Newspapers News Central Africa

Malawi's third daily newspaper on the cards

Malawi will, from this month have a third daily newspaper after President Bingu wa Mutharika's Guardian Publications Limited (GPL) announced its plans to turn tri-weekly, The Guardian into a daily.

Currently there are two dailies, 15-year-old The Nation published by The Nation Publications Limited and The Daily Times which is published by Blantyre Newspapers Limited established in 1895.

Daughter to the Malawi president, Duwa Mutharika who is the managing director for the GPL announced this week that her company has "taken a step towards our final journey of printing The Guardian newspaper, daily."

Mutharika who made the announcement through a public notice published in the 110th edition of The Guardian since its establishment said their aim is to interact with their readership in a manner that allows them to have an idea what they would like to know.

“In the coming weeks and months, we will add more products to our roster and the content inside the paper may vary according to our editorial policy. One thing we can promise is that our quality will improve and surpass all expectations,” pledges Mutharika in the notice.

“After three years of outsourcing printing of our newspaper, the issue you are today holding was printed on our news web machine at our...premises,” she said.

Knowing the challenges ahead, Mutharika said besides thanking their loyal readers who patiently waited for them to grow and mature into a reputable news source they now want to focus at taking the news in a timely and consistent manner.

“We promise not to deviate from that responsibility to you our readers,” she said.

However, she said The Guardian solidifies its brand, its promotion line "Safeguarding Democracy and Human Rights" will not change since it is their hallmark.

Mutharika acknowledged the middling quality of their first publication by describing it as their "growing pains" which she said is a process to adjusting to becoming fledgling printers.

“Please be patient as we work out some of the finer points of self-printing. As our team of experts grows, many of these ‘glitches' will fade into memory,” she said.

About Gregory Gondwe

Gregory Gondwe is a Malawian journalist who started writing in 1993. He is also a media consultant assisting several international journalists pursuing assignments in Malawi. He holds a Diploma and an Intermediate Certificate in Journalism among other media-related certificates. He can be contacted on moc.liamg@ewdnogyrogerg. Follow him on Twitter at @Kalipochi.
Let's do Biz