{{Short description|Tabloid newspaper in South Africa}} The '''Golden City Post''' was a South African tabloid newspaper<ref>{{Cite book |last=Horwitz |first=Robert Britt |url=https://archive.org/details/communicationdem0000horw/mode/1up?view=theater&q=%22golden+city+post%22 |title=Communication and democratic reform in South Africa |date=2001 |publisher=Cambridge; New York : Cambridge University Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-511-01221-1}}</ref> that was established in 1955<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-11-15 |title='There was a heated discussion about me going to work for this "native" paper'—Read an excerpt from Freedom Writer, the memoir of legendary journalist Juby Mayet |url=https://johannesburgreviewofbooks.com/2022/11/15/there-was-a-heated-discussion-about-me-going-to-work-for-this-native-paper-read-an-excerpt-from-freedom-writer-the-memoir-of-legendary-journalist-juby-mayet/ |access-date=2024-12-26 |website=The Johannesburg Review of Books |language=en-US}}</ref> and run by the same publisher as Drum magazine<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=The beat goes on - 70 years of telling the South African story |url=https://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/lifestyle/the-beat-goes-on-70-years-of-telling-the-south-african-story-6a47d8a4-0d9c-4b13-81db-0634086ad76f |access-date=2024-12-26 |website=www.iol.co.za |language=en}}</ref> (established in 1951). The Golden City Post was financed and managed by James Richard Abe Bailey (Jim Bailey<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-06-07 |title=Jim Bailey {{!}} South African History Online |url=http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/people/bios/bailey_j.htm |access-date=2024-12-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607064014/http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/people/bios/bailey_j.htm |archive-date=7 June 2011 }}</ref>) with separate editions published for the Cape and Natal.<ref>{{Cite web |title= |url=https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/post-south-africa/20201111/281672552469081 |access-date=2024-12-26 |via=PressReader}}</ref>
Jim Bailey took on the role of editor and paired the "sex and sin" <ref>{{Cite web |title= |url=https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/post-south-africa/20230308/281586654811927 |access-date=2025-11-16 |via=PressReader}}</ref> tabloid newspaper with the magazine.<ref>Kalane, L. (2018) THE CHAPTER WE WROTE, the City Press story, media and politics in a changing South Africa</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/lifestyle/the-beat-goes-on-70-years-of-telling-the-south-african-story-6a47d8a4-0d9c-4b13-81db-0634086ad76f | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240908131205/https://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/lifestyle/the-beat-goes-on-70-years-of-telling-the-south-african-story-6a47d8a4-0d9c-4b13-81db-0634086ad76f | archive-date=8 September 2024 | title=The beat goes on - 70 years of telling the South African story }}</ref> Although the Golden City Post today is not remembered as prominently as its sister publication, both the paper and the magazine gave black journalists the copy space to report on the scene in Sophiatown,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-05-28 |title=Cover Girls of the Anti-Apartheid |url=https://www.messynessychic.com/2021/01/26/cover-girls-of-the-anti-apartheid/ |access-date=2024-12-26 |website=Messy Nessy Chic |language=en-US}}</ref> its jazz singers, boxers, cover girls and their individuals stories<ref>{{Cite news |title=How to defy apartheid? For journalist Juby Mayet, with pen in hand. |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2019/0417/How-to-defy-apartheid-For-journalist-Juby-Mayet-with-pen-in-hand |access-date=2024-09-08 |work=Christian Science Monitor |issn=0882-7729}}</ref> while also making visible the inequities, injustices and cruelties facing black urban South Africans under Apartheid.<ref>Les Switzer (ed.), South Africa's Alternative Press: voices of protest and resistance, 1880s-1960s, Cambridge University Press, 1997</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Chapter we Wrote by Len Kalane (Ebook) - Read free for 30 days |url=https://www.everand.com/book/641526197/The-Chapter-we-Wrote-The-City-Press-Story |access-date=2024-12-27 |website=Everand |language=en}}</ref> Drum readership grew rapidly and at one time was the largest magazine readership in Africa in any language.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cowling |first=Lesley |date=2020-07-14 |title=Journalism of Drum's heyday remains cause for celebration - 70 years later |url=https://theconversation.com/journalism-of-drums-heyday-remains-cause-for-celebration-70-years-later-142668 |access-date=2024-12-27 |website=The Conversation |language=en-US}}</ref> When readership declined, The Golden City Post then carried the magazine as a fortnightly supplement.<ref name=":0" /> The Golden City Post was sold to the Argus Newspaper in 1971 <ref name=":0" /> and then it was shut down on 19 October 1977 as a result of a ban on “black-oriented newspapers” and the imprisonment of journalists.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sesanti |first=Simphiwe |date=2007 |title=Distinctly African |url=https://rjr.ru.ac.za/rjrpdf/rjr_no27/Distinctly_African.pdf |journal=Rhodes Journal Review |issue=27 |pages=34–35}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Moodley |first=Neesa |date=2024-06-13 |title=Media24 'to phase out City Press, Beeld, Daily Sun and Rapport newspapers' |url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-06-13-media24-to-phase-out-city-press-beeld-daily-sun-and-rapport-newspapers-say-reports/ |access-date=2024-12-27 |website=Daily Maverick |language=en}}</ref>
In 1982, Jim Baily and the South African Associated Newspapers (SAAN)<ref name="moneyweb.co.za">https://www.moneyweb.co.za/news/end-of-an-era-media24-to-close-iconic-newspapers/</ref> re-launched the paper under a new name, the Golden City Press. The next year “Golden” was removed from the name.<ref name="moneyweb.co.za"/> The partnership between Baily and SAAN failed and Nasionale Pers (Naspers),<ref>Apartheid Inc. – Profile of a racist corporation, June 9, 2010". History Matters. 22 January 2015. Retrieved 08 September 2024.</ref> purchased both the Golden City Press and Drum magazine on the 1 April 1984.<ref>Gongo, K. (2008). “Distinctly African”: The representation of Africans in City Press. University of Witwatersrand: Johannesburg</ref> Which was rebranded the City Press.<ref name="Reporter">{{Cite web |last=Reporter |first=City Press |title=WATCH: City Press transitions to digital: Honouring the past, embracing the future |url=https://www.news24.com/citypress/news/watch-city-press-transitions-to-digital-honouring-the-past-embracing-the-future-20241223 |access-date=2024-12-26 |website=City Press |language=en-US}}</ref>
Len Kalane, the former City Press editor, traces City Press newspaper’s lineage back to the Golden City Post.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kalane |first=Len |title=The Chapter we Wrote: The City Press Story |date=2018 |publisher=Jonathan Ball}}</ref>
Declining print circulation figures led to both Drum magazine’s print edition being shut on July 7, 2020<ref>{{Cite web |last=Botha |first=Kerry |date=2020-08-04 |title=What happens when The Drum is silenced… Drum Magazine's closure |url=https://pleiades.co.za/press-plei/what-happens-when-the-drum-is-silenced/ |access-date=2024-12-27 |website=Pleiades Media |language=en-ZA}}</ref> with the City Press following suit four years later when the final print edition was published in December 22, 2024.<ref name="Reporter"/>
== References == <references />
== External links ==
* [https://baha.co.za/ Bailey's African History Archive (BAHA)]
Category:1955 establishments in South Africa
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