Barry Streek
New Africa Investment Limited (Nail), the black empowerment company, has bought Leadership magazine for an undisclosed amount.
The editor and publisher of Leadership, Hugh Murray, says he has “done a deal” and sold the magazine to Nail’s New African Publications (NAP).
It will now be owned by NAP Magazines Limited, whose chair will be Zwelakhe Sisulu. Nail is the majority shareholder of the new company.
“This is the first of their acquisitions as I understand it,” Murray says. Both he and Leadership’s executive editor, Paul Bell, are to become directors of NAP Magazines, which is in the process of being established.
Leadership was owned only by Churchill- Murray Publications, but Murray says it is totally inappropriate for the magazine’s needs to be owned by a sole proprietor.
“We need critical mass. We need a bit of capital, although not a lot, but I need to be able to offer some security to people,” Murray says.
“Small companies find it difficult to give people proper pensions, medical aid and security of tenure.”
He said Nail has an excellent staff policy and benefits which would be very good for Leadership.
“It is a sad thing but it has become very, very difficult to be independent. The cost of money is too high. You need to inject capital without having to borrow.”
Murray says Leadership will continue to be based in Cape Town, but it will obviously increase its presence in Johannesburg.
It will now appear monthly and he hopes to increase circulation to 20 000, although he will be happy with 15 000: “The markets are not huge for our kind of publication.”
Nail has emphasised that it is business as usual at Leadership and that professional standards will be maintained.
Says Murray: “I am confident they mean this. I don’t think he [Sisulu] as a media personality is a media ideologue. I think he is the right guy to move a progressive media group into the future. I can’t see anyone better than him in South Africa.”
Murray says he approached Nail because he believed it was the right place to be: “I was very impressed with the way he moved. We noted down our heads of agreement very, very fast. I was hugely impressed.”