Haffajee eyes new challenges
2009-03-30 14:45
Johannesburg - Award-winning editor Ferial Haffajee says she will miss her team at the Mail and Guardian (M&G) but is looking forward to a new challenge at City Press.
Media24 on Monday announced its appointment of Haffajee as the editor-in-chief of City Press and the promotion of former editor Khathu Mamaila as general manager.
"I think that the paper is well-poised for growth and I'm well-poised for new challenges," she told News24 on Monday, shortly after the appointments were announced.
"It is a pleasure to welcome Ferial on board and we congratulate Khathu on his promotion. Through City Press, Media24 has produced a newspaper of the highest quality, integrity and passion. We are confident that Ferial, Khathu and the team will take City Press to the next level of its growth," said Francois Groepe, CEO of Media24.
Haffajee has spent five years at the M&G and was part of the award-winning team that helped the newspaper achieve its highest circulation to date - 58 258 a week and a record 500 000 readership.
But she said she is looking forward to City Press's wider audience and higher African profile.
Amps puts the approximate monthly readership of City Press at about 2.5 million in 2008. Haffajee praised former editor Mathatha Tsedu for making "it a newspaper for and about our continent".
Growth and potential
"I hope to continue that, because I think that the untold story of South Africa is one of growth and potential despite the global recession," she said. "There's some very exciting media developments on our continent like Dele Olojede's new media company called Next in Nigeria. I think that City Press is very well-poised to take its place in that group of leading African papers."
But Haffajee, who cut her teeth as a cub reporter at the M&G when it was called the Weekly Mail, is sad at the prospect of leaving her tightly-knit team. "I think they were surprised because I decided quickly and then moved."
Asked whether she will miss the prestige of working for an award-winning newspaper, Haffajee said: "Not at all. I think City Press is also a prestigious paper and I suppose it's because it's exciting journalism and there's a wider audience."
Meanwhile, M&G CEO Trevor Ncube told the paper that while he was sad to lose Haffajee, he was proud that the company had again proven itself a hot-house for editing talent, citing former editor Mondli Makhanya and former sports editor Fikile Moya, who both went on to edit the Sunday Times and the Sowetan, respectively.
"He's certainly proven himself to be a great harvester of editors," said Haffajee.
She will take up her new position at the end of June. "It's a long goodbye, and I'm hoping by the end of it we'll be having a nice big party."
Haffajee is a former chairperson of the SA National Editors' Forum and serves on the board of the World Editors' Forum. Her achievements include Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum (2008) and Media Woman of the Year (2006, The Media magazines).
·News24 is part of Media24, which publishes City Press.