A reduced version of Afrikaans Sunday paper Die Wêreld will be published on Sunday after all, but the future of the paper still looks shaky.
Editor Maryna Blomerus today confirmed that a smaller than usual print run will be distributed only in Gauteng, but could not say exactly how many copies would be printed. She was cagey about other details.
“We’ll be telling our own story in our own paper on Sunday and people are welcome to read it there,” she said.
She did, however, confirm that the money to print the edition had come from a new source. The source was not the Dagbreek Trust, with which negotiations failed.
Blomerus said staff at the paper would be paid today, staff members say they have been promised payment only on Tuesday.
“We are not entirely sure where the money has come from or what is going on, but we have been promised that there will be at least two more editions and that we will see our money too,” said one staffer.
Meanwhile the newsroom is apparently divided between those who want to see the paper continue and those who want to get out while the going is good; declaring the paper insolvent may see employees paid some of the money owed to them.
After confirming to eMedia on Wednesday that publication on Sunday “could still go either way,” Blomerus was quoted in the Mail & Guardian today as saying that “rumours of our demise are a bit far-fetched.”
It seems that not many potential funders have emerged, despite early hopes that Afrikaans speakers, and especially the rich amongst them, would rally behind the ailing paper.
Die Wêreld originally promised to steal a significant portion of the readership of sole competitor Rapport. Rapport is known to have been watching developments at Die Wêreld closely this week, with one staff member saying it had provided even more entertainment than had been hoped.