THE WITNESS
NEWSPAPERS ARE ALIVE AND WELL IN KZN
With the internet growing in influence and reach, there are those who believe newspapers will soon follow the dinosaurs into oblivion. In sharp contrast, Media24's significant investment into print plant in KwaZulu-Natal indicates the faith that this media giant has in the staying-power of newspapers and print products.
Not only do they publish and print the 165 year-old Witness, the Weekend Witness and a host of other newspaper titles in Pietermaritzburg but the group has recently commissioned a brand new heatset print facility at Westmead alongside the N3 highway, near the Marrianhill toll plaza.
In addition to glossy magazines and educational products this facility produces a range of top quality print products for major publishers and advertisers around the country.
Of course, when it comes to longevity, no other publication in the country compares to the Witness which has been publishing continuously for one hundred and sixty-five years. The oldest newspaper in the country, the paper was started in 1846 soon after the city became a British garrison town, and has published uninterrupted through the Anglo-Boer War, the ZuluWars and two World Wars. The Witness is a must-read for anyone living and working in the capital of KZN.
A coastal edition of the Witness, featuring news from Amanzimtoti to Port Edward appears on weekdays, in addition to the usual Witness mix of local, national and international news.
The Witness can be found at newsagents throughout the province as far afield as Newcastle, Ladysmith, Dundee, Vryheid, Kokstad, Matatiele, and up and down the coast from Mtubatuba to Port Edward.
The Weekend Witness is a more relaxed weekend read for the whole family and is distributed throughout the Province. This popular edition consists of news, sport, leisure, personal finance, TV and property sections and sells around throughout the province on Saturdays.
Also printed and distributed throughout KZN, from the Pietermaritzburg plant, are theDaily Sun, Mail & Guardian, City Press, UmAfrika, Ilanga and Soccer Laduuma.
COMMUNITY PAPERS
The Mirror, is the biggest circulating tabloid community paper in the city and appears every Wednesday. Other community paper interests of the Witness include Echo an English / Zulu publication, Village Talk in Howick, the Greytown Gazette and six Fever titles, covering the coastal areas of Richards Bay, Amanzimtoti, Scottburgh, Port Shepstone as well as southern KZN and Mthatha in the Eastern Cape. Two Express Media titles distributed in Durban have a combined distribution of in excess of 150 000, the bulk of which goes into the Phoenix and Chatsworth areas.
ZULU LANGUAGE NEWSPAPERS
The Natal Witness also prints, manages and distributes Ilanga, South Africa's oldest and by far the biggest selling Zulu-language newspaper. Ilanga with an average sale of 139 000 copies in the first quarter of this year, is highly regarded by readers as the mouth-piece of the Zulu nation. Ilanga's Sunday paper, Ilanga Lange Sonto, the first vernacular Sunday in the country, sells a very respectable 87 000 copies everyweek.
The Natal Witness also owns the second oldest Zulu-language tabloid, UmAfrika which sells around 18 000 copies every Friday.
