Newsman buys newspaper
A former reporter on The Witness has become the owner of SA’s oldest daily newspaper
An “accidental journalist” who became news editor of The Witness in Pietermaritzburg has now become the newspaper’s owner.
Riquadeu Jacobs, 49, MD of Capital Newspapers, bought the paper for an undisclosed sum from Media24. The publishing giant acquired a 50% share in the then privately owned Natal Witness Printing & Publishing Co in 2000 and bought the remaining shares in 2010. At 176 years, The Witness is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in SA, having been founded in 1846.
Jacobs recently clinched a deal that brought The Witness, Weekend Witness and community newspapers Echo and the Greytown Gazette into the Capital fold. Media24 CEO Ishmet Davidson says the transaction was part of the group’s “consolidation process
to reshape Media24 in a landscape that is increasingly digital”.
Jacobs switched university courses at the last minute to study for a national diploma in journalism. “I’m an accidental journalist, having walked into DUT [Durban University of Technology, then ML Sultan Technikon] intending to study public health but left having enrolled in the 1991 journalism programme,” he says.
He went to work as a reporter at Independent Newspapers and later the Natal Witness, which was then the last independently owned newspaper in SA.
“As an investigative journalist in the mid-1990s I helped expose third force agents responsible for fomenting violence in the KwaZulu-Natal [KZN] Midlands and I was also published in the Mail & Guardian. I covered the violence in Richmond and other hotspots in KZN. I became Witness news editor in 1997 and two years later resigned to launch the Public Eye newspaper,” Jacobs says.
Since then he has added a string of publications, and a printing press, Guardian Web, to his company. Among these are Maritzburg Sun, Msunduzi Eyethu and Eyethu KZN, distributed provincially. The firm also has a sister company that publishes Village Talk (Howick) and The Hilton.
Jacobs says that returning ownership of The Witness to the province is important, given its local heritage. “We have an opportunity to reflect on the newspaper’s identity and develop a business plan to grow readership.
“Apart from the brand, Capital Newspapers gains access to The Witness’s resources, the most valuable of which are the experienced staff who are passionate about keeping this legacy alive and ensuring The Witness serves its readers,” he says.
He describes his latest purchase as a “positive development for the industry”. “Diversity of ownership strengthens the bond between media and society. We need to make The Witness increasingly relevant to a younger generation to ensure good journalism remains engaging in a constantly changing society,” Jacobs says.
“I am confident that newspapers that remain committed to factual, independent journalism that hold power to account and defend democracy will not only survive but will steadily recover readership. Likewise, I believe corporate SA is deeply respectful of the role of media in society and will continue investing in and supporting these institutions.”
Negotiations for the deal started in 2019, Jacobs says, and resumed in late 2021. “In terms of timing, I think we got it right. Well, I hope so. The impact of Covid is receding and there is a renewed sense of optimism among South Africans. The print media in SA is resilient and has proved to be highly adaptable to change, having embraced a blended print/digital model. The rising cost of newsprint is concerning, even more so now that Russia, a major global [newsprint] supplier, is facing export sanctions. Fortunately, on the supply side we have firm paper supply commitments for our print operations,” he says.
The Witness editor Stephanie Saville says it will be “business as usual” for the newspaper, with no job losses expected. “Our news is targeted to the region and we will continue doing what we do best producing news relevant to our online readers who live all over the country and, indeed, the world.”
Former Independent Newspapers executive editor for KZN Alan Dunn says the title has “ably and nobly” served the Pietermaritzburg/ Midlands market for decades. “It would have been awful to see such a historic component of SA’s media landscape close.”