The New Age on hold until late October

However, a special edition, to give readers and the marketplace a taste of what to expect from October, will be published as part of its Heritage Day celebrations.

Commented Mvoko, "We are committed to adding a quality product to the South African newspaper landscape, and this unflinching commitment to quality imposes various pre-requisites which we feel we have not achieved at this stage.

"This delay, while unfortunate, is necessary and will help us deliver a newspaper worthy of our potential readers."

Among the promises The New Age made to its readers, and which the editor and his staff intend to keep, is comprehensive daily coverage of all of South Africa's nine provinces. According to Mvoko, it has proved harder to put the systems and people in place to deliver on provincial coverage than originally anticipated.

"Need to be tested extensively"

Mvoku further explained, "We have also purchased some of the latest editorial software and other technologies, much of it new to the South African scene. These will need to be tested extensively and over a period of time to guarantee our ability to produce consistent quality on a daily basis. We also have to train our staff on the use and management of our new systems.

"We are confident that once these processes are complete, we can deliver to our readers an aesthetically pleasing, editorially sound and fresh product that will be relevant to their lives and add to the diversity of voices in our country's media."

For more, go to www.tnamedia.co.za and www.thenewage.co.za.

See also:

• The Daily Maverick: No news is bad news for The New Age