The Mail & Guardian is poised for nothing less than an imperfect and challenging future as it looks to become commercially viable and increase its presence and influence in the region. This emerged at a panel discussion addressed by the newspaper’s new owner, Trevor Ncube, its founding editor Anton Harber and Saki Macozoma, the chairperson of New Africa Investments Limited (Nail).
Ncube reiterated his commitment to making the paper a platform for diverse views that are free from political and commercial interference. He also outlined an intention to entrench the M&G‘s regional presence by exploiting synergies first with his Zimbabwean titles The Standard and Zimbabwean Independent and then with a range of independent Southern African titles in Namibia, Botswana and Malawi.
While congratulating Ncube, Harber noted that running the newspaper will require ”tough business skill, astute political judgement and selfless dedication”.
While he expects the paper to maintain journalism of the highest quality and credibility, he warned of the lack of a regional advertising market, how the structure of production costs makes increasing circulation lead to higher losses and how trying to cut litigation costs creates the risk of compromising compelling and thoroughly researched stories.
Macozoma spoke for the first time on why Nail did not formally bid for the title. He cited the fact that when the paper was put on sale, Nail was bidding for Kagiso Media and was unsure of what the implications for cross ownership would be.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa subsequently turned down the bid. He acknowledged that his status as an African National Congress national executive committee member would have raised concerns about interference but also that Nail did ”not have the [capacity] to inherit the title” especially since its flagship mass-circulation daily, the Sowetan, did not have an editor.
He dismissed the recent wave of reservations about foreign ownership of the paper because ”I might also want to acquire a newspaper in Zimbabwe or even Kenya”.