Pahad lanches new daily newspaper

Former Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad on Thursday launched a new national daily newspaper, the New Age, in Johannesburg.

The newspaper would be critical but constructive, Pahad told journalists in Sandton.

“The newspaper will gather reports and news from the nine provinces of the country which most newspapers don’t do,” he said.

Pahad said the newspaper would ensure that it covered the good stories coming out of provinces that had been painted by other media as having no stability and lacking in service delivery.

These provinces included the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, and the North West.

The newspaper would be a 32-page broadsheet, and would seek to tell the story of South Africa from a “half-full glass” angle rather than “half-empty”—as other newspapers currently do, said editor Vuyo Mvoko.

“The New Age would differentiate itself by presenting the widest range of information in a bold, accurate and balanced manner,” Mvoko said at the launch.

The newspaper is to be published by Bennett Colemen, which publishes the Times of India.

It would be funded by the Gupta Group, which has close links to the African National Congress.

The newspaper will have an initial daily print of 170 000 copies.

TNA executive chairperson Atul Gupta said the newspaper would be an “international broadsheet”, which is slightly narrower than local broadsheet newspapers.

“It’s important to emphasise the product’s positioning of an honest and balanced approach to news gathering, reporting and dissemination,” said Gupta.

“There is certainly a gap in the South African market place for a new, fresh, innovative and critically constructive national daily newspaper. We are optimistic the New Age will have a positive impact on the South African market.

It will be sold for R3,50, starting from mid-September this year.