Media - society’s conscience
Media generally sees itself as a watchdog in society, whether exposing uncouth celebrities or corrupt government officials or unethical white collar criminals, media always sees itself as the custodian of right and wrong. In any normal society poets and other artists are generally seen as the conscience of that society through the truth and honesty with which they portray that particular society. Writers as well, who are sometimes poets after hours.
Who edits what
As a mini-media practitioner myself, I was saddened to learn something of an injustice
happening within the media industry. The Sunday Times, Mzansi’s largest weekly, employs an editor to run the paper. His name is Mondli Makhanya and he used to be the editor of Mail & Guardian just before he took over at Sunday Times from Mathatha Tsedu, who has been doing an awesome job at City Press since taking over from Vusi Mona. Keep up now: Makhanya is at Sunday Times, Tsedu at City Press (now promoted to Editor-in-Chief) and Mona is no longer in mainstream media. All these men, are, well, men, and yes black. Back to that later.
Mzansi’s biggest newspapers
Now, in the corporate environment, logic says the biggest pays the best, which means Makhanya should theoretically be the highest paid editor in the land, right next to the guy that edits Daily Sun. Don’t forget now, Daily Sun sells around 500 000 copies DAILY, the same as what Sunday Times sells WEEKLY. That means over 10 million Daily Sun papers go through the masses every month, while about 2 million Sunday Times copies are read each month. These are VERY big numbers. Very very big.
Who earns what?
Makhanya then, gets the fattest cheque right? Nope. That goes to Peter Bruce. Peter who? Bruce. He edits Business Day. BD has a daily circulation of around 42 000, amounting to 840 000 monthly. What’s wrong with this picture? Clearly Makhanya should be asking “wait a minute, where’s my loot?”. Especially since Business Day and Sunday Times are owned by the same publishing company Johnncom. Do you smell a rat? I do. A guy like me who runs a tiny little blog in a blade of grass at FNB Stadium, that goes out to 760 people (up from 500 three weeks ago by the way), doesn’t expect to get paid R60 000 a month. But hell, if I were editing the Sunday Times I’d really ask some BIG questions like “hey, how come that guy next door whose paper is only 42% odd the size of mine, gets a bigger cheque than mine?” Does that make cents to you? Imagine President Mbeki demanding a yearly salary the size of Angela Merkel’s, Germany’s Chancellor (R2.5 million) or Shinzo Abe’s of Japan (R2.6 million). Doesn’t make sense.
Where the ladies at?
Did you notice though, that all the names I mentioned are men? Which woman edits a major newspaper eMzansi? Just two. Phylicia Oppelt of Daily Dispatch in East London and Ferial Haffajee, editor of the Mail & Guardian. Women run newsrooms all over the country, and of course they make excellent journalists. But often when it comes to promotions to the big league, their bosses, the publishers, look over their shoulders and often headhunt from outside, or worse, appoint juniors to those positions. Now can you imagine what these two said ladies are getting paid? It must surely be pathetic. Reminds me of that old joke that went: “God looked at my work and smiled. Then he looked at my pay slip and wept”.
The usual BEE rant
While it may be true that Mzansi’s major newspapers are headed by black men (Sunday Tribune, Sunday World, Sunday Sun, Sowetan, Sunday Times, City Press, Isolezwe, The Star), ownership is still either in white or foreign or both hands. None of the above-mentioned newspapers are majority-owned by black people. I excluded the Daily Sun because its editor is really its visionary owner/publisher, and not the black face he put “in charge”. So, what are YOU doing to help advance yourself and fellow women in the media field, if you are in the media? Are you falling for the stereotypical scenario of women always bringing each other down, or are you helping other sistas move up in the world? Catch a wake up man! I’ve painted you a picture here, take a close look at it!
Media generally sees itself as a watchdog in society, whether exposing uncouth celebrities or corrupt government officials or unethical white collar criminals, media always sees itself as the custodian of right and wrong. In any normal society poets and other artists are generally seen as the conscience of that society through the truth and honesty with which they portray that particular society. Writers as well, who are sometimes poets after hours.
Who edits what
As a mini-media practitioner myself, I was saddened to learn something of an injustice
happening within the media industry. The Sunday Times, Mzansi’s largest weekly, employs an editor to run the paper. His name is Mondli Makhanya and he used to be the editor of Mail & Guardian just before he took over at Sunday Times from Mathatha Tsedu, who has been doing an awesome job at City Press since taking over from Vusi Mona. Keep up now: Makhanya is at Sunday Times, Tsedu at City Press (now promoted to Editor-in-Chief) and Mona is no longer in mainstream media. All these men, are, well, men, and yes black. Back to that later.Mzansi’s biggest newspapers
Now, in the corporate environment, logic says the biggest pays the best, which means Makhanya should theoretically be the highest paid editor in the land, right next to the guy that edits Daily Sun. Don’t forget now, Daily Sun sells around 500 000 copies DAILY, the same as what Sunday Times sells WEEKLY. That means over 10 million Daily Sun papers go through the masses every month, while about 2 million Sunday Times copies are read each month. These are VERY big numbers. Very very big.
Who earns what?
Makhanya then, gets the fattest cheque right? Nope. That goes to Peter Bruce. Peter who? Bruce. He edits Business Day. BD has a daily circulation of around 42 000, amounting to 840 000 monthly. What’s wrong with this picture? Clearly Makhanya should be asking “wait a minute, where’s my loot?”. Especially since Business Day and Sunday Times are owned by the same publishing company Johnncom. Do you smell a rat? I do. A guy like me who runs a tiny little blog in a blade of grass at FNB Stadium, that goes out to 760 people (up from 500 three weeks ago by the way), doesn’t expect to get paid R60 000 a month. But hell, if I were editing the Sunday Times I’d really ask some BIG questions like “hey, how come that guy next door whose paper is only 42% odd the size of mine, gets a bigger cheque than mine?” Does that make cents to you? Imagine President Mbeki demanding a yearly salary the size of Angela Merkel’s, Germany’s Chancellor (R2.5 million) or Shinzo Abe’s of Japan (R2.6 million). Doesn’t make sense.
Where the ladies at?
Did you notice though, that all the names I mentioned are men? Which woman edits a major newspaper eMzansi? Just two. Phylicia Oppelt of Daily Dispatch in East London and Ferial Haffajee, editor of the Mail & Guardian. Women run newsrooms all over the country, and of course they make excellent journalists. But often when it comes to promotions to the big league, their bosses, the publishers, look over their shoulders and often headhunt from outside, or worse, appoint juniors to those positions. Now can you imagine what these two said ladies are getting paid? It must surely be pathetic. Reminds me of that old joke that went: “God looked at my work and smiled. Then he looked at my pay slip and wept”.
The usual BEE rant
While it may be true that Mzansi’s major newspapers are headed by black men (Sunday Tribune, Sunday World, Sunday Sun, Sowetan, Sunday Times, City Press, Isolezwe, The Star), ownership is still either in white or foreign or both hands. None of the above-mentioned newspapers are majority-owned by black people. I excluded the Daily Sun because its editor is really its visionary owner/publisher, and not the black face he put “in charge”. So, what are YOU doing to help advance yourself and fellow women in the media field, if you are in the media? Are you falling for the stereotypical scenario of women always bringing each other down, or are you helping other sistas move up in the world? Catch a wake up man! I’ve painted you a picture here, take a close look at it!
1 comment:
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