/ 2 November 2010

It’s a New Age of dog-eat-dog media

It's A New Age Of Dog Eat Dog Media

Few publications can have received a reception as hostile as that which greeted The New Agenewspaper, which was rocked by the resignation of senior editorial staffers just as it was about to hit the streets.

The sin of The New Age was not rivalry. It was the fear of the editors, managing directors and circulation managers of other papers that The New Age — self-confessedly aligned with the governing party and owned by the Guptas, who are close to ­President Jacob Zuma — would take government advertising away from existing publications.

Shortly after the idea of a newspaper aligned to the governing party was mooted, editors who had been complacent and content with the status quo woke up from their slumber and smelled the coffee. They began to take us, the readers, seriously.

Instead of welcoming the new kid on the block like a family welcoming the birth of a new baby, competitors vilified the publication.

Rivals sarcastically referred to it as the “JZ Times”, “The Gupta Chronicle” and “The Good News Times” and so forth.

Latest casualty
I have witnessed the birth and demise of a few newspapers, the latest casualty being The Weekender.

The media industry mourned when it closed shop.

Even its direct rivals did not have as wild a celebration as they did with the announcement of casualties at The New Age.

The Weekender, This Day (sarcastically referred to as “That Day” when it folded) and the long-forgotten Nova are newspapers that were born, died and buried in post-1994 South Africa.

Perhaps with these in mind, rivals to The New Age began writing its obituary long before it was even launched. They got stomach cramps from the possible dwindling of advertising revenue, sales, ­circulation and ­readership.

Resignations
The resignations of Vuyo Mvoko, the editor-in-chief of The New Age, his deputy Karima Brown and other senior editorial staffers happened during the commemoration of Media Freedom Day.

Imagine the laughter, joy and celebration in newsrooms when they got the news. Comments such as: “We told you so” dominated newsrooms.

When the newspaper was first published, only two newspapers (Citizen and City Press) gave it coverage, but the exodus of top staff was covered by all its competitors.

What I like about media competition is that it makes rivals take readers seriously. Also, it creates jobs in the industry, which otherwise pays a pittance, depending on whether you are someone’s favourite or of a different hue.

The celebration of the demise of a new publication is a clear indication that the media is a dog-eat-dog environment. As a society, we celebrate birth and mourn death. The opposite is true in the media world.

I am waiting with bated breath for the day The New Age hits the streets. It will surely be one of the newspapers I buy. We need diversity.

Themba Sepotokele is a former journalist and now a Gauteng-based government communicator and a media trainer attached to the Sol Plaatje Institute for Media Leadership at Rhodes University. These are his personal views