NAB'S Margie Koch retires after 30 years in the industry

Margie Koch, the legendary Divisional Manager of the Newspaper Advertising Bureau (NAB) KwaZulu-Natal, has retired after an illustrious career that spanned over three decades.

Margie's career began at 21-years-old when she left the United Kingdom, the land of her birth, to explore the world. For three years she worked her way around Jamaica, Australia and New Zealand. It was during the year she worked as a hairdresser and manager at a duty-free shop aboard a ship that she was first introduced to South Africa.

When Margie returned to England at age 27, she joined the Sunday Times in London as an Advertising Representative, a position she retained for several years. She returned to South Africa in 1969 for a six-week holiday and enjoyed it so much she decided to extend her stay indefinitely. After a year of selling self-inking rubber stamps, Margie was appointed Advertising Representative at Argus Magazines in Johannesburg, which was subsequently bought by Republican Press. From magazines she migrated to selling advertising on Putco buses.

Noel Coburn and Terry Moolman took over the advertising and marketing of Republican Press Magazines in 1972 and at the same time Telmar was introduced into advertising. At the end of 1980, Margie and her family relocated to Durban where she headed up the company handling advertising sales for Style and Pace magazines, Putco buses and several community newspapers. This was the start of the Newspaper Advertising Bureau (NAB), a Caxton Company that has subsequently grown exponentially and today represents the vast majority of South Africa's community newspapers.