Senior editorial members quit, no launch for New Age

19 Oct 2010

Postponed yet again - The New Age newspaper won't launching today, Wednesday, 20 October 2010. According to a press statement from managing editor Gary Naidoo, five senior members of the editorial team resigned at 3pm on Tuesday 19 October and night editor Jeremy Shepherd Smith is now acting editor. [video]

Senior editorial members quit, no launch for New Age

The New Age five, according to media reports, are editor Vuyo Mvoko, deputy editor Karima Brown, news editor Amy Musgrave, opinion pages editor Vukani Mde and arts and culture pages editor Damon Boyd.

Below is the statement in full (which has also been up on www.thenewage.co.za since yesterday evening):

Senior editorial team members at The New Age resign

Gary Naidoo - Managing Editor of The New Age 19 October 2010. It was with regret that we received the resignations of five senior members of our editorial team, at 3pm today, the day before we were due to publish our newspaper.

The anticipated launch will be withheld for tomorrow, the 20th October, however the management and staff remain fully committed and are assured that this project will be a success.

Management is satisfied that all sections of the project are on track and will advise shortly of its future plans. We are pleased to announce that our night editor, Jeremy Shepherd Smith has been appointed as acting editor in the interim.

Speculation

The reasons behind The New Age five walking out are still much of a mystery, as according to various media reports, the five said in a statement to SAPA: "Collectively, we have taken the decision that it would be neither proper nor professionally acceptable for us to speak publicly about the reasons for our decision."

Twitter was abuzz last night with the news, speculation (publicity stunt, sabotage, editorial interferance?) and lots of puns.

The New Age is being published by TNA Media (www.tnamedia.co.za).

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