Sunday Times editor Mathatha Tsedu, dismissed on Saturday by publishers Johnnic Communications, said he was caught in a bind between serving the majority of the paper’s readers who are black and producing a paper white advertisers saw as ”upwardly”.
Tsedu, speaking to the Mail & Guardian Online on Saturday evening, when asked about his future plans, replied, laughing, that he planned on looking for the nearest UIF (Unemployment Insurance Fund) office.
Tsedu, who according to Johnnic was dismissed on account of irreconcilable differences regarding the fulfillment of his mandate, said his efforts to make the Sunday Times more Africa focused were seen by some advertisers as a ”dumbing down” of the paper.
”As we became more Africa focused, and drew to the opinion pages respected African scholars such as Dr Ali Mazrui, we were accused of dumbing down. If a publication like the Sunday Times is to truly transform, you’re going to need transformation in the ad industry.
”The key point here is that whether the majority of readers of Sunday Times, who are black, are happy about the content, the fact that some white advertising executive is unhappy means the focus of the paper has to change,” Tsedu said.
He also defended himself against accusations he said were levelled against him by Johnnic that he had failed to grow the circulation and the readership in the six to ten living standard measure (LSM), and that he had failed to hold on to senior staff.
”I started as editor of Sunday Times in September last year and the two ABC results that have come out for June to December 2002 and January to June 2003 have both shown a holding of the circulation position in a time when many other Sunday publications have actually been dropping,” Tsedu said.
But the backdrop for the action against him, Tsedu believes, was a memo from some staff members complaining that he had not provided leadership.
He did not respond to the accusation directly but said his vision of making the Sunday Times an African paper was not well received by some white staff who objected to his closure of the paper’s New York offices to make way for the opening of bureaus in Nigeria and Kenya.
”Obviously from the internal dimension, people were uncomfortable,” Tsedu said about his former staff members.
Tsedu said: ”I served the Sunday Times to the best of my ability, and have grown black readership of both Business Times and Lifestyle…. I leave Sunday Times satisfied that I could not have produced the paper that would be seen as upwardly by white advertising executives, while still trying to pretend that we were serving the majority of our readers who are black.”
Making the announcement, Johnnic Communications Chief Executive Officer, Connie Molusi said: ”This follows irreconcilable differences between the company and Tsedu regarding his performance and the fulfillment of his written mandate.”
Speaking to the Mail & Guardian Online on Saturday evening, Molusi denied that Tsedu had been fired because of a slump in profits.
”It’s basically that in the upper segment of the market we’ve lost some readers. So we clearly had a difference about the content mix. We dialogued over the issue, but we couldn’t agree. So we had to part ways,” said Molusi.
Public attention first focused on Tsedu’s leadership after the sacking of the paper’s star political reporter Ranjeni Munusamy. Tsedu dismissed Munusamy after she leaked a story to the City Press that he had refused to publish, about allegations that National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka was an apartheid spy.
A senior Sunday Times journalist told the Mail & Guardian Online on Saturday that there was opposition to Tsedu from the paper’s staff which ”could be mostly racial”.
”I don’t know why he was fired, but there were complaints about him (Tsedu), from the old guard — people that were there before he got there. In terms of the opposition to him it was from a group of staff members that were mostly white. These were the people that were complaining about him. I don’t know if their motive was racial, but they were mostly white.”
”I think that if he wasn’t black he would have been given more of a chance. If he was a white guy he would have been given more time in the job … but it is hard to say because Johnnic is a black-owned company.”
Asked about whether the ”old guard” may have had it in for Tsedu, Molusi said he would ”like to find out more about that issue”.
”He had the right to approach management if there were any problems with his staff … he never said anything about his support levels.”
In the statement, Molusi said: ”For several months management has been concerned that Mr Tsedu has not been editing the paper in a manner consistent with his contract of employment and the written mission statement of the Sunday Times.”
Said the senior Sunday Times journalist: ” I don’t think he was worse than the previous guy. I don’t think it became a worse paper under him. I can’t see any material difference in the paper [that he edited] to that under the previous editor.”
Tsedu, a journalist with more than 25 years’ experience, had been deputy-editor at The Star, before a stint at the South African Broadcasting Corporation as acting head of news. Tsedu replaced Mike Robertson in late 2002. Robertson is now the publisher of the Sunday Times. Tsedu’s career included 20 years at the Sowetan where he rose to the position of political editor. During his tenure at the Sowetan he was banned for six years.
Molusi referred to Tsedu as ”one of South Africa’s most respected and accomplished journalists” when he was first appointed to the editor position.
The paper’s mission statement describes the Sunday Times as: ”An independent quality newspaper that sustains our democracy, is trusted by its readers and advertisers, is targeted at those people in living standards measures (LSM) categories 6-10 in South Africa and Southern Africa and is profitable.”
Johnnic has named the paper’s managing editor Ray Hartley as acting editor, until a successor to Tsedu is found. – Sapa