New Age advertises top posts
2010-10-20 17:06
Johannesburg – The New Age has already advertised five key posts after resignations which coincided with the paper's long-awaited, now delayed, launch.
A pop-up advertising the posts appears when the paper's website is accessed, calling for applications for an editor-in-chief, deputy editor, arts and culture editor, news editor and opinion and analysis editor.
A statement issued on Tuesday said: "The anticipated launch will be withheld... however the management and staff remain fully committed and are assured that this project will be a success."
The staffers who resigned, who include editor Vuyo Mvoko, said that out of professionalism they would not discuss the reasons for their decision.
The others are deputy editor Karima Brown, opinion and analysis page editor Vukani Mde, news editor Amy Musgrave and arts and culture editor Damon Boyd.
Acting editor
Night editor Jeremy Shepherd-Smith would be acting editor in the meantime.
The publication was supposed to have launched in September but, aside from a special issue delivered to the ANC's national general council meeting in Durban in September, it had so far only published online.
The September postponement was because they felt they were not ready and still had to break in the new technology they had purchased, and train staff.
A public relations company handling queries could not immediately say what the effect would be on advertisers who had booked space in the launch issues, and what the losses amounted to.
A spokesperson said he would reply after a management meeting had ended.
The New Age is the fourth mainstream newspaper to attempt breaking into the South African market in recent years. Media24's Nova, Nigerian venture This Day and Avusa's weekend paper The Weekender have all folded.
Other new publications
Other new publications, The Times and The Daily Sun were still publishing, with The Sun among the country's best selling publications.
The New Age was also to have published a Sunday edition. It intends covering all nine provinces at a cost of R3.50.
The newspaper would be published by Bennett Colemen & Co LTD which publishes the world's largest English newspaper, The Times of India.
It would be funded by the Gupta Group, which has close links to the ruling ANC.
Publisher TNA Media's executive chairperson is Atul Gupta, while former minister in the presidency Essop Pahad is a director and senior adviser, and former Anglo American SA CEO Lazarus Zim is a director.
Critics have cited Gupta's business relationship with one of President Jacob Zuma's children, and Pahad's previous job as a minister in the presidency, as backing for the perception by some that the publication would be pro-government.
- SAPA
