{{Short description|Newspaper in Zimbabwe}} {{Infobox newspaper | name = The Zimbabwean | logo = Logo of The Zimbabwean.png | logo_alt = | image = | image_size = | image_alt = | caption = | motto = A Voice for the Voiceless | type = Newspaper, website | format = Tabloid | owner = | founder = Wilf Mbanga | publisher = | chief_editor = Cees van der Laan<ref name="chiefeditor">Loes Reijmer, "[https://www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/cees-van-der-laan-nieuwe-hoofdredacteur-trouw~a3561828/ Cees van der Laan nieuwe hoofdredacteur Trouw]" (in Dutch), ''de Volkskrant'', 13 December 2013. Retrieved 1 November 2017.</ref> | founded = 2005 | political_position = | language = 2005 | relaunched = | headquarters = | publishing_city = London | publishing_country = England, South Africa | circulation = | circulation_date = | circulation_ref = | readership = | sister_newspapers = | ISSN = | oclc = | RNI = | website = {{URL|https://www.thezimbabwean.co/}} | free = }}
'''''The Zimbabwean''''' is a newspaper in Zimbabwe. Founded by Wilf Mbanga in 2005, it was edited in London and printed in South Africa, near the border with Zimbabwe. By 2021 it had become a weekly paper with a large online presence.
==Background== In 1999, Wilf Mbanga founded an independent Zimbabwean newspaper titled, with the goal of providing neutral coverage of events occurring in the country, but within three years Mbanga was arrested for anti-government activities. He was eventually acquitted, but was banned by the government, and Mbanga was declared an "Enemy of the People".<ref name="Sweney">{{cite news |last=Sweney |first=Mark |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/jun/23/zimbabwean-cannes-lions-award |title=Zimbabwean newspaper campaign turns worthless banknotes into gold |newspaper=The Guardian |date=24 June 2009 |accessdate=26 May 2010}}</ref> Following several death threats, Mbanga fled to Europe, first to the Netherlands and then to England.<ref name="doha">{{cite web |url=http://www.dohacentre.org/V3/spip.php?article1089 |title=Exiled newspaper gets funding to expand |publisher=The Doha Center for Media Freedom |date=24 March 2009|accessdate=26 May 2010}}{{dead link|date=February 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>
==Foundation, audience, and funding== With monetary assistance from the European Union, Mbanga founded ''The Zimbabwean'', a newspaper featuring stories provided by in-country correspondents, edited in London, and printed in South Africa, close to the Zimbabwean border.<ref name="doha"/> As its primary audience the newspaper targeted the Zimbabwean diaspora: a million Zimbabweans lived in the UK, and another two million in Southern Africa.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/blog/2005/feb/11/avoiceforthe |newspaper=The Guardian |accessdate=17 March 2021 |title='A voice for the voiceless' |first=Jeremy |last=Lennard |date=11 February 2005}}</ref> It was to be a weekly tabloid, according to Mbanga, with "a heavy emphasis on Zimbabwean politics, but will also include arts and culture, business, sports, gender issues, social issues and news analysis".<ref>{{cite news |publisher=afrol |url=http://www.afrol.com/articles/15448 |title=Zimbabwe Diaspora to launch weekly newspaper |date=31 January 2005 |accessdate=17 March 2021}}</ref> Within five years, ''The Zimbabwean'' had a daily print run of 150,000, the majority of which was exported to Zimbabwe itself. However, in June 2008, the country's government re-classified the newspaper as a luxury, imposing a 55% tax on its import from South Africa. This made it impossible for the paper to break even at a price that the average citizen could afford. By 2009, circulation of the newspaper fell from 150,000 to 30,000, and the paper had to cancel its Sunday installment.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dohacentre.org/V3/spip.php?article1363 |title=Paper launches unusual campaign to beat censorship tax |publisher=The Doha Center for Media Freedom |date=31 March 2009 |accessdate=26 May 2010}}{{dead link|date=February 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>
==2009 crisis and advertising campaign==
{{main|The Trillion Dollar Campaign}} Following the government decision to tax the paper as luxury, ''The Zimbabwean'' got Johannesburg-based ad agency TBWA/Hunt/Lascaris to start an ad campaign. The pitch became the amount of currency used to purchase ''The Zimbabwean'': after years of hyperinflation, the Zimbabwean Dollar had reached the point where the face value of many banknotes was less than the value of the paper itself.<ref name="boards">{{cite news |last=Clarke |first=Christina |url=http://www.boardsmag.com/articles/magazine/20090901/southafrica.html?__b=yes; |title=You say you want a revolution |newspaper=Boards |date=1 September 2009}}</ref> With a limited budget<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/895994/Zimbabwean-Newspaper-trillion-dollar-Campaign-TBWA-Hunt-Lascaris/ |title=The Zimbabwean Newspaper 'trillion dollar Campaign' by TBWA Hunt Lascaris |newspaper=Campaign |date=29 March 2009 |accessdate=26 May 2010}}</ref> TBWA devised a campaign in which advertisements were printed on real banknotes,<ref name="boards"/> using the collapse of the currency as an analogy for the collapse of Zimbabwe itself.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=27803 |title=Ad campaign in the running again |newspaper=The Zimbabwean |date=12 January 2010 |accessdate=26 May 2010}}</ref> The campaign was launched in March 2009, using politically charged slogans and outdoor advertising, and became successful immediately<ref>{{cite news |last=Vasquez |first=Diego |title=Turning the medium into the message |newspaper=Media Life |date=1 April 2009}}</ref> both in Southern Africa<ref>{{cite news |language=af |title=Stryd teen die regime |newspaper=Sake24 |date=28 March 2009}}</ref> and internationally.<ref>{{cite news |title=Money Message |newspaper=The Times |date=11 April 2009}}</ref> In the first week following the launch, hits to the paper's website spiked and by June 2009, sales of the paper had increased by 276%, according to TBWA/Hunt/Lascaris.<ref name="Cannes">{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVuAktRkQTE |title=The Zimbabwean Trillion Dollar campaign |publisher=TBWA Hunt Lascaris |accessdate=17 March 2021 |date=23 June 2009}}</ref> In the end, finance minister Tendai Biti did away with the tax.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.thezimbabwean.co/2009/09/trillion-dollar-campaign-breaks-records/ |date=23 September 2009 |newspaper=The Zimbabwean |title=Trillion Dollar campaign breaks records |accessdate=17 March 2021}}</ref>
==Notable contributors== *Chenjerai Hove, Zimbabwean novelist, columnist for the paper<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/chenjerai-hove-novelist-forced-exile-his-native-zimbabwe-who-sought-his-work-give-voice-voiceless-africa-10405936.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/chenjerai-hove-novelist-forced-exile-his-native-zimbabwe-who-sought-his-work-give-voice-voiceless-africa-10405936.html |archive-date=2022-05-07 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |quote=Hove wrote regularly for that paper. Like Voltaire, Hove believed that the best way to get rid of dictators was to laugh at them. In one column, Hove asked his readers to remember the stories they'd heard as children – especially the story about the proud monkey who climbed to the top of the tallest tree seeking applause from below. |title=Chenjerai Hove: Novelist forced into exile from his native Zimbabwe who sought in his work to give a voice to the voiceless of Africa |first=Trevor |last=Grundy |date=21 July 2015 |accessdate=17 March 2021 |newspaper=The Independent}}{{cbignore}}</ref> *Kumbirai Thierry Nhamo<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kumbirai Thierry Nhamo |url=https://www.thezimbabwean.co/author/kumbirai-thierry-nhamo/ |access-date=2024-04-16 |website=www.thezimbabwean.co}}</ref> *Eddie Cross *Tendai Ruben Mbofana, Zimbabwean Writer & Journalist
==See also== *List of newspapers in Zimbabwe
==References== {{Reflist}} * {{Cite web |title=Nelson Chamisa’s Face as a Logo – A Questionable Choice for CCC |url=https://www.thezimbabwean.co/2023/08/nelson-chamisas-face-as-a-logo-a-questionable-choice-for-ccc/ |access-date=2024-03-07 |website=www.thezimbabwean.co}} * https://observers.france24.com/en/20170109-illegal-water-trade-springs-taps-run-dry-zimbabwe * {{Cite web |title=Kumbirai Thierry Nhamo |url=https://www.thezimbabwean.co/author/kumbirai-thierry-nhamo/ |access-date=2024-03-07 |website=www.thezimbabwean.co}}
Category:Newspapers published in Zimbabwe