News - Date: 21 August 2015
“A good newspaper is a community's best friend. Not its sweetest friend, always, though it certainly can be kind and loving in its own special way. And yes, it can be a prickly friend at times, and a bit stubborn as well. And it can be a blunt friend, and unreservedly so. A community's newspaper is that one friend you can count on to tell hard truths, to break sad news, to tell it the way it is. |
|
“And your community newspaper may disappoint you from time to time, as all friends will. But like a best friend, a good newspaper is THERE.”
These were the introductory words of Prof. Bill Reader from the Ohio University on Friday night. He was one of the two guest speakers at a function to celebrate the Zoutpansberger’s 30th birthday and the 25th birthday of the Limpopo Mirror. He was accompanied by another expert in community journalism, Prof. John Hatcher from the University of Minnesota’s Duluth campus.
“Tonight we celebrate three decades of friendship for the communities of this region by theZoutpansberger and the Limpopo Mirror. They have covered the birth and growth of an entire generation, a generation born into turmoil and tension that is now joining their parents in the hard work of building peace, and they are teaching their own children to strive toward justice and happiness. These two newspapers have helped to build their communities, and it seems they will also help their communities to keep moving forward,” said Reader.
The function was attended by more than 200 guests, which included advertisers, suppliers, current and previous staff members and other dignitaries. It was combined with several exhibitions that depicted the history of the newspapers since they were started in 1985 and 1990 respectively.
“It is not often that a privately owned community newspaper gets to survive a quarter of a century or longer. Long before that, it either closes down or, if successful, gets taken over by one of the conglomerates,” explained Anton van Zyl, manager of the Zoutnet group. He attributed the success of the newspapers to an extremely supportive community who took ownership of the newspapers. “A newspaper belongs to the community it functions in and we merely manage it on behalf of the community,” he said.
Van Zyl paid homage to the founders of the newspapers, Johann and Melinda du Plessis, who travelled all the way from the Western Cape to attend the function. He described their venture as visionary, especially the establishment of the Limpopo Mirror at a time when few others were willing to produce a newspaper with a predominantly black readership.
Van Zyl ascribed the success of the papers to a dedicated and talented team. “It is an achievement to produce a really good newspaper with well-written articles, a good lay-out and a variety of adverts, but many people can do that. Where it becomes extremely difficult is when you need to do it week after week, year after year. This is where the Zoutpansbergerand Limpopo Mirror stand out. For more than a quarter of a century, we have been able to produce quality products week after week, and very few others can say that. For this I thank an excellent team, not only the ones working at the newspapers now, but also the ones in whose footsteps they followed.”