The Dally Mail will be an Independent morning newspaper for the Transvaal, designed to reflect the excitement of a changing South Africa – the issues, the politics, the lifestyle and the concerns of the 1990s. The announcement is the culmination of months of behind-the-scenes research, in-depth financial investigation, the raising of a substantial amount of capital and editorial planning.
A bold new voice for a bold new era
Johannesburg will wake up to a new morning newspaper on Wednesday, June 20. The Daily Mail, an independent daily newspaper, will be launched on that day by the publishers of The Weekly Mail. The Daily Mail will aim to reflect the excitement of the 1990s, the hope that South Africa will become a better, more open and more equitable society, as well as the fears that this process could be derailed.
The new paper will be distributed throughout the Transvaal and some neighbouring territories. It will also be available at limited outlets in Cape Town and Durban. Subscribers throughout most of the PWV will receive hand delivered copies before dawn. The price will be R1. From Monday to Thursday it will be The Daily Mail, an elegant broadsheet newspaper (the page size of The Star and Business Day). On Friday, there will be The Weekly Mail, published nationally, redesigned to fit the look of the daily, but containing all the indepth weekend reading currently available in the weekly.
Both The Daily Mail and The Weekly Mail will be put together by a team of some of the country’s best journalists. Included are those journalists, retrenched from the Rand Daily Mail and the Sunday Express five years ago, who founded The Weekly Mail and have continued, despite financial and political pressure, to bring South Africans news and analysis they can find nowhere else. With the country in flux and the political climate changing daily, events seem to be corning full circle. Two years ago, several newspapers – among them The Weekly Mail – were suspended briefly for suggesting that the African National Congress consisted of rational human beings with whom the government could and should negotiate.
Today the government that closed those newspapers is talking to the ANC. We believe that now is the time to publish a general-interest daily in tune with our rapidly changing Major figures in the newspaper world have come to share our vision and have joined The Daily Mail. Businessmen, professionals and a range of investors have put their money into the venture. The Daily Mail will be like no paper this country bas seen be¬ fore. Not only will it have the look and feel of the 1990s, but it will be the only Johannesburg daily paper controlled by its staff and outside of monopoly control – the city’s only truly independent newspaper. It will strive for independent, critical coverage of the full spectrum of political and social activities in a way that is fair and balanced.
The paper will stand for the protection of human rights and the environment; the need to act swiftly to improve education, housing, health and other social services; the recognition of every South African as an equal citizen with full rights and freedom; freedom of speech, dissent and debate; and good relations with our neighbours. The new newspaper will carry far more ”general interest” news than the current Weekly Mail not ”black” news or ”white” news but the information all thinking South Africans want and need. It will be a serious newspaper for serious readers but also lively and entertaining, a paper that stimulates as well as educates, that is informative and honest, accessi¬ble and interesting.
Nearly a year of research, investigation and planning lie behind this announcement. The publishers have done extensive work on Financial models, have consulted marketing and advertising experts and have drawn in new staff. The new paper will be designed to be the kind of daily morning newspaper that we believe Weekly Mail readers have long wanted.
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
