Fond farewell after a quarter century of journalism

Community. Responsibility. Integrity. Change.

When I challenged myself to list the words which best encapsulate my 24 years in community media and how I had aimed to fulfil my role as a member of the journalism industry, these were top of the list. And while some stand-out stories came to mind during that exercise, it was really the people I had met, worked with, and written about over the years which stood out for me. 

So maybe people should also be included in that list, I thought. Right at the top. I decided to include community instead, because community includes not just people, but how we interact with each other and toward each other – how we manage the responsibility we as journalists have. How we manage change, and how we assign and accept responsibility. How we always should aim to do our work with integrity and respect for those whose stories we’re entrusted with.

I first stepped into a newsroom as a high school job shadow at the Cape Argus in the 1990s. To say that it was intimidating is an understatement. Back then Cape Times, Cape Argus, Weekend Argus and Cape Community Newspapers (CCN) were all based in Newspaper House, a bastion of the newspaper industry which rumbled to life a couple of times a day as the presses started up for their next print run. Yes. Back then we had an actual newspaper press in the building. And we knew that the guys from the press hall had been in the newsroom by the black footprints they left on the carpets!

I found myself back in Newspaper House as a Cape Argus intern in 1998; and then again as a contract reporter on the Constantiaberg Bulletin in March 2001, working with Bulletin stalwart Simone Williams who recently passed away in the UK. As a young reporter of colour, it was quite an adaptation having to go into unfamiliar areas like Constantia and Tokai, but the job called on me to set my insecurities aside. 

A month later I joined the permanent reporting staff as a journalist on Athlone News, partnered with a reporter whose name was, back then already, synonymous with the paper – Hazel Allies (Husselman). Having grown up in middle-class Fairways, I once again found myself feeling like the proverbial fish out of water, and when Hazel told me that some people had asked her who that “sturvy” reporter is who doesn’t speak Afrikaans, I learned one of my first important lessons as a community reporter: Outside of your comfort zone is where you will learn most about yourself as a person.

My next newsroom assignment was as reporter/sub-editor on the False Bay Echo, the oldest title in the Cape Community Media stable. This year it marks 72 years of serving the far south community. Based at the office in Recreation Road, Fish Hoek, I worked with and learned from the likes of seasoned personalities like Garth King and Bunty West.

From there I moved into two middle management roles before being appointed editor of Cape Community Media in 2007. At the age of 29, I became the youngest editor our holding company, Independent Newspapers (now Independent Media), had appointed – also the first black female editor. I recall feeling both honoured and weighed down by the responsibility of these achievements. For 15 years I led Team CCM before being appointed to a national role in 2022 as we established Africa Community Media as an umbrella body for our national stable of community papers, which includes our 13 CCM titles in Cape Town, the DFA in the Northern Cape, DurbanLocal in KZN and I’solezwe lesiXhosa in the Eastern Cape.

Each time I was asked how I was able to successfully manage such a large group of titles, my answer was always the same – my team made it easy. In my 24 years at Cape Community Media, I have worked with and learned from some of the most skilled and dedicated media people in the industry. And in my 17 years as an editor, I have had the privilege of managing and mentoring some amazingly talented people to whom I now hand over the baton. Sure, I’ve learned a lot about the craft of journalism during my career, but what I have learned the most about was being human and leading with my heart.

My next great lesson will be writing a headline for my own story. 

In two-and-a-half decades my colleagues and I have written countless stories about people retiring or stepping down after many years in a certain job. And we’ve always come up with snappy headlines or metaphors relating to teachers putting down their chalk, writers turning the page; drivers taking a new turn or doctors taking off their white coats. As I sit and write this, I wonder what my metaphor will be … because after 24 years in journalism I’m certainly not putting down my pen or shutting down my computer. 

I’m leaving CCM at a time of great change in the journalism industry – possibly the most significant change the media has seen in recent times. While AI is writing the news and untrue stories and deepfake videos are spreading faster than we can keep track of, there are also exciting new spaces where journalism is growing… spaces with huge potential where communities are telling their own stories. And as I take this year to focus on my studies, I look forward to venturing down these new paths and into these new spaces. And hopefully I’ll be able to give back to this unique sector of the media as much as it has given me.

To our readers: Being trusted with your stories for the past 24 years has been the greatest honour to have been bestowed upon me. 

I step out of my role as editor with a heart full of gratitude… and trust in the team I leave behind to write just the right headline for my story.