We copped a lot of flak for the September edition (which seasoned ‘journos’ tell me is a good thing because it means people are reading) for two articles in particular; the coffee article (‘Bean there, done that’) and the Under the Microscope article (‘All shook up’) about dietary supplements, so when I bumped into a Franschhoek local last week in the bank and she began “As far as The Month goes… I have some issues,” I thought I was in real trouble. To my huge relief she continued “... on my table that date back to November last year!” Phew!
I don’t believe all choice is discrimination, so in reviewing three coffees made in the valley we were not discriminating against all other coffee makers and I was surprised that it was seen that way by some readers. But I do understand that certain establishments are frequented solely because of their coffee and to them I apologise. That doesn’t mean they make the best coffee but the article wasn’t about that. Since the Dinky award is no more we’ll award ourselves that for the month of September.
The reaction to the Herbalife article was mixed. We were careful to approach experts (by their own admission, Herbalife sales people are not experts) and I feel their comments were fair and justified. I’m sure there are few readers that would disagree that for children, especially, we shouldn’t be using supplements to replace food. The success of the brand hasn’t, to date, been affected by this kind of extreme behaviour and it seems to us that the majority use the product sensibly. We wish Herbalife good luck - we certainly have no axe to grind.
Johnny from Telkom was right! As we reported in the September edition, Johnny predicted the Springboks were likely to lose one match but go on to win their first Tri-Nations title since 2004 – and that is exactly what happened.
The Franschhoek Valley Month celebrates its first birthday this October and although it has taken us a while to define what The Month actually is, I think we are now, after a year, getting close – we are not a local newspaper but an advert for the valley; a medium through which we encourage people to come see why we’re proud to be here. So, as we’ve approached this definition, we’ve had to adapt; changing our look, feel, distribution and contributors. Finally, we’ve adapted our pricing model and the good news is that advertising rates in The Month are now cheaper per copy than any of our competitors. It is also more accessible to smaller advertisers which is better for the look of the paper - our complicated, contract-based system is out of the window and we have moved to a straight distribution-based system. When I read that the Cape Times produce 50,000 copies a day and have a readership of 300,000 where each paper (it is claimed) is read by six readers, I realise the best way to maximise readership is to get it into peoples’ homes. Which, hence the distribution now into the PO Boxes of the Southern Suburbs and, hopefully soon, elsewhere.
The quarter-page advert that used to be R2600 is now R2200, an eighth that was R1400 is now R1100 and a sixteenth that was R750 is now just R550 which works out to a little over 5c per copy with the new 10,000 copy distribution from November:
I believe it traditional for newspapers to look back over their first year so I took some time to re-read and compile the editors highlight’s package. Apologies to those I have left out but in choosing these highlights, remember not all choice is discrimination…
In the first edition of October 2008 we interviewed Professor Mark Solms about the Delta Trust. What stayed with me was his assertion that the aim of the Trust is “not a form of moral regeneration. The idea is to find caring, creative, sustained ways to forge the ‘one community’ ideal. And key to this ideal is to tackle the MINDSET that underlies the fact that we don’t SEE ourselves as one community. We THINK it is impossible. We have to realise that we are all damaged in this sense.”
In December we did our first local personality interview with Archim von Arnim from Cabriere wines, began following the progress of perhaps the valley’s finest young entrepreneur in Aron from Ubuntu plumbing and ‘the Waiter Diaries’ began to take their now familiar tone: ‘Arrived at work unscathed. The boss told me my eyes looked terrible. “You should see what they look like from this side” I replied, and stormed off to the bathroom in what I hoped looked like an attitude of righteous indignation.’
January saw the first Question of the Month and our first Fashion article and February reported on the village’s parking problems in ‘An Urban Planning Crisis in the making?’ Regular contributor Shawn Stockigt explained the market crash in “It’s an economic slowdown, damn it, not the end of the world” and in the same month, the SA Open came to Pearl Valley Estates which gave us our first shot at press hospitality; “The truth is that having a media pass is like arriving at Disney World with a free ‘ride-as-many-times-as-you-like’ card with Mickey and Minnie following behind with complimentary food and drink.”
March saw the first motoring article 'How Logan you go?' and the first Book Review and we began receiving submitted work from Jim Waite with his gym diaries; “At 26 minutes I escape to the bathroom. I think but don’t ask: Should I remove the gloves or must I wash them in the shower? Can’t lift the shampoo to my head, so wash under my arms. Get dressed without putting socks on – cant bend and don’t care. Go home to sleep”. And the Voice of the Voiceless interviewed one of the Langrug elders Ta Ta (Father) Gilbert Macosana who recalled the past: “I came to understand that apartheid comes from the mouth, that the heart has no apartheid” and on the origins of Langrug “without wasting time asking questions, we watched (the police) breaking down our shacks. In that same day the people rebuilt their shacks and it became our strategy of resisting the system. In the end they gave up.”
The April edition saw a local Olive Oil producer surprisingly triumph in the unofficial inaugural dam swim and we had the Letter from London relating a windy Argus experience: “Nolan Hoffman (who finished second) is a flat-out, no questions asked, true blue, real live superstar… And he is a son of this Valley.” Also in April one of my favourite waiter diary exchanges takes place:
Customer: "Can I get a table for six?"
Waiter: "Sorry. We’re fully booked"
Customer: "What about that table?"
Waiter: "That table is reserved"
Customer: "I have a reservation"
Waiter: "Let me check the reservation book, Sir. Are you Dr Williams?"
Customer: "Yes!"
Waiter: "Well I’m afraid this table is reserved for Mr Barnes, sorry"
May began our love affair with the global warming debate in ‘Lies, damn lies and statistics’. We reported the cynic’s view that “Man’s contribution to greenhouse gases is so small we couldn’t change the climate if we tried. We’re all going to survive this. It’s going to be a joke in five years” and since we were hung, drawn and quartered for this in the following months we vowed to learn a whole lot more about the topic and it now forms the basis of the ‘Green Page’ in this paper.
In June we had the best ‘Lick of the Cat’ of the year with ‘In the Company of Stallions’ where an encounter with a campsite receptionist is reported: ‘Strutting up to her car the way only an overconfident middle-aged man can, I was stopped dead in my tracks when she addressed me as “Oom”. I stood there, flabby and aghast. Some might even call it flabbergasted. My jaw must have been on my chest. This was the first time that this had happened to me. She meant no malice, she was just a well-bought up Afrikaans lady being polite by respectfully addressing me as “Oom”. When had I made this transition to “Oomdom”? Did it happen while I was sleeping?’
The first Builders Article and the best Agony Aunt of the year appeared also in June and we got a good insight into Backsberg’s green initiatives from Michael Back who argued against the indiscriminate use of natural resources with “We’re in a comfort zone. Why do we do it? Because it’s cheap and convenient - but it’s madness!”
In July, the ‘Franschhoek Month’ became the ‘Franschhoek Valley Month’ and August saw our first serious stab at the Soccer World Cup with our front page reportage that “despite spending significant amounts of money on advertising, it seems that even well-versed tourism experts haven’t got a clue about the impact the World Cup is likely to make on tourist hot-spots like the Franschhoek Valley”. In addition to the financial impact even a small increase in the number of tourists will have to the Valley, the possibility for lasting social change could not be ignored, we argued, and our support and encouragement to the 14 local soccer teams continues (see page 21 in this edition).
The last couple of editions have seen the first ‘outdoor’ page that exclusively covers hiking in the surrounding mountains, the launch of our investigative journalism page, Dave Rundle’s financial advice column and the new Retail page of what’s worth having here in the valley all appear and the website www.themonth.co.za carries all the archived editions.
So, very happy with where the paper is today, I want to give special thanks to all the contributors who have helped the Month get to where it is and especially to Dave Riordan from the Kusasa Project, who reiterates the point in his last ‘Letter from London’ this month. We have indeed changed but I’m certain it’s for the better and I look forward to another 12 months with your support.