ANTON HARBER, founding editor with Irwin Manoim of The Weekly Mail, and sole editor for the last two years of the Mail & Guardian, announced this week that after 12 years he was leaving the newspaper to take up the position of chief executive of the New Radio Consortium.
“I feel like a father whose child is about to leave home,” he confessed after surprising the M&G staff with his decision.
Sitting in his office on Monday, the wall behind him plastered with front pages conjuring up the battlefields of the past – “Detainees link SAP men to Renamo” … “We’re Back on the Streets” … “Exposed: Police Cash for Inkatha” – Harber struggled to explain his decision. “Editors have a shelf life,” he said wistfully. “I became editor at such a young age … I’ve had the nicest job in South Africa’s print media.”
It was in 1985, at the age of 26, that Harber, Manoim and a small group of friends and colleagues dug into their pockets and started a newspaper of their own. Harber and Manoim were co-editors for 10 years.
Harber became sole editor two years ago when The Guardian newspaper group in London purchased 72% of the publication. The Guardian preferred the newspaper to have one editor. Manoim moved over to become editor of the daily electronic version of the M&G.
Harber had always been the more vocal of the two, the one who spoke out in public debate and on television (most memorably on one programme when he called then-minister of law and order Adriaan Vlok a liar in front of millions of viewers).
New Radio Consortium owns Radio Oranje and East Coast Radio. The two radio stations combined have a daily average listenership of close to 340 000. They are estimated to be worth at least R60-million.
“It was an emotionally difficult decision, but a natural step forward for me. I have always seen myself as a bit of an entrepreneur. I believe that it is my greatest skill,” Harber said.
As chief executive of the consortium, Harber will not be involved in the day-to-day running of the radio stations, but instead in the “overall strategic operation and long-term view the stations will take”.
It is a move toward a more managerial style of operating but not one, he said, that will require a suit.
“I never believed that the success of my ventures ever depended on my having to wear a suit,” he said, looking down at faded black Levis 501, striped shirt and Doc Martens.
The New Radio Consortium has applied for a broadcast Medium Wave licence in Gauteng. The proposed radio station would focus on news and information, catering for a market of young black professionals, currently neglected by existing radio stations.
A 1980 graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand, Harber went straight into journalism. He did short stints on the Springs Advertiser, the Sunday Post and the Sowetan before joining the Rand Daily Mail.
When the Rand Daily Mail and Sunday Express were folded in 1985, Manoim and Harber initiated the idea of an independent newspaper. Manoim, assistant editor of the Sunday Express, had experience in both reporting and sub-editing. He played a key part in producing and setting up several alternative publications as well as designing mainstream newspapers. Harber, a political reporter at the Rand Daily Mail, had a vision and energy that made up for his lack of experience outside the Rand Daily Mail’s political department.
Manoim recalled how Harber burst into the Sunday Express offices, midway through the speech of then-editor Ken Owen informing staffers that the publication was to be closed. On a different floor, the staff of the Rand Daily Mail staff were also getting the bad news.
“Ranting and raving,” as Manoim put it, Harber declared that “something has to be done”. Manoim thought he would be the perfect partner for a new venture.
Harber and Manoim and friends and colleagues worked out the details. The Weekly Mail was launched on June 14 1985.
Harber went on to become one of the country’s most highly regarded editors. There are some in journalism who would argue that Harber has been lucky. “Being in the right place at the right time has been good to him,” one colleague said – adding that Harber has also, on occasion, been at the right place at the wrong time. The Weekly Mail’s daring landed Harber and the paper in court on many occasions.
Business Day deputy editor Alan Fine this week lauded both Manoim and Harber for putting together a publication which made a “big mark in the industry”.
Former Sunday Times editor Ken Owen, who was The Weekly Mail’s first subscriber, said that Manoim and Harber “succeeded in what can be termed as an extraordinary achievement”. Owen acknowledged that he did not regard Harber as a friend as much as a colleague, one he regarded as “intelligent” with “reserves of energy”.
“The combination of Irwin and Anton made a formidable team and they took the chance and achieved a lot. They were right and I was wrong,” he said.
Even as Harber takes his first steps into broadcasting, he said it will be difficult for him to separate entirely from the M&G. “I will have to fight to resist the temptation to peer over the shoulder of a new editor,” he said.
He will continue as an editorial director at the paper. “I will no longer have the joy of being directly involved in the newspaper. Instead, I will be able to be active in the overall strategy of the company,” he said.
But still he did not sound convinced. His desk was cluttered with faxes, letters of complaint, letters of praise, bits and pieces of paper calling out for attention. There are administrative details to attend to and the interview is interrupted by Harber’s secretary Maxine Rautenbach. Checking and double-checking appointments, he concedes that he is exhausted and still has so much work to do.
He seems frazzled. “I realise that the baby has now grown and it’s time to move on,” he said.
Who will fill his shoes as editor? Speculation has been rife and several names have been bandied about, including in-house staffers and outsiders.
Harber says it is unfair to divulge exactly who the contenders are; the process is confidential. But he expanded on the qualities he believes the editor should harbour: “I believe that the person should have a vision and should understand and appreciate where the newspaper has come from during the Eighties … the struggle it has endured – and translate that into a fresh vision.
“The new editor should have a great deal of courage as he or she will have to endure stresses and pressures from a variety of areas, including government. Also, he or she will face the tough challenge of good journalism in a complex and fluid society,” he says.
The next editor, says Harber, will come under pressure from government officials, as will all editors in the Nineties, to sacrifice critical independent reporting for a false sense that holding back such articles will be for the overall good of the country.
Harber is reluctant to put a time-frame on how long before the new editor takes up the reins but says he will be “phasing out over a period of months”.
His new offices will no longer be in Braamfontein, which ironically still manages to capture a bit of the vibrant and some say seedy CBD, holding somewhat on to The Weekly Mail of the past. Harber will be moving north to set up the New Radio Consortium’s HQ.
It is the end of an era – some say of solid teamwork and loyalty at the M&G, which sustained it for more than a decade.
Harber argues that this is not the end but the beginning … one which “is challenging and vibrant for journalists. It is very hard emotionally to leave but the paper will emerge stronger. It has a strong foundation,” he says, “because of the people and the ethos.”
Harber will also be stepping down as chair of the Conference of Editors (COE) and he will relinquish his role in trying to unite the COE and the Black Editors Forum under an umbrella body called the South African National Editors Forum.