S’thembiso Msomi’s pledge as new online products are launched

It has been six months since I moved across from the Sowetan to join the Sunday Times as editor. The transition could not have happened at a more difficult time, what with the Covid-19 pandemic and all the difficulties that come with trying to put together a quality newspaper every Sunday while working remotely.

Although half a year has passed, I haven’t actually physically met the majority of my newsroom colleagues, most of whom have opted to work from home in line with the health precautions we have all had to take.

Despite these practical difficulties, our journalists have endeavoured to keep our readers well-informed about the pandemic and how our society is trying to cope with it, and have written numerous stories about heroic acts by ordinary South Africans during lockdown.

But even before the Covid-19 pandemic forced our country into lockdown, the print media industry was going through turbulent times, brought about mainly by an economic downturn and changes in content consumption patterns.

Our industry, perhaps more than many others, is deeply affected by the disruptions that have come with advances in technology. As more news consumers migrate to digital, newspaper sales are dwindling. This, in turn, results in declining advertising revenues. In the South African case, as has emerged several times at the state capture commission headed by deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo, newspapers like the Sunday Times, the Mail & Guardian and City Press were sometimes on the receiving end of politically motivated decisions to withhold advertising placed by state-owned enterprises as punishment for exposing corruption in these entities.

Over the years, painful cost-cutting measures have had to be taken, resulting in shrinking newsrooms. Inevitably, quality suffered.

At the Sunday Times we are very aware of the huge burden of responsibility we carry as one of the biggest news publications in the land. The newspaper has a rich history that dates back close to 115 years, and has been responsible for breaking some of the country’s most important stories.

That SA has a proud history of a robust and fiercely independent media is thanks, partly, to the role played by the Sunday Times.

In the post-apartheid era, it was the Sunday Times that brought to the fore such scandals as the arms deal and Travelgate. It is the duty of the current generation of journalists and editors in our newsroom to continue this proud tradition.

This is not to say that there have not been moments when mistakes happened. There have been plenty, some of them serious enough to cause a break of trust between the publication and its readers.

Without this trust, the newspaper cannot effectively play its role as part of the fourth estate. That is why we seek to constantly improve the manner in which we go about gathering news, and hold ourselves to high journalistic standards.

A lot of work is currently being done to minimise such mistakes and improve our content. Over the next few months the publication will be welcoming a number of senior journalists, who will enhance our newsroom.

As President Cyril Ramaphosa reminded us in his weekly newsletter last Monday, newsrooms benefit greatly from having young and energetic reporters working with media veterans.

Veterans, he correctly argued, “bring with them vast experience and institutional memory, and are able to offer critical reportage and informed analysis”. Cost-cutting measures in recent years have meant that seasoned scribes were overlooked in favour of new talent.

Just recently, we appointed veteran newspaperman Mike Siluma as our deputy editor. On Tuesday, we will be launching Sunday Times Daily, a premium online publication that will bring readers the best news, analysis and opinion pieces, curated by Sunday Times editors.

TimesLIVE, which will have its own full-time editor soon, will continue to provide a daily dose of breaking news.

For our platforms to improve, we need to engage more frequently with our readers and get direct feedback on our work. Below is my e-mail address — please feel free to be in contact on any issue. Let’s keep the dialogue going.

msomis@sundaytimes.co.za