In commemoration of International Women’s Day, Barbados TODAY highlighted women working in various fields – from health to telecoms, from development to politics – as they share their sources of success and triumph over challenges they have encountered. Below is an interview with Hermina Elcock, Journalist and Businesswoman, about her journey.
My father taught me that knowledge and education are the keys to liberation. Media allows me to do more than just make money—I can help improve society. I’m not just Barbadian or Lucian; I am a Caribbean citizen. Our region is like the U.S., with different states, but our leaders haven’t realized it yet. I move as a Caribbean citizen, and no one can tell me otherwise.
It’s mid-afternoon in Saint Lucia. Hermina Elcock, GM of Barbados TODAY and St. Lucia Times, is between meetings, squeezing in this conversation from a café. The hum of conversation blends with the sounds of traffic outside, the weight of a growing media empire pressing against the edges of her time. She scans a message before shifting her focus back to me.
She’s balancing expansion, leadership, and a tight schedule, but she’s here—present, intentional, as if this conversation matters as much as anything else on her to-do list.
“You know, I could have stayed in the U.S.,” she says, as if letting me in on a secret. “But how was I going to make a mark? I can’t contribute here the way I want to. What I want to do—it’s not going to land. But I have an opportunity to make an impact in the Caribbean.” She leans back. “I didn’t think of just impacting Saint Lucia or Barbados,” she continues, shaking her head. “I thought about the region. I can do that with media. I can do that with Barbados TODAY. Because outside of just being a media person, it’s about sharing information—giving people what they need to be empowered. Especially black people.”
That drive to inform, to educate, runs deep. Elcock grew up in a household where her father constantly said that to empower black people, you need information, knowledge, and education. Born in Micoud but raised in Castries, Hermina’s life has always been in motion. At 18, she moved—not to leave home, but to be where decisions were made.
“When I first started doing magazines, I’d go out for advertising, and people would say, ‘Oh, the head office is in Barbados.’ So I had to wait. My thought was, well—let me just go to where the money is. Let me go to the decision-makers directly.”
That meant constant travel—Saint Lucia, Barbados, Trinidad, back to Saint Lucia. She’d sell, collect content, fly to Trinidad for printing, ship it back, then return to distribute. Her father, while proud of her drive, struggled with the distance.
“He was happy about what I was doing,” she says, a knowing smile crossing her face. “But he wasn’t happy about losing me. He saw all of us—his three girls—as his baby girls.”
The Editorial Journey
Even as a child, her obsession with media was clear. “My mom will tell you,” she laughs. “She used to read to me when she was pregnant. And she said that’s when I’d wake up, kicking, moving. That was my response to the reading.” Then she pauses, lowers her voice, and leans in. “You cannot put this in,” she says, half-laughing. “But at Primary School I used to…acquire books from the bookstore.” A beat. Then she lets out a laugh. “I know, I know. I’ve learned the error of my ways! But I just loved books. I couldn’t buy them, so I helped myself.”
Magazines were another obsession. “My oldest sister loved Cosmopolitan and all those magazines. So I would take her copies. By 14, I knew I wanted to do two things that summer—learn to ride a motorbike and publish a magazine.”
One left her with a burn mark from the muffler. The other changed the course of her life.
She pauses as the barista drops off a coffee, thanks them, then leans back into the conversation. When I ask how she’s built teams and convinced stakeholders to buy into her ideas, she shakes her head with a half-laugh. “I don’t even know, Amanda. I think, on one end, I’m probably just a natural seller. And I think that came from—no, that had to have been natural.” Then she pivots. “Actually, maybe it came from growing up as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. I sold magazines as a kid, and I always met my quota.”
Leadership, though, is something she’s had to work at. When she stepped into Barbados TODAY in 2019, it was after more than a decade working in regional newsrooms, indie publishing, and advertising agencies. Her initial entrepreneurial pitch to PVH Group owner, Peter Harris, resulted in earning her a sales and commercial content manager role, where she combined her journalism background, sales acumen, and respect for creative professionals to diversify the business model and accelerate revenue growth.
Her appointment as General Manager seemed destined—if not entirely linear. She spearheaded the acquisition of the homegrown St. Lucia Times, integrating it into Caribbean Today Media.
#AcceleratingAction in Caribbean Media
“In this industry, survival means evolution,” she says. “Look at Buzzfeed and Vice—these massive media brands, merging just to survive in a changing landscape. We can’t afford to sit still.”
With traditional ad revenues shifting and digital consumption redefining media business models, consolidation isn’t just practical—it’s strategic. “The Caribbean Media ecosystem needs to be stronger, more integrated. We need to create something that lasts.”
But managing that growth is a different challenge. “I had all these ideas. I immediately saw where we needed to tighten, where things weren’t working. But I took for granted that I couldn’t do it alone. I could do it alone in publishing. But an entire corporation? No. And I had to learn that—sometimes the hard way.”
Now, she’s all in on leadership—not just as a function, but as an art. “It’s not my job to do the thing. As a leader, my job is to help my team become great at what they do. So we can all do the job independently. If I were to drop down tomorrow, or move on, this company should still thrive.”
For someone who works in media, visibility isn’t something she craves. “I don’t like these things,” she admits, stirring her coffee. “They make me uncomfortable. Vulnerable.”
But criticism? That’s fuel. “I respond positively to constructive criticism. I don’t want to hear, ‘Oh, Hermina, this looks great.’ I know it looks great. I need to know where it could improve, what I could have done better. That’s what pushes me.” She’s learned that success isn’t just about execution—it’s about people. “And if I focus on that, the success of the company will come as a result.”
When the conversation shifts to regional identity, she doesn’t hesitate. “I’m Saint Lucian, Amanda, but I don’t just see myself as that. I see myself as a Caribbean citizen. That’s how I move. That’s how I think.”
She leans forward, her tone sharper. “It’s like the U.S. with its different states. Each of us is a state in the Caribbean. But the problem is, the governments, the heads—they don’t seem to get it yet. But that’s who we are. That’s why we are.” She checks her watch—another meeting soon, another call to take.
She finishes the last sip of coffee, straightens in her chair, but doesn’t rush to leave. For Hermina Elcock, media isn’t just a career. It’s the vessel through which she builds something bigger. A legacy that will outlast her.
A region more connected than ever before.
This article appeared in the March 8 International Women’s Day Magazine by Barbados Today. View the magazine here.
The post Hermina Elcock: Transforming Media and Business Leadership in Barbados appeared first on Barbados Today.
