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profile
Transformation Times: Moegsien Williams
speaks
by Liezel de Lange,
Tessa Kruger and Inge Verster
Cape Times editor, Moegsien Williams's strong convictions about democracy and his vision for innovative change, have left a unique imprint on the South African media. From a member of the alternative press he has catapulted to the top of the oldest daily newspaper in the Cape.
From the windows of their offices, the editorial staff of South Weekly would gaze wistfully at the nearby building of the Cape Times. As a struggling alternative newspaper in the late eighties, they longed for the resources possessed by the establishment newspaper across the street. "If only we had their knowledge, expertise and understanding of the newspaper industry, we’d make a great success."
These days Moegsien Williams, former editor of South Weekly, no longer has time to envy the newspaper across the street. He’s far too busy running it.
His is a highly unlikely success story. A high school-bred love for the English language; an uncompleted BA degree (the result of a 1973 mass student walk-out at the University of the Western Cape in his second year); four years of clerical work at construction companies; and some experience as a freelance sportswriter for the Sunday Times and The Argus, constituted his entire curriculum vitae when he landed his first job as reporter for The Argus in 1977.
During the last eight years, his career in print journalism has soared. News Editor and Editor of South Weekly. Night editor and managing editor of Sowetan. Editor of Pretoria News. And ultimately, appointed as editor of the Cape Times in September 1995.
Is this the pinnacle of his career? "I don’t know where else I can go after this. Maybe I will go into politics!" he jokes. Seated at the head of the conference table in his office, he certainly looks the part of the confident, capable editor of one of the oldest daily newspapers in the country. Yet, he speaks with a quiet serenity and reserve which compel, rather than intimidate.
Reflecting on his switch from alternative to establishment newspapers during the early nineties, he now recognises the former’s invaluable guidance in his management of the Cape Times. "The kind of thing we practised at South, is principles which we are now trying to find at the Cape Times."
The most important of these being democracy. Some time ago the Cape Times editorial staff had the opportunity to move to new offices. Even though Williams was eager to change their address, he succumbed to the will of the "masses" - his staff preferred to stay put.
Previous colleague and senior assistant-editor at Pretoria News, John Topping, confirms Williams’s dedication to democracy during his short term as editor of this newspaper. "He would consult everyone, and brought as many as possible into the decision making process."
"Williams had many innovative ideas for the future of the Pretoria News," but according to Topping he left before all of them could be implemented.
For Williams, the challenge lies in implementing innovative ideas to make his newspaper the best. This entails transformation on a grand scale.
Williams maintains transformation doesn’t purely deal with race, there is also the question of women - the women behind the pages, and the women reading them. The Cape Times recently appointed its first female assistant-editor. But he not only sees the need for women on decision making level. He takes his wife’s opinion to heart that certain subjects, such as education, should be written from a female perspective.
His wife, Almarie, "has been living the good life the last couple of years," he jokes. She does not have a career, but has a big influence on his. He greatly respects her views, especially on women’s issues. And he worries about his daughter’s dislike of newspapers and preference for You.
The youth and young reporters also benefit from his ideas. "The hierarchical structure of our news organisations tends to marginalise young people in the newsrooms. We need to create forums in news organisations where young people have a voice, because they can make an important contribution to our news agenda." This will draw more young readers into the market, he believes.
Williams is breaking down the "glass ceiling" of the newsroom’s hierarchical structure. Ambitious journalists who move upwards do not have to "shuffle paper" anymore. Writers who are promoted not necessarily have to take a desk job, but can now pursue their fortunes as specialist writers. He has improved journalists’ working conditions: "Theoretically, and I hope practically, specialist writers can earn the same salary as the editor."
He compares a newspaper to a madeira loaf. Just like a baker, the staff on a newspaper has to follow "a definite recipe". He laughingly comments that one cannot expect customers to buy the madeira loaf if you simply throw in the ingredients at random.
"We must make sure we know what they eat, otherwise we won’t be able to produce the perfect madeira loaf the next morning." Readers’ preferences should guide the paper’s content, but the paper should also guide its readers. "We need to provoke them, we need to sometimes make them angry, sometimes make them cheer with us, sometimes we need to titillate them."
The Cape Times targets a niche audience of fairly sophisticated readers in the upper income class. He believes their target audience to be very specific, but politically and socially also very diverse. To him it is imperative to "get close to the reader in terms of knowing and understanding that reader."
Williams believes the relationship between the media and government requires a balanced approach of praise and criticism. "Out of all the newspapers in the country, we were probably the harshest on the Sarafina scandal. We danced in the streets when the new constitution was adopted. We will criticise (the government), but we will cheer them on when they do the right kind of thing.
"If we are going to make a mistake, it will be on the side of toughness. It will be that we have been too harsh on the government, and not the other way round."
Criticism stretches further than the government. Williams thinks there’s a lack of depth in the journalism profession. He ascribes this problem to the brain-drain legacy which has an impact on quality and professionalism today. South African newspapers were among the first to switch to computer editing.
Press Unions in Australia, Britain and New Zealand initially opposed new technology, so when Rupert Murdoch introduced it, journalists in these countries were still computer illiterate. Murdoch wooed skilled South African journalists to England, Australia and New Zealand with big salaries. "Large numbers of our people left - it was a kind of journalistic brain drain.
In the early nineties, journalists who saw no professional future in South Africa left the country and those who suffered from the working conditions left the profession. Williams says almost a whole generation of senior editors were lost due to restrictions on the press and conditions such as poor salaries. "The linking system in our news room has completely disappeared because there are no mentors to help the young people along."
He harshly criticises the recently proposed idea of a government owned news agency. "I think it’s a silly one. It has not worked anywhere I can think of. They want to use the credibility of a news agency to get the government’s message across. That is wrong. The government must never again be allowed to manipulate the news channels for its propaganda."
Williams experienced the old South Africa: detained for six weeks in 1985 for harbouring an underground member of the ANC, influenced by numerous encounters with Steve Biko, involved in the 1973 walk-out as regional secretary of student organisation, Saso. About the new country he has mixed views. "We are a long way off from being a real nation but we are in the beginning stages of becoming one."
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