The newspaper, which was founded in 1997 by Peter du Toit, sells 279,237 copies each week, and has a readership of 3.36 million.
Briefly tell us about your new role?
Joni: As editor of Soccer Laduma, I lead a team of highly talented journalists. My main duty is to produce a quality weekly newspaper. I help to organise and facilitate the content of the newspaper – everything from interviews, reader suggestions and latest soccer news. I assign different stories to each journalist; I edit their stories and I sit with the production team to help design each page of the paper. Essentially, I make sure I am aware of everything that goes into each weekly paper.
What will your first order of business be?
Joni: Luckily for me, by the time I was promoted to editor, I had already been doing the job. As a senior journalist, I was providing input for many of the stories and I had been participating in the various responsibilities of the editor. We have a very open way of running things, so we all help where we can. In that way, by the time I was officially promoted to be editor, I already knew what the job was all about.
What will your core strategy be?
Joni: One of the most important things for me is ensuring a good working relationship with the clubs, players, writers, supporters and readers. I want to make sure we are always communicating with the various role players because I know how important that is to our success. One of the ways I do this is by following up with the people and players we interview – after their interview and after publication. I don’t want us to be a newspaper that uses people when they need something. I try to make sure our journalists know the responsibility of their role – to the publication and to the readers.
What is your main business challenge?
Joni: I would say my biggest challenge is trying to keep everyone happy. It’s extremely difficult to accommodate everyone – especially with the limited number of pages we can fill. I always say that I wish we could cover more because everyone wants to read something different. Sometimes what one person thinks is important; another person won’t care about at all. So it’s a juggling game at times.
What is the biggest trend in your industry?
Joni: People are hungry for information – they want the inside scoop on players, coaches, clubs! A trend I see is ‘behind the scenes’ coverage. We do this on our Siyagobhoza section, which gives readers “insider information” on everything soccer-related. There are many publications tapping into this desire to read something other than the usual match previews and reviews – readers want us to dig a little bit deeper than that.
What is the most important attribute needed to do your job?
Joni: Patience and being prepared to work long hours. With news, things don’t always work out as planned. You need to be understanding of the fact that often, your work will demand your time outside of usual office hours. You also need the ability to look beyond the story or headline.
What’s the top of your bucket list?
Joni: That would be establishing a good working relationship with everyone in the industry. I want us to always be a publication that cares about everyone involved in soccer – from the sports stars to the people writing about them. And of course, I always strive to keep our readers happy, because they are my boss. On a personal level, a dream would be to one day interview Lionel Messi in person.
