iMaverick, Daily Maverick co-founder leaves

7 Dec 2011

Phillip de Wet, one of the founding partners of online news site Daily Maverick and daily iPad newspaper iMaverick, has left, it was announced this morning, Wednesday, 7 December 2011. "It's been a long haul and I must confess I'm pretty close to burn out, but then I've been doing start-ups for almost all of my career or the better part of a decade, so the time has come for a bit of a change," says De Wet.

Phillip de Wet

After a well-deserved December break, it is likely that De Wet (@phillipdewet) will still do freelance work or project work with Daily Maverick (@dailymaverick) and iMaverick (@iMaverick) in the new year.

"There's no easy way to say this," says editor Branko Brkic (@brankobrkic). "Phillip and I have been in this from the very beginning, and he's been a good friend, a great ally and we've made many memories together with the rest of the team.

"Anyone who's worked on a daily title will know it is brutal, incredibly hard work. We've started iMaverick on a relatively small budget with a modest core team and have been putting out a premium daily for iPads that can run to 120 pages for more than a couple of months now. The start-up phase is always the hardest, and Phillip wants to take some time out to regroup and gather himself.

"With all of these things, the timing isn't perfect because our app is almost 100% and we're at a stage where our operation is well financed, but Phillip's health and happiness comes first," says Brkic. "We wish him all the best and until our paths cross again, we will miss him."

The Daily Maverick is run by an independently owned, private company with no affiliation to any other media group (or political party or religious organisation.) It is funded entirely through advertising.