JIS Media Buyer Honoured For 34 Years Of Dedicated Service

With 34 years of dedicated service, Veta McPherson is a valued member of the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) team.

With calm confidence, strong communication, negotiation and organisational skills, she goes about her job as a Media Buyer, placing advertisements for the ministries, departments and agencies (MDA) of government on television, radio, billboards, and in digital and print media.

It is a delicate dance, balancing competing priorities like tight budgets against high performance expectations. It involves a delicate interplay of creative thinking and analytical skills to find the right media placements that align with client goals, while optimising spend.

But it is a job she enjoys.

“I like what I do. You have different aspects of the job. You have the clients, they push you to do different things and you have to push yourself. It is a good experience working at the JIS…you get to know different aspects of media – radio, print and TV,” Ms. McPherson points out.

A critical aspect of the job is building solid client relationships, a skill she has mastered over the years.

“You have the clients and the suppliers. You have to ensure that you meet your deadlines so that the clients can be happy and they come back because of your service,” she notes.

On National Heroes Day, Monday (Oct. 20), Ms. McPherson will be presented with the Badge of Honour for Long and Faithful Service at the 2025 National Honours and Awards ceremony slated for King’s House.

The award is a testament to her hard work and commitment to public service.

Ms. McPherson tells JIS News that she is delighted to be recognised with a national award.

Her career at the JIS began in 1991 as a clerk in the JIS Regional Department. She served as a Typesetter in the then Publications and Advertising Department, before becoming a Media Buyer in the Public Relations and Marketing Department during the agency’s transition to an executive agency in 2001.

Explaining the secret to her long career at the JIS, Ms. McPherson notes that “when you come into an organisation, you look, you adapt, put your own spin on it, but you have to see how the entity really operates – the functions of the organisation”.

“If you are here to do a particular job, try to do it to the best of your ability, always putting the entity first, because it is brand JIS. In all aspects you have to do your best, because it is not an individual thing, it is an organisation,” she says.

Noting that the demands of the job require her to work long hours, she thanks her team members and her family for their unwavering support.

Ms. McPherson has received several awards from the agency throughout her career.

These include Employee of the Quarter for October to December 2022; the Long Service Award in 2017 for 26 years of service, and again in 2023 for over 30 years of service.