The company that prints the Saturday Star is staying mum on why thousands of copies of the newspaper were not delivered to subscribers two weeks ago.
A problem at the Newspaper Printing Company’s printing presses in Johannesburg prevented the distribution of the October 29 issue of the newspaper.
A member of the circulation department’s staff at Independent Newspapers, who asked not to be named, said the Saturday Star‘s circulation dropped substantially on the day. The problem, he said, was in the production department and that the newspapers simply had not come out of the press room.
”There was a substantial drop in circulation. By about 30 percent,” he said. ‘We can only deliver the newspaper if it comes out of the press room.”
Those who did not have their papers delivered were given an extension to their subscription.
”Our readers understood. We had already printed an apology on Friday saying there was a possibility that many people would not get their papers,” he said.
No one at the Saturday Star was available to answer questions on whether advertisers, who would have lost out, would be compensated.
The Saturday Star is popular for its property section, which is widely used by estate agents.
Bernard Briggs, the managing director of the Newspaper Printing Company, said the reason for failure to print the newspapers was ‘private”.
”This is a private concern. I am refusing to comment. All I will say is that the problem was resolved in 36 hours,” he said.
In an apology printed in the Saturday Star on October 29, Briggs said that the problem was caused by a wage strike by 300 workers at Capacity Contracting, the outsourced company responsible for delivering the newspaper.
The managing editor of the Saturday Star, Brendan Seery, was not available for comment.
The Star‘s editor, Moegsien Williams, did not reply to a message left with his assistant. Capacity Contracting was not available for comment despite repeated attempts to get hold of the company.
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