This newspaper is published on 11 May, an auspicious date that recalls the long history of Grocott’s Mail
and at the same time looks forward to a national sporting celebration.
This newspaper is published on 11 May, an auspicious date that recalls the long history of Grocott’s Mail
and at the same time looks forward to a national sporting celebration.
On this date in 1870, Thomas Henry Grocott published the first edition of Grocott’s Free Paper. The first editorial made it very clear that the newspaper was fundamentally an advertising medium.
He wrote, “Today we present the public with the first copy of Grocott’s Free Paper which will be published every Wednesday, and distributed freely all over the City, on the morning market and several Frontier Towns.
We merely ask you to accept it, read the advertisements, and then make large purchases.” This business model, still widely in use across the whole country, did not serve the interests of Thomas Henry Grocott for very long.
Less than two years after the first edition hit the streets, the paper changed its title to Grocott’s Penny Mail and the editorial for the first edition described the change as an “outgrowth of the Free Paper taking its stand as a regular news-sheet.”
The priority was set the newspaper was primarily a platform for distributing news that also happened to carry advertising to offset costs.
That priority is still in force the core business of Grocott’s Mail is news and information. This date also marks an important milestone in the future of this country today it is exactly one month until the kick-off of the Soccer World Cup.
The excitement ahead of this important event is almost too much to bear. When South Africa initially won the right to host the World Cup, 2010 seemed so far in the future that it was difficult to imagine it really taking place in our country.
Now it is just one month away and the country is ready to step into the limelight and show the world what we can do.
Starting (as the advertisements tell us) that 11 June will be a historic date that we will all remember for the rest of lives is a massive understatement.
