The ''Mail & Guardian'' is a South African weekly newspaper and website, published by M&G Media in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

, South Africa. It focuses on political analysis,

investigative reporting Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years rese ...

, Southern African news, local arts, music and popular culture. It is considered a

newspaper of record A newspaper of record is a major national newspaper with large circulation whose editorial and news-gathering functions are considered authoritative and independent; they are thus "newspapers of record by reputation" and include some of the o ...

for South Africa.

History

The publication began as the ''Weekly Mail'', an alternative newspaper by a group of journalists in 1985 after the closure of two leading liberal newspapers, '' The Rand Daily Mail'' and ''

Sunday Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...

''. ''Weekly Mail'' was one of the first newspapers to use Apple Mac desktop publishing. The ''Weekly Mail'' criticised the government and its apartheid policies, which led to the banning of the paper in 1988 by then

State President The State President of the Republic of South Africa ( af, Staatspresident) was the head of state of South Africa from 1961 to 1994. The office was established when the country became a republic on 31 May 1961, albeit, outside the Commonweal ...

P. W. Botha. The paper was renamed the ''Weekly Mail & Guardian'' from 30 July 1993. The London-based Guardian Media Group (GMG), the publisher of '' The Guardian'', became the majority shareholder of the print edition in 1995, and the name was changed to ''Mail & Guardian''. In 2002, 87.5% of the company was sold to the Newtrust Company Botswana Limited, which was owned by

Trevor Ncube Trevor Vusumuzi Ncube is a Zimbabwean entrepreneur and newspaper publisher now living in South Africa and publishing in both countries. As an editor and publisher, he was a critical voice in media of former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe an ...

, a Zimbabwean publisher and entrepreneur. Ncube took over as the CEO of the company. In 2006 MD Africa became the ''Mail & Guardians national distributor. The change resulted in good circulation growth, despite difficult market conditions. In 2013 the newspaper achieved a record period with 51,551 copies circulated. MDA distributed a number of publications including Noseweek and Destiny magazine. In 2017, Media Development Investment Fund, a New York-based not-for-profit investment fund, announced that it had acquired a majority stake in the ''Mail & Guardian''. The restructured ownership saw the CEO, Hoosain Karjieker, acquire a minority stake in the business as part of a Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) transaction. Staff continue to own a 10% share of the company. The former majority shareholder, Trevor Ncube, disposed of his equity interest. The newspaper's headquarters are in Johannesburg. The editor-in-chief is Ron Derby and the CEO is Hoosain Karjieker. The ''Mail & Guardian'' is considered a

for South Africa.

The ''Mail & Guardian Online''

In 1994, the ''Mail & Guardian Online'' was launched in conjunction with Media24 (a subsidiary of the Naspers group), becoming the first internet news publication in Africa. It has grown into its own daily news operation with a number of writers, multimedia producers, sub-editors and more. It is run out of the ''Mail & Guardian'' offices in Rosebank, Johannesburg. The site focuses on local, international and African hard news, sport and business. The website began its life as the ''Electronic Mail & Guardian'', which was initially an e-mail subscription service that allowed readers living outside South Africa to receive ''Mail & Guardian'' newspaper stories before they reached newspaper subscribers. Soon after, the service expanded into a searchable online archive, published in partnership with

Sangonet SANGONeT is a South African organisation, whose acronym stands for The Southern African NGO Network. It is a civil society organisation with a focus on ICT, which was founded in 1987, and has a history closely linked to the social and political ch ...

, the country's oldest internet service provider. A website was added, which in turn progressed from producing a weekly mirror of the printed newspaper to generating its own daily news. The ''Mail & Guardian Online'' was jointly owned by internet service provider

MWEB Mweb is an Internet Service Provider based in South Africa since 1997. Mweb is a division of Internet Solutions Digital (Pty) Ltd, a subsidiary of Dimension Data, and its headquarters are located in the Mweb Building in Parow, Cape Town. Hi ...

and publishing company M&G Media until M&G Media purchased 100% of the operation in 2008. It has interactive news photo galleries, discussion forums and special reports on subjects such as Zimbabwe, HIV and South African President

Jacob Zuma Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (; born 12 April 1942) is a South African politician who served as the fourth president of South Africa from 2009 to 2018. He is also referred to by his initials JZ and clan name Msholozi, and was a former anti-aparth ...

. It is known for hard-hitting political reporting, investigations as well as strong beat reporting, particularly in education, labour, environment and health.

Awards

* 2012: CNN African Journalism award (2012) * 2012: Standard Bank Sikuvile Journalism Award * 2011: Vodacom Journalist of the Year * 2011: Bookmark awards * 2010: Bookmark awards * 2008: Webby Awards Honoree for News in Photos and Political Blog * 2005: Webby Awards Honoree for Web Best Practices * 2001: Forbes.com voted the ''Mail & Guardian Online'' one of the world's top 175 websites * 1996: Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Journalism * 1995: International Press Directory - Best International Newspaper

Distribution figures

References

External links