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The Zimbabwean

The Zimbabwean
A Voice for the Voiceless
TypeNewspaper, website
FormatTabloid
Founder(s)Wilf Mbanga
Editor-in-chiefCees van der Laan[1]
Founded2005
Language2005
CityLondon
CountryEngland, South Africa
Websitewww.thezimbabwean.co

The Zimbabwean is a newspaper in Zimbabwe. Founded by Wilf Mbanga in 2005, it was edited in London and printed in South Africa, near the border with Zimbabwe. By 2021 it had become a weekly paper with a large online presence.

Background

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In 1999, Wilf Mbanga founded an independent Zimbabwean newspaper titled, with the goal of providing neutral coverage of events occurring in the country, but within three years Mbanga was arrested for anti-government activities. He was eventually acquitted, but was banned by the government, and Mbanga was declared an "Enemy of the People".[2] Following several death threats, Mbanga fled to Europe, first to the Netherlands and then to England.[3]

Foundation, audience, and funding

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With monetary assistance from the European Union, Mbanga founded The Zimbabwean, a newspaper featuring stories provided by in-country correspondents, edited in London, and printed in South Africa, close to the Zimbabwean border.[3] As its primary audience the newspaper targeted the Zimbabwean diaspora: a million Zimbabweans lived in the UK, and another two million in Southern Africa.[4] It was to be a weekly tabloid, according to Mbanga, with "a heavy emphasis on Zimbabwean politics, but will also include arts and culture, business, sports, gender issues, social issues and news analysis".[5] Within five years, The Zimbabwean had a daily print run of 150,000, the majority of which was exported to Zimbabwe itself. However, in June 2008, the country's government re-classified the newspaper as a luxury, imposing a 55% tax on its import from South Africa. This made it impossible for the paper to break even at a price that the average citizen could afford. By 2009, circulation of the newspaper fell from 150,000 to 30,000, and the paper had to cancel its Sunday installment.[6]

2009 crisis and advertising campaign

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Main article: The Trillion Dollar Campaign

Following the government decision to tax the paper as luxury, The Zimbabwean got Johannesburg-based ad agency TBWA/Hunt/Lascaris to start an ad campaign. The pitch became the amount of currency used to purchase The Zimbabwean: after years of hyperinflation, the Zimbabwean Dollar had reached the point where the face value of many banknotes was less than the value of the paper itself.[7] With a limited budget[8] TBWA devised a campaign in which advertisements were printed on real banknotes,[7] using the collapse of the currency as an analogy for the collapse of Zimbabwe itself.[9] The campaign was launched in March 2009, using politically charged slogans and outdoor advertising, and became successful immediately[10] both in Southern Africa[11] and internationally.[12] In the first week following the launch, hits to the paper's website spiked and by June 2009, sales of the paper had increased by 276%, according to TBWA/Hunt/Lascaris.[13] In the end, finance minister Tendai Biti did away with the tax.[14]

Notable contributors

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Loes Reijmer, "Cees van der Laan nieuwe hoofdredacteur Trouw" (in Dutch), de Volkskrant, 13 December 2013. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  2. ^ Sweney, Mark (24 June 2009). "Zimbabwean newspaper campaign turns worthless banknotes into gold". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
  3. ^ a b "Exiled newspaper gets funding to expand". The Doha Center for Media Freedom. 24 March 2009. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
  4. ^ Lennard, Jeremy (11 February 2005). "'A voice for the voiceless'". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  5. ^ "Zimbabwe Diaspora to launch weekly newspaper". afrol. 31 January 2005. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  6. ^ "Paper launches unusual campaign to beat censorship tax". The Doha Center for Media Freedom. 31 March 2009. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
  7. ^ a b Clarke, Christina (1 September 2009). "You say you want a revolution". Boards.
  8. ^ "The Zimbabwean Newspaper 'trillion dollar Campaign' by TBWA Hunt Lascaris". Campaign. 29 March 2009. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
  9. ^ "Ad campaign in the running again". The Zimbabwean. 12 January 2010. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
  10. ^ Vasquez, Diego (1 April 2009). "Turning the medium into the message". Media Life.
  11. ^ "Stryd teen die regime". Sake24 (in Afrikaans). 28 March 2009.
  12. ^ "Money Message". The Times. 11 April 2009.
  13. ^ "The Zimbabwean Trillion Dollar campaign". TBWA Hunt Lascaris. 23 June 2009. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  14. ^ "Trillion Dollar campaign breaks records". The Zimbabwean. 23 September 2009. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  15. ^ Grundy, Trevor (21 July 2015). "Chenjerai Hove: Novelist forced into exile from his native Zimbabwe who sought in his work to give a voice to the voiceless of Africa". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-05-07. Retrieved 17 March 2021. Hove wrote regularly for that paper. Like Voltaire, Hove believed that the best way to get rid of dictators was to laugh at them. In one column, Hove asked his readers to remember the stories they'd heard as children – especially the story about the proud monkey who climbed to the top of the tallest tree seeking applause from below.
  16. ^ "Kumbirai Thierry Nhamo". www.thezimbabwean.co. Retrieved 2024-04-16.