Mail & Guardian

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The Mail & Guardian is a South African newspaper that was started by a group of journalists in 1985 after the closures of the two leading liberal newspapers, the Rand Daily Mail and Sunday Express. The paper was originally known as the Weekly Mail, as the paper did not have enough money to publish daily. The paper became one of the world's first newspapers to use Apple Macintosh desktop publishing.

The Weekly Mail criticised the government and its Apartheid policies which led to the paper's suspension in 1988 by PW Botha. In 1994 the [Mail & Guardian Online] was launched, becoming the first internet news publication in Africa. The London based Guardian Media Group (GMG), publishers of The Guardian, became the majority shareholder in 1995, and the name was changed to Mail & Guardian. GMG [sold most of its holding] to Zimbabwean Newspaper magnate Trevor Ncube in 2002. GMG still holds 10% of the company.

The Mail & Guardian newspaper and Mail & Guardian Online website position themselves in the market as South Africa's quality read, aimed at the elite and intelligentsia.

The editor of the Mail & Guardian newspaper is Ferial Haffajee and the editor of the Mail & Guardian Online website is Riaan Wolmarans.

The publisher of the Mail & Guardian newspaper is Trevor Ncube and the publisher of the Mail & Guardian Online is Matthew Buckland.

Online edition

The Mail & Guardian Online is the first internet-based news publication in Africa. Launched in early 1994, it is one of South Africa's and Africa's major online news publishers and is reputed internationally for its quality content. The Mail & Guardian Online has received numerous accolades and awards, including receiving a Webby Award ("The Oscars of Internet") honourable mention in 2005 and being voted one of the world's top 175 websites by Forbes.com in 2001.

The website began its life as the Electronic Mail & Guardian (eM&G), which was initially an e-mail subscription service that allowed readers living outside South Africa's borders to receive Mail & Guardian newspaper stories hours before reaching the newspaper's subscribers. Soon after, the service expanded into a searchable online archive, published in partnership with Sangonet, the country's oldest Internet Service Provider. A World Wide Web site was added, which in turn progressed from producing a weekly mirror of the printed newspaper to generating its own daily news.

Today, the Mail & Guardian Online is jointly owned by Internet Service Provider M-Web and publishing company M&G Media. M-Web is the largest player in the dial-up subscriber market and forms part of the MIH, Multichoice group. M&G Media publishes the Mail & Guardian newspaper and is 87,5% owned by Newtrust Company Botswana Limited, owned by Zimbabwean publisher and entrepreneur Trevor Ncube. The London-based Guardian Newspapers Limited holds 10% of the company and minority shareholders make up the rest.

The Mail & Guardian Online works closely with the newspaper, but has its own dedicated editorial staff to produce breaking news on a daily basis to complement the analytical, in-depth feature articles from the newspaper.

Awards

1995 - British IPD Best International Newspaper Award
1996 - Missouri Medal for Distinguished Journalism
2001 - [Forbes.com] voted the Mail & Guardian Online one of the world's top 175 websites.
2005 - Webby Worthy honourable mention.

External link

[Mail & Guardian Online] (official website)

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