When I was appointed editor of Hermanus Times in 2016, I was about four months pregnant.
My appointment at that time felt like an enormous vote of confidence from my managers, and it helped me to take on this job with confidence. I entered this new leg of my career at the same time I became a mother and, in many ways, I am grateful for the dual roles at that point of my life.
It almost feels as if my new role as a mother helped me to be an empathetic and compassionate editor. One of the first lessons I learnt as a journalist is that one should “do no harm”. I have tried to practise this in every story and every newspaper edition. And in this, my last edition as editor of Hermanus Times, I can reflect on the many challenges and victories I have had over the past four years.
One of the highlights of my editorship was the revamp we did of Hermanus Times back in 2016 with the help of Bun Booyens. We did not make drastic changes, but rather gave the paper a bit of a “facelift”. We modernised the layout, ensured that it was modular and clean and brought in more opinion pieces and features.
These changes paid off as Hermanus Times was awarded the ATKV Woordfeertjie for the Best Community Newspaper in South Africa in 2019. It was not only our new look that won us the award, but also the excellent work done by the journalists of this newspaper.
There have also been very challenging times at the newspaper, and 2018 stands out. Our newsroom was at the front lines of the riots, protests, meetings and debates that ensued in 2018. We worked hard, covered many angles, and tried our best to keep readers informed. But the most difficult part of 2018 was trying to stem the tide of fake news, wrong information and rumours.
We spent hours verifying information and fact checking rumours. Hours that could rather have been spent investigating, researching and writing. But despite many warnings from us, traditional media practitioners to you, the many new social media publishers about sharing unverified information, the onslaught of fake news has never been more intense.
Now, during a global pandemic and while local communities are losing loved ones, it is more important than ever to have good reliable news sources. But, as businesses struggle to survive due to lockdown, so does the local print media that depends on advertising. I am, however, encouraged to see how businesses continue to support this publication and I thank you for it.
The best part of being editor of Hermanus Times has been meeting the many wonderful people of the Overberg and being entrusted with telling your stories. There are incredible people doing wonderful work in our communities and it has been my greatest honour to tell these amazing stories. I am especially encouraged by the charity and generosity our communities have shown during this pandemic and I am glad to still be a part of this community.
As a final word I tip my hat to my brave and hard-working colleagues who will continue to bring quality and reliable news, views and features. I will miss working with you, but I will continue to cheer you on as I move from editor to loyal reader.