This week Grocott's Mail will become a weekly newspaper. This is a key milestone for us and the community we serve.
This week Grocott's Mail will become a weekly newspaper. This is a key milestone for us and the community we serve.
We believe this change will give our readers more for less money. Like other newspapers across the world, Grocott's Mail is faced with the challenges of a fast-changing world.
Media is available in more forms than ever before and newspapers that haven't adapted fast enough are failing.
Our readers are under increasing financial pressure and rising costs are affecting us all.
Many fear that these changes will mean the end of quality journalism and that the media will be “dumbed-down” to a point where it consists of little more than social chatter.
Grocott's Mail has not been slow to embrace the challenges of digital media.
We have a digital edition, a website and a special mobile site, Grahamstown Now.
We have great videos about major events posted regularly on our website.
We are active on Facebook and Twitter and now have as many people following us on these platforms as we sell printed newspapers.
We are very lucky to have a close partnership with the Rhodes University School of Journalism and Media Studies. As a result we receive much support and are kept up to date with the latest developments.
Funding raised by the School has been essential to our ability to experiment with new technologies and to find ways of reaching the whole Grahamstown community.
We want to speak for all, to all, about everything that concerns our fellow citizens. We can and will do our best and we will work hard at producing quality journalism.
As a result, we have become well known internationally for our innovative approach. We are often invited to speak at conferences and to train other local media organisations.
I was recently invited to spend two weeks training local journalists in Tunisia and Egypt.
The courses formed part of the German government's efforts to support media organisations that are committed to building democracy in the wake of the Arab Spring.
There is so much hype about the “Twitter revolutions” and the Arab Spring but the reality is much more complicated.
While social media did make communication easier, social change was driven by civic organisations and people determined to create a better way of life.
The old governments have been pushed out but there is much work to do to consolidate democracy and to make sure that ordinary people's lives are improved.
Local media has a very big role to play in this and it was inspiring to see young people determined to build local media from the ground up, often in places where only state-sponsored media existed before.
Many of these journalists work as volunteers, using their own equipment, while trying to find ways of becoming sustainable operations.
I realised that no matter how modest our newspaper operation is, how financially challenged or how small our market, we are very fortunate to have the skill, dedication and track record we do.
We have a lot to learn and much we can improve and we never rest in our efforts to be counted among the best local media anywhere.
As has always be the case, our readers will be the judges and you will decide if we survive and in what form.
One thing you can count on: we are a dedicated and hardy bunch, living in a part of the world that requires a tough mind and determination to thrive.
We will continue to show the world what a small group of determined people committed to a worthy idea can do.
And we are strengthened in this by the continued support of our town's businesspeople, our civic leaders, our colleagues at Rhodes University and most importantly you, our readers.
Steve Kromberg is the General Manager of Grocott's Mail.
