Even Mugabe loves the Daily News

The Daily News, once one of the largest circulating papers in the country before it was closed down in 2003 only to be allowed to come back by the inclusive government, is thriving against all odds because it was founded on a solid commercial foundation and did not depend on advertising or donor support but on circulation, its chief operating officer Sharon Samushonga says. Newspapers in the country have been facing an uphill task with the Zimbabwe Mail, a daily, closing down and Southern Eye, a Bulawayo daily, also closing down to be turned into a supplement of its sister paper Newsday. Samushonga said contrary to expectations of many, the majority of the Daily News’s dedicated readers were Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front supporters and not opposition supporters. “And for the information of those readers who may not know this, 90 percent of our stories, whether some people may perceive them positively or negatively, are given to us in good faith by very senior people in Zanu PF, in government and in business. This is why we often laugh our lungs out when our would-be competitors, in all their different shades and journalistic spectrums, launch ill-informed but expected attacks against us, desperate to discredit us and to portray us as unpatriotic. It’s futile, because even the First Family loves the Daily News!” Samushonga says.

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