''Huisgenoot'' (
Afrikaans
Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
for ''House Companion'') is a weekly South African Afrikaans-language general-interest family magazine. It has the highest circulation figures of any South African magazine and is followed by sister magazine ''
YOU
In Modern English, ''you'' is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers.
History
''You'' comes from the Proto- ...
'', its English-language version. A third magazine, ''
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...
'', is directed at the black market. The magazines have a combined circulation of about 550 000 copies a week. Yvonne Beyers is the current editor of ''Huisgenoot''.
It is estimated that more than two million people read ''Huisgenoot'' weekly. The magazine also has many brand extensions and a popular concert, Skouspel, was held at
Sun City every year until 2014. Some of the best Afrikaans artists are heard and the most popular singers, actors and TV shows of the year are honoured with an award called Tempo. A yearly Skouspel concert is also held in
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
. ''Huisgenoot'' launched a few successful line extensions in 2010, including recipe and blockbuster titles.
In July 2012, the magazine also launched its first reality television show, in conjunction with the
Afrikaans
Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
television channel
kykNET. The show, titled ''
Saktyd
Saktyd (the Afrikaans word for 'wiktionary:deadline, deadline') is a South African reality television show, which aired on the Afrikaans television channel kykNET (channel 111 and 144) on DStv between 17 July 2012 and 9 October 2012. In Afrikaans, ...
'' (Deadline), gave viewers insight into what it takes to produce South Africa's biggest magazine on a weekly basis, while challenging 13 new journalists to win the job of a lifetime at the magazine.
The magazine is published by
Media24
Media24 is the print media division of the South African media company Naspers. It controls Naspers' newspaper and magazine Southern African publishing and printing activities, including Internet publishing of the 24.com collection of web portal ...
, a subsidiary company of
Naspers
Naspers Limited is a South African multinational internet, technology and multimedia holding company headquartered in Cape Town, with interests in online retail, publishing and venture capital investment. Naspers' principal shareholder is its ...
publishing group. Content includes a mix of real-life drama, glamour, fashion and consumer affairs articles as well as recipes, crossword puzzles, home projects and sport. It has a children's and a teen section and at least one short story a week or a serial...
History
![Henriëtte Loubser, redakteur van Huisgenoot](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Henri%C3%ABtte_Loubser%2C_redakteur_van_Huisgenoot.jpg)
The magazine was founded as the monthly ''De Huisgenoot'', written in Dutch, in 1916. The first magazine cost 6d (six pennies or five cents) and consisted of 26 pages. President Paul Kruger was on the cover and the main article was a life sketch on the president. The first advertisement for that issue was by Stuttafords.
There were two reasons behind its founding:
* to financially support the newspaper ''De Burger'' (The Citizen), which was the political mouthpiece of the Cape National Party; and
* provide the
Afrikaner
Afrikaners () are a South African ethnic group descended from Free Burghers, predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th and 18th centuries.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: ...
population with inspiration, information and entertainment in Afrikaans (or, originally, Dutch).
While the cause of
Afrikaner nationalism
Afrikaner nationalism ( af, Afrikanernasionalisme) is a nationalistic political ideology which created by Afrikaners residing in Southern Africa during the Victorian era. The ideology was developed in response to the significant events in Afrik ...
dominated the content of the magazine for decades, the editors of the magazine gradually had to make concessions to popular taste. Covers featuring Afrikaner heroes and politicians were replaced by ones featuring female film stars in the 1950s and 1960s. The Dutch-sounding title ''De Huisgenoot'' was changed to the more Afrikaans-sounding ''Die Huisgenoot'' and in 1977 the name was further simplified to simply ''Huisgenoot''.
By the late 1970s the culture and mores of the Afrikaner population had begun to diverge from earlier generations, leading to a drastic decline in the magazine's readership and finances. By 1978 the magazine was in serious trouble and a new editor,
Niel Hammann
Dirk Daniël Hammann, known as Niel Hammann (born September 6, 1937), is a retired South African senior journalist. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Afrikaans weekly family magazine Huisgenoot, as well as its sister publication You (English).
Car ...
, was appointed. He took ''Huisgenoot'' in a more populist and profit-driven direction and the popularity and sales of the magazine subsequently surged – from 140,000 to 500,000 magazines per week.
The popularity of ''Huisgenoot'' has continued almost unabated since then, making the magazine and its English sister publication ''
YOU
In Modern English, ''you'' is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers.
History
''You'' comes from the Proto- ...
'' the two most successful magazines in South Africa.
Milestones
This entire section sourced from
* In the first issues, page numbers overflowed from one issue to the next and only started with one again in May 1917.
* The words of a proposed new Afrikaans national anthem appeared in the issue of March 1919 – the magazine mentioned that it was not clear who wrote the song, "
Uit die Blou van Onse Hemel", and requested the author to contact the magazine. Today it is known that the author was
Cornelis Jacobus Langenhoven
Cornelis Jacobus Langenhoven (13 August 1873 – 15 July 1932), who published under his initials C.J. Langenhoven, was a South African poet who played a major role in the development of Afrikaans literature and cultural history. His poetry was ...
.
* The first female on the cover was H.S.J Joubert, who died on 8 September 1916.
* The women's pages in the magazine were also heavily criticised. Readers described women being dressed in modern outfits as looking like devils – "nes duiwels gelijk". The editor had an easy solution: “Neither of us has seen a devil before, and we request that readers who has had this experience before please give us their input.”
* In April 1918 the magazine announces that Afrikaans is now one of the country’s official languages.
* The first poster is published in February 1922, a black and white copy of an oil painting by
Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef
Jacobus Hendrik (Henk) Pierneef (usually referred to as Pierneef) (13 August 1886 Pretoria – 4 October 1957 Pretoria), was a South African landscape artist, generally considered to be one of the best of the old South African masters. His distin ...
.
* ''Huisgenoot'' became a weekly magazine in November 1923, until then it was a monthly.
* On 11 December 1923 the magazine boasted a print run of 30 000. Today ''Huisgenoot'' sells more than 200 000 copies weekly.
* Colour was used for the first time in the issue of 2 January 1931 – black, blue and red.
* In the magazine of 2 September 1927 the editor wrote that it is not a political magazine.
* In the issue of 29 May 1936, television was mentioned for the first time. This was still 40 years before the
SABC
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations ( AM/ FM) as well as six television broadcasts to the general public. It is one of the largest of South Africa's state ...
launched television in South Africa.
* In the late thirties
T.O. Honiball
Thomas Ochse Honiball (1905–1990) was a well known South African cartoon artist.
T.O. Honiball (as he was commonly referred to) was born on 7 December 1905 in Cradock, Cape Colony. Honiball attended the well known high school for boys in Stell ...
started producing illustrations on a regular basis for the magazine.
* In July 1948, a new competition was announced – readers were invited to write in to tell how they felt about marrying English-speaking South Africans.
* Adoons, the popular comic about baboons by T.O. Honiball, appeared for the first time in the issue of 2 July 1948.
* Four full-colour pages appeared for the first time in the issue of 27 November 1953.
* Social issues about ladies entertaining men in their rooms on a regular basis were included in the issue of 14 May 1954. A series of articles about failing marriages followed this article.
* In 1957, a competition was launched to find South Africa's youngest grandmother. The winner was Mrs G.P. Kruger of
Prieska
Prieska is a town on the south bank of the Orange River, in the province of the Northern Cape, in western South Africa. It is located on the southern bank of the Orange River, 130 km north-west of Britstown and 75 km south-east of Mary ...
. She became a grandmother at the age of 31 years and 7 months.
* A Calorie chart appeared for the first time on 17 January 1958 with an eating plan a week later. The heading of the first article was: “Vir Poppiedik en Potjierol – ‘n kaloriekaart na die oordaad van die vakansiedae”.
* In the issue of 18 September 1959 a competition was launched where a
Borgward
The former Borgward car manufacturing company, based in Bremen, Germany, was founded by Carl F. W. Borgward (1890–1963). It produced cars of four brands, which were sold to a diversified international customer base: Borgward, Hansa, Go ...
motor car worth £919 was the first prize and the second prize was a radio worth £90.
* In 1966 an article on
Betsie Verwoerd
Elizabeth "Betsie" Verwoerd (née Schoombee; 17 May 1901 – 29 February 2000) was the spouse of the Prime Minister of South Africa from 2 September 1958 until the assassination of her husband Hendrik Verwoerd on 6 September 1966.
Betsie was o ...
, wife of the then Prime Minister
Hendrik Verwoerd
Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd (; 8 September 1901 – 6 September 1966) was a South African politician, a scholar of applied psychology and sociology, and chief editor of ''Die Transvaler'' newspaper. He is commonly regarded as the architect ...
, who did a master's degree on the history of ''Huisgenoot'', appeared. It was hand-written and consisted of 53 000 words.
* The major competition in the sixties was the word building competition, the first prize was a car, second prize, an organ and third prize, a fridge.
* The first Miss Teen competition was launched in the issue of 5 May 1972. Heart transplant pioneer,
Christiaan Barnard
Christiaan Neethling Barnard (8 November 1922 – 2 September 2001) was a South African cardiac surgeon who performed the world's first human-to-human heart transplant operation. On 3 December 1967, Barnard transplanted the heart of accident-v ...
, crowned the winner. The competition became a regular feature in ''Huisgenoot''.
* In the issue of 27 August 1987 an English sister-title, named
YOU
In Modern English, ''you'' is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers.
History
''You'' comes from the Proto- ...
, was announced.
Digital platforms
''Huisgenoot'' has increased its use of digital platforms including an iPad edition, e-magazine on Magzter, a website, mobi site, iPhone application, Facebook page (with more than 275 000 fans), Twitter page, YouTube channel and Mxit.
Interactive content
In 2010, ''Huisgenoot'' and sister-magazines ''YOU'' and ''DRUM'', started using new technology developments. An interactive tool, utilising
Microsoft Tag
High Capacity Color Barcode (HCCB) is a technology developed by Microsoft for encoding data in a 2D "barcode" using clusters of colored triangles instead of the square pixels conventionally associated with 2D barcodes or QR codes. Data density is ...
technology, enables readers to watch videos or download wallpaper simply by scanning a picture of a barcode-like tag printed in the magazine. There are various tags at the bottom of pages throughout the magazine.
[Hofmeister, R. ''Huisgenoot''. Media24, 6 Januarie 2011, p. 5.]
References
External links
* {{official, huisgenoot.com
1916 establishments in South Africa
Afrikaans-language magazines
Cultural magazines
Magazines established in 1916
Magazines published in South Africa
Weekly magazines published in South Africa