Mail & Guardian reporter
It is refreshing to meet a new young editor so certain of his target market. ?Why shouldn?t the black middle class have a platform through which they can articulate their aspirations?? says Vusi Mona, the 31- year-old editor designate of Tribute magazine.
The glossy black magazine has always been an upmarket read and Mona wants to keep it that way. Their potential audience is growing in size, but in-house turbulence at Penta Publications which owns the title, has seen circulation drop.
It?s now sells 15 000 copies a month, though Mona wants to oversee steady growth. ?I would like a 25000 circulation at the end of five years,? he says, adding that he will expand the target market by taking the fashionable Tribute Forum ? a monthly meeting of the bright and beautiful where current affairs is discussed and business cards exchanged ? to all the provinces. Currently the forum is confined to Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
Tribute is again without an editor after Jon Qwelane left to head Mafube publishers with Thami Mazwai. Last year editor S?bu Mngadi joined Coca-Cola as a regional representative while deputy editor Lizeka Mda also quit.
Mona is going to bring a strong hand to Tribute to restore certainty and direction.
It?s going to be an issue-driven magazine, rather than news-driven, he says. Under Mngadi?s hand, the magazine broke some fine investigations including a comprehensive look at the high life of former National Sorghum Breweries chied Mohale Mahanyele.
?Tribute?s going to be more relaxed,? says Mona, adding a quick rider, ?but I abhor fashionable opinions and dogmatic views.? He will begin negotiating for more staffers at the magazine and would like to see new columnists filling its pages while better coverage of Africa is definitely on the cards.
Mona currently edits The Teacher, a niche publication which reaches about 105 000 teachers every month.
Teaching was his original profession, though he has finetuned his journalism skills via a Press Fellowship programme at Cambridge University.