The Mail & Guardian, the weekly newspaper, has announced that is facing a severe funding crunch and has asked for people to subscribe to it to save it from closure.
According to Khadija Patel, the newspaper’s editor, the Covid-19 crisis has been a direct cause of the newspaper’s financial challenges. Said Patel: ‘As the country went first into a state of disaster and then a 21-day lockdown, we have had advertisers — which contribute about 70% to our revenue — cancel their campaigns. Our live events — which make up roughly 20% of our income — have come to an abrupt halt.’
Patel also said in an interview with a radio station, 702, that the newspaper would struggle to pay the salaries of staff for April.
The Mail & Guardian was founded in 1985 as the Weekly Mail and played an important role in uncovering abuses by the apartheid state in a difficult time in South African history for press freedom.
In the last quarter of 2019 the newspaper had a circulation of nearly 21 000, a 20% decline compared to the previous quarter and a 25% decline compared to the previous year.