Golden City Post

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The Golden City Post was a South African tabloid newspaper [1] that was established in 1955 [2] and run by the same publisher as Drum magazine [3] (established in 1951). The Golden City Post was financed and managed by James Richard Abe Bailey (Jim Bailey [4] ) with separate editions published for the Cape and Natal. [5]

Jim Bailey took on the role of editor and paired the tabloid newspaper with the magazine. [6] [7] Although the Golden City Post today is not remembered as prominently as its sister publication, both the paper and the magazine gave black journalists the copy space to report on the scene in Sophiatown, [8] its jazz singers, boxers, cover girls and their individuals stories [9] while also making visible the inequities, injustices and cruelties facing black urban South Africans under Apartheid. [10] [11] Drum readership grew rapidly and at one time was the largest magazine readership in Africa in any language. [12] When readership declined, The Golden City Post then carried the magazine as a fortnightly supplement. [3] The Golden City Post was sold to the Argus Newspaper in 1971 [3] and then it was shut down on 19 October 1977 as a result of a ban on “black-oriented newspapers” and the imprisonment of journalists. [13] [14]

In 1982, Jim Baily and the South African Associated Newspapers (SAAN) [15] re-launched the paper undet a new name, the Golden City Press. The next year “Golden” was removed from the name. [16] The partnership between Baily and SAAN failed and Nasionale Pers (Naspers), [17] purchased both the Golden City Press and Drum magazine on the 1 April 1984. [18] Which was rebranded the City Press. [19]

Len Kalane, the former City Press editor, traces City Press newspaper’s lineage back to the Golden City Post. [20]

Declining print circulation figures led to both Drum magazine’s print edition being shut on July 7th,  2020 [21] with the City Press following suit four years later when the final print edition was published in December 22 2024. [22]

References

  1. ↑ Horwitz, Robert Britt (2001). Communication and democratic reform in South Africa. Internet Archive. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-511-01221-1.
  2. ↑ "'There was a heated discussion about me going to work for this "native" paper'—Read an excerpt from Freedom Writer, the memoir of legendary journalist Juby Mayet". The Johannesburg Review of Books. 2022-11-15. Retrieved 2024-12-26.
  3. 1 2 3 "The beat goes on - 70 years of telling the South African story". www.iol.co.za. Retrieved 2024-12-26.
  4. ↑ "Jim Bailey | South African History Online". 2011-06-07. Archived from the original on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 2024-12-27.
  5. ↑ https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/post-south-africa/20201111/281672552469081 . Retrieved 2024-12-26– via PressReader.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. ↑ Kalane, L. (2018) THE CHAPTER WE WROTE, the City Press story, media and politics in a changing South Africa
  7. ↑ "The beat goes on - 70 years of telling the South African story". Archived from the original on 8 September 2024.
  8. ↑ "Cover Girls of the Anti-Apartheid". Messy Nessy Chic. 2021-05-28. Retrieved 2024-12-26.
  9. ↑ "How to defy apartheid? For journalist Juby Mayet, with pen in hand". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN   0882-7729 . Retrieved 2024-09-08.
  10. ↑ Les Switzer (ed.), South Africa's Alternative Press: voices of protest and resistance, 1880s-1960s, Cambridge University Press, 1997
  11. ↑ "The Chapter we Wrote by Len Kalane (Ebook) - Read free for 30 days". Everand. Retrieved 2024-12-27.
  12. ↑ Cowling, Lesley (2020-07-14). "Journalism of Drum's heyday remains cause for celebration - 70 years later". The Conversation. Retrieved 2024-12-27.
  13. ↑ Sesanti, Simphiwe (2007). "Distinctly African" (PDF). Rhodes Journal Review (27): 34–35.
  14. ↑ Moodley, Neesa (2024-06-13). "Media24 'to phase out City Press, Beeld, Daily Sun and Rapport newspapers'". Daily Maverick. Retrieved 2024-12-27.
  15. ↑ https://www.moneyweb.co.za/news/end-of-an-era-media24-to-close-iconic-newspapers/
  16. ↑ https://www.moneyweb.co.za/news/end-of-an-era-media24-to-close-iconic-newspapers/
  17. ↑ Apartheid Inc. – Profile of a racist corporation, June 9, 2010". History Matters. 22 January 2015. Retrieved 08 September 2024.
  18. ↑ Gongo, K. (2008). “Distinctly African”: The representation of Africans in City Press. University of Witwatersrand: Johannesburg
  19. ↑ Reporter, City Press. "WATCH: City Press transitions to digital: Honouring the past, embracing the future". City Press. Retrieved 2024-12-26.
  20. ↑ Kalane, Len (2018). The Chapter we Wrote: The City Press Story. Jonathan Ball.
  21. ↑ Botha, Kerry (2020-08-04). "What happens when The Drum is silenced… Drum Magazine's closure". Pleiades Media. Retrieved 2024-12-27.
  22. ↑ Reporter, City Press. "WATCH: City Press transitions to digital: Honouring the past, embracing the future". City Press. Retrieved 2024-12-26.
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