Difference between revisions of "Diamond Fields Advertiser"

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The ''[[Diamond Fields Advertiser]]'' is the oldest newspaper in the Northern Cape
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The ''[[Diamond Fields Advertiser]]'' (the '''''[[DFA]]''''') is the oldest surviving newspaper in the Northern Cape.
  
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Launched in 1878, the .
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Founded  in Kimberley  on 23 March 1878, joined the weekly called the ''[[Diamond Field]]'' (founded by Alfred Aylward in 1870)  and the ''[[Diamond News]]''.
  
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Kimberley’s daily newspaper is 20 years older than its sibling title the Pretoria News, but the ties run far deeper.
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The ''[[DFA]]'' famously survived the siege of Kimberley, only suspending publication for the last week of the 123-day ordeal and then just because the bombardment from the Boer Long Toms was making it perilous for the staff to print the paper, which had long run out of anything worthwhile to print, being forced to go the library and reprint articles from Britain’s other wars to motivate the townsfolk to hold out.
  
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Among the famous journalists and artists who worked for it over the years as editors and/or journalists have been R.W. Murray, F.Y. St Leger, George Green, [[Vere Stent]], Rex Hall, Harvey Tyson and Johan du Plessis.
  
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The ''[[DFA]]'' went on to outlive the two rivals, continuing to exist as a daily paper to this day. It is now part of the  [[Independent News & Media]] stable.
  
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Vere Stent, the Pretoria News’ legendary editor (1906-1930), worked at the DFA, as it is best known, twice on either side of being a war correspondent during the South African War before going to Pretoria to take over the editorship of the News. He introduced another Kimberley-based journalist - Sol Plaatje - to the newspaper-reading public after getting to know him when they were both besieged by the Boers in Mahikeng.
 
  
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Two years after Stent relinquished the editorship of the News, Rex Hall became editor and gave it up nine years later to go to Kimberley to edit the DFA between 1942 and 1949.
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==Sources==
  
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One of his cub reporters was none other than Harvey Tyson who would become the second-longest serving editor of The Star and editor-in-chief of The Star, Saturday Star and Sunday Star, before his retirement in 1990.
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Kevin Ritchie. 2018. 140-year history of ''Diamond Fields Advertiser'', ''[[Pretoria News]]'', 26 October 2018. [https://www.iol.co.za/pretoria-news/140-year-history-of-diamond-fields-advertiser-17650872]
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Many other South African journalists would cut their teeth on the DFA.
 
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The DFA survived the siege of Kimberley, only suspending publication for the last week of the 123-day ordeal and then just because the bombardment from the Boer Long Toms was making it perilous for the staff to print the paper, which had long run out of anything worthwhile to print, being forced to go the library and reprint articles from Britain’s other wars to motivate the townsfolk to hold out.
 
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That, and destroying Cecil Rhodes’ contraband Cape Times, which had been smuggled in at huge expense to reprint it in the DFA, were some of the lengths editor George Green had to go to, to keep the paper in print.
 
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South Africa suffered an economic slump after the Boer War and the DFA was forced to retrench staff, while the manager and editor took pay cuts. The paper came up with a number of different marketing initiatives and business ventures.
 
  
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Green would relinquish the editor’s chair in 1910 to go to the Cape for what he thought was a hopeless job - editing “the moribund Cape Argus”. He would end up saving the paper, retiring 36 years later.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Fields_Advertiser
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Tomorrow, the current editor, Johan du Plessis, and manager Rudi Ferreira will host a function in Kimberley to celebrate the milestone with staff, readers and advertisers.
 
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Kevin Ritchie. 2018. 140-year history of ''Diamond Fields Advertiser'', ''[[Pretoria News]]'', 26 October 2018. [https://www.iol.co.za/pretoria-news/140-year-history-of-diamond-fields-advertiser-17650872]
 

Latest revision as of 07:35, 27 February 2019

The Diamond Fields Advertiser (the DFA) is the oldest surviving newspaper in the Northern Cape.

Founded in Kimberley on 23 March 1878, joined the weekly called the Diamond Field (founded by Alfred Aylward in 1870) and the Diamond News.

The DFA famously survived the siege of Kimberley, only suspending publication for the last week of the 123-day ordeal and then just because the bombardment from the Boer Long Toms was making it perilous for the staff to print the paper, which had long run out of anything worthwhile to print, being forced to go the library and reprint articles from Britain’s other wars to motivate the townsfolk to hold out.

Among the famous journalists and artists who worked for it over the years as editors and/or journalists have been R.W. Murray, F.Y. St Leger, George Green, Vere Stent, Rex Hall, Harvey Tyson and Johan du Plessis.

The DFA went on to outlive the two rivals, continuing to exist as a daily paper to this day. It is now part of the Independent News & Media stable.


Sources

Kevin Ritchie. 2018. 140-year history of Diamond Fields Advertiser, Pretoria News, 26 October 2018. [1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Fields_Advertiser

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