Published by the government of Zimbabwe
3 July 2009
Harare — ZIMBABWE Newspapers has re-assigned most of the company's editors to head the different newspaper and magazine titles with William Chikoto, current editor of the weekly Sunday Mail, taking over as editor of the company's flagship, The Herald.
The group's Editor-in-Chief Pikirayi Deketeke said yesterday that Zimpapers was embarking on some reforms to position the company to take advantage of new opportunities in the media industry both locally and regionally.
Zimpapers is currently the biggest and most influential media company in Zimbabwe, which is also the only listed media house in the country.
Chikoto, a veteran journalist with over 22 years experience, is credited with transforming The Sunday Mail from a single section newspaper to a multiple section Sunday paper, which is the biggest in the country in terms of both circulation and pagination.
His deputy will be Caesar Zvayi who is currently the night editor of The Herald while Itai Musengeyi, moves up from being news editor to assistant editor. The editor of Bulawayo-based Chronicle, Brezhnev Malaba moves over to head The Sunday Mail in Harare and will be deputised by Nomsa Nkala, who is the current editor of the Zimtravel magazine and assistant editor of The Herald. The Mail's political editor, Munyaradzi Huni also moves up as assistant editor.
Malaba will be replaced by Innocent Gore at the Chronicle while The Sunday Mail's Sarah Tikiwa takes over from Nomsa Nkala at Zimtravel.
Gore is the current editor of the regional newspaper, The Southern Times, a joint venture between Zimpapers and Namibia's New Era.
The current editor of The Manica Post, Makuwerere Bwititi replaces Gore at The Southern Times in Namibia.
Bwititi's job at the Post will be taken over by The Herald assistant editor, Hatred Zenenga.
The acting editor of the Bulawayo-based uMthunywa weekly, Gugulethu Ncube becomes the substantive editor of the Ndebele-language newspaper.
According to Deketeke, the opening up of Zimbabwe's media landscape presents both opportunities and threats to the dominant role that has been played by Zimbabwe Newspapers over the last 100 years.
"The interest in Zimbabwe's media industry is so huge that once this space is opened up, the country is going to be flooded by other new players both local and foreign. So we need to gear ourselves for the competition and remain on top of the game," he said.
Given the size of Zimbabwe's economy, population and literacy rate, the country's media industry should be comparable to South Africa or Kenya which boast of media companies that are listed and with interests in newspapers, radio and television.
"We are really excited about the future," said Deketeke.
The company is now vigorously pursuing opportunities on other platforms such as web and mobile editions of its newspapers, among other things.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 The Herald. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
