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Newspaper in Zimbabwe From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Zimbabwean is a newspaper in Zimbabwe. Founded by Wilf Mbanga in 2005, it was edited in London and printed in South Africa, near the border with Zimbabwe. By 2021 it had become a weekly paper with a large online presence.
A Voice for the Voiceless | |
Type | Newspaper, website |
---|---|
Format | Tabloid |
Founder(s) | Wilf Mbanga |
Editor-in-chief | Cees van der Laan[1] |
Founded | 2005 |
Language | 2005 |
City | London |
Country | England, South Africa |
Website | www |
In 1999, Wilf Mbanga founded an independent Zimbabwean newspaper titled, with the goal of providing neutral coverage of events occurring in the country, but within three years Mbanga was arrested for anti-government activities. He was eventually acquitted, but was banned by the government, and Mbanga was declared an "Enemy of the People".[2] Following several death threats, Mbanga fled to Europe, first to the Netherlands and then to England.[3]
With monetary assistance from the European Union, Mbanga founded The Zimbabwean, a newspaper featuring stories provided by in-country correspondents, edited in London, and printed in South Africa, close to the Zimbabwean border.[3] As its primary audience the newspaper targeted the Zimbabwean diaspora: a million Zimbabweans lived in the UK, and another two million in Southern Africa.[4] It was to be a weekly tabloid, according to Mbanga, with "a heavy emphasis on Zimbabwean politics, but will also include arts and culture, business, sports, gender issues, social issues and news analysis".[5] Within five years, The Zimbabwean had a daily print run of 150,000, the majority of which was exported to Zimbabwe itself. However, in June 2008, the country's government re-classified the newspaper as a luxury, imposing a 55% tax on its import from South Africa. This made it impossible for the paper to break even at a price that the average citizen could afford. By 2009, circulation of the newspaper fell from 150,000 to 30,000, and the paper had to cancel its Sunday installment.[6]
Following the government decision to tax the paper as luxury, The Zimbabwean got Johannesburg-based ad agency TBWA/Hunt/Lascaris to start an ad campaign. The pitch became the amount of currency used to purchase The Zimbabwean: after years of hyperinflation, the Zimbabwean Dollar had reached the point where the face value of many banknotes was less than the value of the paper itself.[7] With a limited budget[8] TBWA devised a campaign in which advertisements were printed on real banknotes,[7] using the collapse of the currency as an analogy for the collapse of Zimbabwe itself.[9] The campaign was launched in March 2009, using politically charged slogans and outdoor advertising, and became successful immediately[10] both in Southern Africa[11] and internationally.[12] In the first week following the launch, hits to the paper's website spiked and by June 2009, sales of the paper had increased by 276%, according to TBWA/Hunt/Lascaris.[13] In the end, finance minister Tendai Biti did away with the tax.[14]
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