into this nation’s newspaper of record, adding two monthly magazines, a stable of radio stations and a media management company. 

More than 7200 issues have gone to print.  

In the years before we had the internet in our hands and the advent of social media, the Daily Post was the main—sometimes the only—source of trusted information.  

A 2013 news survey found that each copy of the paper was read, on average, by seven different people. People in remote islands would walk to meet the plane just to see if someone had brought a copy of the paper. 

Even today, in a world rife with mis- and disinformation, the Daily Post remains one of only a few trusted sources of news in Vanuatu. 

Neil-Jones was proud of his legacy when he stepped out of the newsroom in 2015.  

“We have uncovered drugs, a lot of corruption and crime over the years, without fear, and I am proud of our journalists for following my instructions to take a neutral stand on politics. This is not easy in Vanuatu,” he said. 

He was fond of saying it was no accident that when they needed a reliable, trustworthy person to serve as PRO, Vanuatu’s Prime Ministers have repeatedly relied on Daily Post alumni to do the job. Jotham Napat is just the latest to do so. 

Photojournalist Ben Bohane posted to Twitter: “Reporting in the Pacific can sometimes be a body-contact sport and he had lumps to prove it.” 

Marc’s run-ins with people in power are the stuff of legend.  

Neil-Jones himself was quick to regale friends with stories of assaults, legal challenges and attempted deportation. He was quieter about a key factor to his paper’s success: He stood in front of his reporters, and ensured that if the blow would fall, it fell on him. 

This atmosphere in the newsroom of safety, of professionalism, and of devotion to the truth made it a coveted place to work. Career journalists who had been breaking stories since before independence were proud to call the Daily Post home. 

In 2011, after a particularly brutal assault by then-Minister Harry Iauko, Marc began slowly to step back from full-time involvement in the Daily Post. 

At the end 2015, he retired from his newsroom duties. He remained engaged with the management and staff and kept a firm hand on the paper’s strategic direction. 

The rest of his time was devoted to spending time with his wife Jenny and their children at the Secret Garden, an idyllic boutique resort near Mele village. 

Marc Neil Jones is survived by his loving wife Jenny and their children.