The launch of The New Age (TNA) newspaper was postponed indefinitely on Tuesday when the editor and his four senior colleagues resigned hours before it was due to go to print.
The dramatic resignations came on the day South Africans marked media freedom day, although it was not immediately clear what the reasons for the mutiny were.
TNA managing editor Gary Naidoo announced in a brief statement on the company’s website that it was with regret that the company had received the resignations of five senior members of its editorial team.
These were received at 3pm yesterday, the day before the newspaper was due to launch today. Naidoo said management and staff remained “fully committed” to the newspaper.
Those who resigned were editor Vuyo Mvoko, deputy editor Karima Brown, news editor Amy Musgrave, opinion pages editor Vukani Mde and arts and culture pages editor Damon Boyd.
When asked whether the resignations related to conflicts with management over editorial policy, Naidoo said no reasons had been given. He said night editor Jeremy Shepherd Smith was now acting editor.
“Management is satisfied that all sections of the project are on track and will advise shortly of its future plans,” said Naidoo. In a joint statement, the five journalists opted for discretion. “Collectively, we have taken the decision that it would be neither proper nor professionally acceptable for us to speak publicly about the reasons for our decision,” they stated.
The newspaper tested the waters in September with a once-off pre-Heritage Day edition, which missed its print deadlines, and landed up on the streets of Durban a day late, although some copies were distributed at the ANC’s national general council meeting..
Panned as a pro-government newspaper in some quarters, the TNA promised it would adopt a glass half-full, rather than empty, approach to news, and would be “constructively critical”.
As news of the mass resignations spread on social media sites, such as Twitter, there was also room for humour from some of the twitterati.
“I wonder whether TNA newsroom is half empty or half full,” said one tweet.
Others speculated that the resignations had to do with editorial interference, while one radio presenter said an impeccable source had indicated there was a clash between the shareholder and the editorial team over the launch date, which the latter believed could not be met.
The new daily, owned by TNA Media, was scheduled to launch in mid-September, but this was postponed to October 20. It also planned to produce a Sunday newspaper.
The TNA directors are businessmen Atul Gupta and Lazarus Zim, and former cabinet minister Essop Pahad.- The Mercury