Jacquie Golding-Duffy
IN a first interview since he changed publications, Nigel Bruce spoke frankly about his new role.
What do you plan to do with Finance Week?
I plan to make it a rip-roaring success in the business arena. We plan to cater for those readers with disposable income at the top end of the market. Our coverage of stories will be more controversial, while at the same time, an entertaining read. We also plan to increase our editorial staff but have not as yet approached any of the Financial Mail’s (FM) staff.
How much will it cost and how long will it take to overtake the FM on circulation/advertising?
I don’t think it will be necessary to overtake the FM in order to make our mark. Yes, our circulation and advertising will be increased in due course but I don’t think it is necessary to compete outright with the FM which is aiming, according to Business Day, at reaching a younger and larger black market. Capital is not an issue as the newspaper is well-financed.
What was your biggest failure at the FM?
Not being able to manage shareholders sufficiently to allow them to understand their political susceptibilities which led to their sale of Times Media Limited (TML). I also feel I failed by not seeing TML’s business titles become international but I had no support from the managerial staff. I was unable to forge relations abroad as well as edit a publication.
Had TML stayed in white hands would that have affected your decision to stay?
It is not an issue of colour. Secure ownership in accord with the editorial traditions of a newspaper is important. My concern at the time was the editorial independence of TML publications.
After the appointment of Cyril [Ramaphosa], when they made threatening remarks, they did not at any time discuss whatever reservations they may have had with the editors concerned. Had TML remained a secure company, I would have reconsidered.
Who should succeed you at FM and why?
I don’t know whom they have in mind but I know that the Financial Times favours Peter Bruce [editor of Business Report] as a likely candidate.
What are you able to do at Finance Week that you were unable to do at the FM?
I am now able to create incentives for colleagues. At the FM I looked after my editorial colleagues in ways about which the managing director knew very little. I was able to use an ambitious and profitable surveys programme, paying my colleagues an additional fee for doing this freelance work.
What are your thoughts on the newly formed South African National Editors’ Forum?
It’s a bad thing when editors of newspapers want to regulate the industry. It seems they are eager to form some sort of guild. Newspapers have to cater for the demands of the market.
You cannot trade off white editors’ concerns about press freedom against unqualified commitments to implement affirmative action when it might not be appropriate in the market concerned.