Jeffreys quits Die Burger suddenly

The announcement was made by both @media24 and @MyNews24. User @biobot tweeted that Booyens will be Jeffreys' replacement. This has since been confirmed by @media24 in a further tweet.

According to the official press releases, Jeffreys will keep his ties with the company, writing a regular column for some of the newspapers and lecturing at Media24's Journalism Academy. He'll assist with transition arrangements as and when needed until the end of April.

Die Burger acting editor

Willem Jordaan, deputy editor of Die Burger, will be acting editor until Booyens assumes his new position.

Jeffreys has been editor of Die Burger since June 2006, having been acting editor of the newspaper between January and March 2006. He started his career in journalism in 1980 at Beeld, where he was, among others, editor of Beeld-Ekstra and night news editor.

He worked at the Urban Foundation and the National Business Initiative for almost a decade before he was appointed deputy editor of Beeld in 1999 and later political editor. In 2004/5 he studied at the Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for a year as a Nieman Fellow. He is currently deputy chairman of the South African National Editors' Forum (SANEF).

Founding editor

Booyens, who has been the award-winning founding editor of Weg since its launch in 2004, was an assistant editor and senior assistant editor of Die Burger between 2000 and 2004, where his duties included those of political and administrative editor. Before joining Die Burger he was a lecturer at Stellenbosch University and director of communications at the World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa.

According to Charlene Beukes, publisher of Media24 Travel and Motoring Magazines. Booyens played a key role in the success of all three Weg! brands, which includes WegSleep.

Barnie Louw acting editor of Weg!

John Relihan, CEO of Media24 Magazines, announced that Barnie Louw, previous editor of two of Weg's sister magazine, WegRy/Drive Out, will take over from Booyens as acting editor until a new editor has been appointed.

For more:

• Bizcommunity Search: Henry Jeffreys
  
• Twitter Search: Henry Jeffreys OR Jeffreys
  
• Twitter Search: Bun Booyens
  
• Grubstreet.co.za: Media musical chairs: Die Burger gets a new editor

Last updated 7 April 2010 at 12.53pm