What's going on behind the scenes at the Mail & Guardian?

14 Sep 2015

The Mail & Guardian's been making headlines for a number of worrying reasons lately...

First, we had the resignation of editor Angela Quintal after spending two years in the position.

Our update on this included comment from CEO Hoosain Karjieker that "the weakening economy had impacted on the business models in the media industry, which had resulted in staff reduction and retrenchments of journalists across the sector."

What's going on behind the scenes at the Mail & Guardian?

Next came commentary on further staff reduction at the paper, with the Sunday Times going so far as to describe the spate of retrenchment as proof the publication's been "crippled by a cash crunch''.

Back in July when the retrenchments first came to light, this was seen as a precursor for a drop in quality at the trusted publication:

Mail & Guardian set to cut 25 jobs.... SA print news about to drop one more notch in quality • http://t.co/f4dYs4PdF0
- François Conradie (@FDConradie) July 21, 2015

Now, the latest move that has Mail & Guardian Online readers scratching their heads in puzzlement is that the website seems to have disappeared behind a paywall, without giving its readers any warning.

Disgruntled readers are sharing their views on Twitter, of course:

So apparently the Mail&Guardian put up a paywall in the dead of the night?
- Charl du Plessis (@CharlduPlessc) September 11, 2015

Clicks on Mail&Guardian story, hits paywall, never goes back to M&G online ever again. Sad but true.
- Tom Eaton (@TomEatonSA) September 11, 2015

A paywall's not necessarily a bad thing, but it seems there's lots of change going on behind the scenes. Simply a sign of the times? Leave your comments below...