At the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), he could call on 30 immediate staff, plus scores of reporters spread across nine regions — not to mention bureaus and stringers located around the world. Now he has just eight staff — and that’s including a sub-editor and two layout artists.
Quite a downsizing for Stephen Lang, the former executive producer and radio columnist at SAfm who relocated this month to become editor of Grocott’s Mail in Grahamstown. (Disclosure: I am chair of the board of the paper).
His new place of work has a single vehicle and that’s mainly to deliver newspapers. Unlike at the SABC, Lang’s reporters at Grocott’s have to use their own cars, take minibus taxis and even occasionally use their thumbs to hitchhike.
On the other hand, notes the paper’s new chief, ”to go from the SABC to Sandton and back would take two hours, whereas here you can go to the other side of the city and be back in 10 minutes”. It’s much easier to be more productive in a small town, Lang is discovering.
The new job is a new challenge for a man who has lived in Brazil for five years, New York for two and Johannesburg — working at the SABC — for more than 20.
”Here, I’m far more exposed to the audience than I ever was at SAfm,” says Lang. ”People come in off the street almost every day with a story idea or to tell me I’m doing something wrong.”
He quips: ”At least in Auckland Park, I knew that the president was in Pretoria.”
The new editor of this small-town paper tells how, when the meeting the mayor recently, he looked out the window and realised that the Grocott’s offices constitute the view from the municipal boardroom.
”If I write something about a local estate agent, chances are I’ll run into the person in the next week or so. It keeps you on your toes.”
It is also different for Lang as news manager to be able to get out of the newsroom and go on a story. ”Last week, I went to a fire in Joza, and the people there knew who I was, so I was accountable.” Being close to the news action also makes it easier for him to assess the job his reporters are doing.
Another difference for him is shifting focus from national to local stories. ”Take the current issue of garbage around the town; I see it myself — it’s not something far away.”
At the same time, national issues do resonate locally. ”The power cuts affect production of our newspaper,” says Lang, elaborating that the problem has hit his deadlines schedules. ”Outages are even affecting the local prison because their fridges are unable to preserve food for the inmates.”
It’s not all local; some stories have wider resonance. For example, national comedian Loyiso Gola turned up in Grahamstown this month for his circumcision. A current story about a farm eviction, says the new editor, is a microcosm of a bigger issue all around the country.
So, can a white male really do the job of heading up a mass medium in contemporary South Africa, even if in a small town?
”I don’t think my skin colour was ever an issue at the SABC,” says Lang. He acknowledges, though, that it is easier for him to source news in the mainly white section of Grahamstown, and pledges to make a concerted effort to ensure that the paper represents the entire community.
It’s a difficult challenge in a still-divided town to ensure that every resident feels the paper sufficiently covers their interests and sub-neighbourhoods.
With this in mind, Lang says that he specifically chose a photograph for the cover of his first edition that showed a mixed group of children going back to school — in order to avoid putting only white or only black subjects on the front page.
Another challenge for Lang is making the shift to print. He argues that good radio creates images in the mind, and he sees his job now as translating those images into words and photos.
Known to many SAfm listeners for his radio column called Cybersurf, Lang now confronts the practical challenge of convergence between the Grocott’s paper and its website. ”There’s a big difference between the audiences of the two,” he says, pointing out that many people in Grahamstown do not have online access.
”But the influence of the internet will become greater and greater,” he adds, suggesting thereby that the newspaper, dating back to 1870, is likely to play a role in helping Grahamstown get to grips with the wired world.
It’s a different world from the SABC and Johannesburg, but it’s also one shared by many more South Africans than big city dwellers often give credit to. I don’t think Lang will miss his metropolitan life.
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