Lynda Gilfillan A new, slimmed-down tabloid rose from the dusty streets of a Karoo dorp and the ashes of the fallen media empire last week when the offices of the Advertiser en Karoonuus- News opened in Graaff-Reinet. Thirteen rural newspapers, which had been under the dynastic control of the Knott- Craig family for 40 years, have been bought for R300E000 by a consortium comprising Group Editors, a George-based publisher and printer, Grocott & Sherry, a Grahamstown publisher and bookshop, and Eastcape News, a news agency. The new owners have combined the resources of the 13 titles to make their new tabloid. The musty, dark printing house of the previous dispensation with its septuagenarian editor, Arthur Knott-Craig, has been replaced by brightness and youth. With a killer smile and a confident, country manner, Cecile Greyling (28) tells how she found herself catapulted from journalist to editor in a matter of weeks. She’s as fresh as the Karoo air, as bright as the light that is unique to the area. Her office is part of a large, open-plan space that is painted a fashionable blue and yellow. There is an energy and a lurking quirkiness that is exemplified in the zebra-striped pole in the centre of the room. ”Ah, that’s just for fun,” she smiles. Currently, the paper is 16 pages, though Greyling hopes that it will double in future. There is also the bugbear of finding advertisers, who are awaiting circulation figures. The paper has combined the news of 13 papers, with towns such as Nieu-Bethesda and Noupoort, Cradock and Colesberg being allocated pages. New angles and slants on community news are Greyling’s goals. ”We’ve tightened our team, and shifted our focus – and we’re still testing the waters with our new format. We’re moving away from the heavier, more sombre approach of the old stable to a lighter tone. We’ve also employed stringers from the townships who have given the paper a new angle.” Amos Stenge, a stringer in Graaff-Reinet township Umasizakhe, focuses not only on rape, murder and taxi strife, but also on local politics. Former local chair of the New National Party Alfred Pannies is reported to have defected to the African National Congress because ”these disgraced oppressors want to use black and coloured people to achieve their goals. To them we are still the boys who have to serve their white masters.” Regular reports in the newspaper validate the national statistics on rape – last week’s edition carries no fewer than four rape reports; in Graaff-Reinet, Aberdeen and Grahamstown. Stenge describes his role in the newspaper as being ”the voice of the voiceless” in a community where black people are still ”afraid” to speak in a white-dominated environment. ”Township people still see themselves as outcasts. [Nelson] Mandela hasn’t brought much hope to them,” he says. ”But this new newspaper is more open than the old one, it is more democratic – I will make black people talk, I will help them to be heard.” Stringers keep their ears to the ground, and this week the story of John Varty’s purchase of 13 000ha at a cost of R600 a hectare on the Orange River made headline news. It was reported that Varty plans to breed the threatened Bengal tiger – whose usual habitat is the jungles of India.
The newspaper still carries those unique gossipy items that characterise community newspapers, such as the story from Murraysburg, ”Ouma Maria word 100” (”Granny Maria turns 100” – both English and Afrikaans are used throughout), and the news that Frikkie van der Vyver has returned to Willowmore after a two-week seaside holiday. Mike Loewe of Eastcape News hopes to broaden the newspaper’s readership without sacrificing the current readership – and one of the ways this is being done is by rebuilding the stringer network. He is optimistic about the Advertiser’s prospects.
”Look around you – it is run by efficient, energetic women – our goals are to extend the content of the paper, and to find new areas of interest.” Loewe is passionate about the platteland and its – often eccentric – people. Change is pain, however, particularly in the platteland, and the paucity of readers’ letters in recent editions may reflect the withdrawal of suspicious readers who don’t quite know what to make of this bright, perky and provocative new paper.