10 years of contributing to national development

When Alpha Media holdings (AMh) editor-in-chief and NewsDay editor Wisdom Mdzungairi invited me to rejoin the AMh family in celebrating the paper’s 10th anniversary through this article I felt honoured for I always look back on my days at the stable with nostalgia. To me,

NewsDay is not only a vehicle for transporting news, but a symbol of responsible reporting that contributes to national development and the development of the media industry.

I will never forget that cold night in June 10 years ago when the first edition of the paper was done. There was anxiety obviously about how the paper was going to be received and as the chief sub-editor the major questions in my mind were: have we done enough gatekeeping to give the nation quality news? have we selected the right stories for the readers? Are our stories developmental and not sensational?

But NewsDay never stumbled; it was like a precocious child born with innate maturity. I attribute the instant success to four things: Vincent Kahiya’s diligence and leadership skills; non-interference from the owner and the board; the blending of youth and veterans and the editorial policy.

Kahiya led from the front writing, editing, subbing, motivating, cajoling etc. he had the managerial support of veterans such as Tangai Chipangura, who mentored household names in journalism today such as Moses Matenga and Veneranda Langa — greenhorns at the time.

The owner of the paper did not interfere with its editorial function. I was later appointed editor of the Saturday edition and I don’t recall the publisher ever summoning me to interfere with my editorial work. This allowed room for creativity. As a result, I created a Community Builders’ page celebrating the heroics of unsung heroes in our communities who helped the needy through their benevolence. This culminated in the famous AMH Community Builders Awards that became an annual event.

NewsDay newsroom was a joy in itself as veterans and the young combined to share ideas with one sole purpose: to produce the best product. Another thing that strengthened the quality of the paper was the flexible working at AMh where reporters wrote stories for the three papers under the stable: NewsDay, Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard. This allowed cross-pollination of ideas and cooperation. Journalists and editors were allowed to move to sister papers when vacancies arose. I remember there was much value added when veteran editor nevanji Madanhire and Kholwani nyathi (current editor of The Standard) moved from The Standard where he was chief reporter to NewsDay as assistant editor.

The editorial policy of the paper

also gave impetus to its brand strength. There was no room for sensationalism and even today, under Mdzungairi the paper has maintained that stance. NewsDay came onto the scene when media polarisation was at its peak with propaganda on one end and sensationalism on the other. We did not enter the scene to correct anything; we simply entered the scene to give people facts so that they formed their opinions. It was this approach that made NewsDay an instant hit because people craved for credible news, they needed a paper that did not turn everything into propaganda or sensational news. With Kahiya, who hated both sensationalism and propaganda we conquered and I am happy to say that I see this policy has been

maintained to date. Read NewsDay any day and one sees that this is a fair national and family paper that does not seek personalities, but news.

NewsDay to date has demonstrated that with the correct editorial approach, the independent media is capable of responsible reporting and developing the media industry to high levels in the country. AMh has employed hundreds of graduates and trained them to become responsible citizens contributing to the nation’s social and economic development with NewsDay, by the nature of being a daily paper, contributing more.

Of course there may have been weaknesses and blunders here and there, but I believe many agree with me that the positives NewsDay brought to information dissemination, employment, and national development outweigh these weaknesses and blunders by far.

I will forever be happy to be associated with NewsDay because I believe I was part of a team that brought to the nation a much-needed newspaper without deliberate propaganda or sensationalism; a newspaper that continues to contribute to the social and economic development of our beloved nation through employment creation, responsible reporting and the development of the media industry.