TODAY you are reading a new and modern looking Standard newspaper.
FROM THE EDITOR WALTER MARWIZI’S DESK
We started quietly introducing changes to the newspaper’s design two weeks ago and the new-look paper is now very different from the old publication that had a white and gold masthead.
This product is a culmination of months of planning by the editorial and marketing teams at Alpha Media Holdings. It’s not just the colour of the masthead that has changed to blue, it’s almost everything inside where pages have become more reader-friendly than before with pictures now being used to greater effect.
Our bumper Standard Style section, which caters for the family, is now a perfect leisure read packaged in a magazine format. Our sports pages have been revamped and now carry eight pages of your favourite local, regional and English sports among others.
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The commentary and opinion pages have also undergone a major facelift and now match modern design standards. Here readers can get various informed thoughts and hard-hitting and insightful commentary on issues affecting not only Zimbabwe, but the whole world.
The idea behind the rebranding exercise is to deliver a world-class product that meets the needs and expectations of our valued readers. After 17 years in the business of delivering quality news and information every Sunday, it is imperative to keep improving the paper in order to offer more value to our readers.
We want The Standard to be appealing and to engage more with the readers, many of them now publishing their own content on various social media platforms.
The changes, which have already generated a lot excitement among the readers, will be complemented by content that is relevant to people’s lives.
As a family-centred newspaper, we are aware of the challenges that Zimbabweans are facing in their day-to-day lives. The liquidity crunch, worsening unemployment spawned by company closures, collapsing services in small and big cities across the country, are issues that we will find space in The Standard.
We want the paper to be a platform for civic engagement in order to broaden the democratic sphere which continues to shrink in both Zanu PF and the MDC-T. Now there is too much retribution in our political parties when members express divergent opinions.
The Standard newspaper will remain an independent, fair, balanced and engaging newspaper which will continue to play its watchdog role in order to keep leaders accountable.
In line with this pledge, we promise to continue shining the spotlight on the dark corners, especially where corruption is thriving. Despite President Robert Mugabe’s pledge to fight graft, there is little that is happening on the ground and fat cats in the public sector continue to earn their mega salaries while workers toil for months without getting their measly wages.
Just on Thursday it was revealed Harare City Council management bought top-of-the-range vehicles using a loan provided by the Chinese to fix the city’s ageing water and sewere reticulation system. What a case of misplaced priorities!
l We value your feedback on the changes that we have introduced. You can write to [email protected].
