By Staff Reporter
Community newspapers in Zimbabwe continue to face difficulties in their operations as a result of not being properly funded, a situation that has incapacitated them from effectively competing with the state and privately owned papers, it has been revealed.
NewZiana news agency which amalgamated with the Community Newspaper Group (CNG) holdings to become the largest multimedia group in the country was established by the government and came as a counter attack to the alleged negative news reports ‘propagated’ by the western media.
Payment of staff salaries comes hard to many NewZiana ‘s tributaries as the group has to raise salaries through copy sales and advertisements, which has proven to be a hustle as the papers suffer from lack of recognition and good publicity.
“The vendors whom we distribute our papers to, always complain that people are not buying our paper,” said one marketing student on attachment at Ilanga community newspaper in Gwanda.
The student further added that advertisers were reluctant to place adverts with them because they preferred those papers with a national reach.
Another factor is that of the advertiser’s lack of confidence in community papers. Their being weekly publications has also culminated to more hardships faced by the group.
This comes in line with the fact that by the time papers are published, daily papers would have already covered all the stories, making theirs look like stale news with others adding that the papers are not reliable.
“Our paper is printed in Gweru and that has led to it failing to appear on the streets on the expected day of publishing, ” said one former employee of Nehanda Guardian. Factors of remuneration have seen most community papers run by students on work related learning with a few permanent staff.
“Staff in community papers relies on students on attachment, a case which applies to most NewZiana papers which have one or two permanent journalists apart from the editor, said a former attaché at the Gweru Times who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“There are instances were the whole paper is run by one person who will be responsible for newsgathering, editing and distribution and there are no specialized beats for reporters” said Mvelo Zondo a chief reporter at Ilanga in Gwanda.
Most stations don’t have station cars to use in reaching remote areas, a factor that has left most journalists with no other option but to use their personal funds and at times depend on sources for transport or let go of the stories or events that they would have aspired to cover.
However, the case is different at Masvingo Star and Ilanga were journalists said they receive airtime and transport allowances though Zondo said the allowances were not enough.
Limited resources such as computers make it difficult for journalists to reach deadlines as some computers freeze in the middle of typing.
“We had only one outdated desktop that was used by all interns which usually swallowed stories while typing because of viruses,” said the Gweru Times former employee.
He further added that the machine was not serviced despite being used by eight students at the time of his engagement with the group the whole of last year.
The Gweru Times is not immune in the issue of computers. In Nehanda Guardian, also there is one computer for the whole newsroom crew and the marketing personnel.
The Pro- Zanu PF stance of reporting has impacted negatively on the group by offsetting advertisers and compromising on objectivity, as any form of criticism to the party is not allowed.
Employees at Nehanda Guardian are said to be under surveillance supervision by the Intelligence people and more over ZanuPF has a firm grip of power in the province.
When the community papers came into being, the idea by the government was to bridge the communication gap that existed between rural and urban citizenries but that has been uneasy because in urban areas the papers have a limited circulation.
The reach for rural populace has been impossible as the papers can hardly be found there and moreover, they are written in the English language and not vernacular, thus perpetuating communication barricade, as most people in rural areas are neither capable of reading nor conversing in the language.
Efforts to get comment from Mr. Walter Mapungwana who is the overseer of the NewZiana-CNG stationed at Chaminuka in Mashonaland province at Marondera were fruitless as he cited being busy with classes at Gweru’s Midlands State University (MSU) where he is undertaking his studies.
