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NewsDay

AMH is an independent media house free from political ties or outside influence. We have four newspapers: The Zimbabwe Independent, a business weekly published every Friday, The Standard, a weekly published every Sunday, and Southern and NewsDay, our daily newspapers. Each has an online edition.

AMH refutes foreign funding claims

News
AMH dismissed as “reckless” and “a battery of falsehoods” accusations by Zimpapers that the media group was foreign-funded.

ALPHA Media Holdings (AMH), the publishers of NewsDay, the Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard, yesterday dismissed as “reckless” and “a battery of falsehoods” accusations by Zimpapers that the media group was foreign-funded and offering free advertising to “depict a picture of success”.

Report by Staff Reporter

  Zimpapers and the Zimbabwe All-Media Products Survey (Zamps) yesterday published advertisements in The Herald attacking AMH for questioning the recent Zamps media survey’s “poor methodology, faulty sampling and unscientific questionnaire”.

  AMH was also attacked for its insistent calls for the independent auditing of circulation figures, as happens elsewhere in the world, as a way of determining the competitiveness of media products.

  AMH Chairman Trevor Ncube last night questioned the coincidence of Zimpapers and Zamps taking up space in The Herald in which the former made “reckless allegations” against the media group.

  “Is it a mere coincidence that the two organisations decided on this course of action or was this a co-ordinated effort?” Ncube asked.

  He said under normal circumstances, AMH would not have responded to Zimpapers, but the media group had a duty to its “readers, advertisers and all other stakeholders to put the record straight”.

  “We maintain that the Zamps survey is acutely defective in its poor methodology, faulty sampling and unscientific questionnaire”.

  Ncube said: “For the first time Zimpapers have made known to the public their discomfort with our innovative pricing strategy of 50 cents a copy when we launched NewsDay. This was an aggressive entry pricing strategy that worked wonders for us, and to say it was tantamount to blackmailing our readers is far from the truth. Our readers loved the price and the coupons.

  “We are grateful for the confidence readers and business have expressed over our products. This has resulted in good advertising support and very strong street sales. But Zimpapers ascribes the phenomenal growth in NewsDay’s advertising revenue to AMH ‘shamelessly’ giving ‘free advertising to depict a picture of success’.”

  Ncube said the state of advertising in AMH publications was reality that Zimpapers wanted to depict as a mirage.

  “Contrary to Zimpapers’ claims, we don’t offer freebies at all. This quest to airbrush our success will always fail,” he said.

  “In the advertisement Zimpapers repeated lies about AMH being bankrolled by the Media Development Loan Fund (MDLF). This is a tired subject which Zimpapers has oft warmed to push its foreign funding mantras. We have never shied away from explaining our relationship with MDLF. The transaction was approved by exchange authorities as investment into our business and their board representation is in line with ethical business practice.”

  Ncube said AMH had never taken its readers and advertisers for granted. “We have grown largely out of the confidence the market has bestowed on us. Our confidence-building measures do not involve blackmailing readers, misrepresenting our advertising volumes or sponsored journalism. These measures are guided by a clear AMH Pledge which we publicly share with our readers,” he added.

  “Our readers are alive to the AMH Pledge and are always the first ones to remind us of the dictates of that pledge if there is an infraction on our part. And readers have the Public Ombudsman when they perceive unprofessional conduct from our journalists. The readers know about the quality of our content. They know what sponsored journalism is and more importantly they can identify compromised content,” Ncube said.

  “Despite the battery of falsehoods, we, however, welcome Zimpapers’ commitment to have independently audited circulation figures. We are always prepared to share these with the market and we challenge other media players to follow suit. We look forward to participating in an industry-wide co-ordinated effort to ensure advertisers and readers are not misled by another ludicrous Zamps survey. This is international best practice which we owe to advertisers and readers.”