Response on the Irish question

July 28th, 2009

I have had an interesting response to my article on Independent News and Media and my hope that ownership of their South African assets should come home. Most fun was the exchange with some senior former Indie journalists on Politicsweb.

Jeremy Gordin wrote: “I have seen countless pictures of Afghan villages recently visited by American bombers - and it is deeply insulting to these places, and the people who live in them, to claim they are more run-down than Indie’s Sauer St HQ. Just who does this Harber think he is?”

He also took umbrage at my criticism of the Sunday Independent for having a staff of about two? “Surely a lack of quantity does not mean a lack of quality?”

I responded as follows: “Please note the corrections on my article. The original article read: ‘The Sunday Independent is down to a staff of two (albeit two of the highest quality, which is considerably more than many other newspapers). Furthermore, my original version made it clear that I view having only a part-time editor as a briliiant managerial strategy. Most newspapers are better when the editor does not come to work.

‘Also, I pointed out that the real difference between your average Afghan village and the Indie HQ is the quality of hashish they produce.”

And then came a note from one John Matisonn. “As one of the few people who has had the privilege of working in both Independent Newspapers Sauer Street HQ and an Afghan village recently visited by an American bomber, I feel uniquely qualified to comment on the dispute between my colleagues Anton Harber and Jeremy Gordin.

“I write this from the capital, Kabul, where I presently work, but last week visited several Afghan villages. With a great deal of regret at having to disagree with a professor of Anton’s standing, I am obliged to report a significant number of differences:

*An Afghan village recently bombed usually retains most of its residents, since the bombs usually miss their targets
*Despite ever-increasing insecurity, I was proudly shown a new street of shops that were left untouched, showing that the bombs did not prevent a growth in employment
*In one of those streets, I was provided with a succulent meal of a quality not see in the Sauer Street canteen, for 100 Afghanis ($2)
*Village rooms, no matter how poor the owner, are covered in Afghan carpets in deep rich reds unseen in the Joburg office.

“I trust this settles the matter,” he concluded.

Indie’s group editor-in-chief Moegsien Williams, in a letter to Business Day, also lambasted me for a bad comparison. He took issue with me comparing the offices to a squatter camp, deeming it an insult to squatter camp residents. It seems I insulted everyone except the Independent group.

Moegsien and I agreed on most other things: that the local company is vastly profitable, that they have done no more than keep the Sunday Independent alive, and that in the first few years of Irish ownership, there was strong investment in new titles like Business Report and Isolezwe. He does not contradict me, at least, on my main points: that there has been ruthless cost-cutting, that the Sunday Indie has no staff or full-time editor and that times are hard at Indie Newspapers. (Hold on, didn’t they make a 20% profit margin and pump many tens of millions into the Irish economy? We should all have such hard times.)

I was intrigued that Moegsien waited a week to respond. I think this means he waited to see if boss Tony O’Reilly survived before coming out in his defence. Wise move, sir.

I have one question for you: do you agree or disagree with my view that it would be good for these assets to be repatriated, particularly to a new empowerment owner?

Entry Filed under: Anton Harber, Journalism, Print