Tony O'Reilly brings 'sex and scandal' to South Africa

O'Reilly's newest title is bringing British tabloid values to South Africa, reports Emma Browne

Headlines from the first edition of the Daily Voice included: 'Man busted for goat sex"; "Gay pair give head to cops"; "Fury over lesbian live sex show"; "Chimps rip bits off man"; and, "I am going to die today, mom", about a 6-year-old who "forecast" his own death.

The Daily Voice is Tony O'Reilly's new daily tabloid in South Africa. The Independent News and Media Group launched it in March 2005, the first daily tabloid distributed in Cape Town. O'Reilly has put two Irishmen at its helm. The executive editor is Karl Brophy, previously a Fine Gael press officer and political correspondent for the Irish Independent and Irish Examiner. The chief designer is Alan Murphy.

The newspaper is similar to the UK Sun. Its strapline is "Sex, Scandal, Skinner [gossip] and Sport". The newspaper thrives on its shock value, with sex as its focal selling point. They also cover English football. It has been renamed the "Daily Vice" by 'His People's Church' spokesperson Errol Naidoo, who also blamed it for Cape Town's long-running drought.

"If we couldn't sell newspapers in this market, which was very under-served, we should all be shot," said Karl Brophy. The newspaper is the first daily tabloid in Cape Town, and part of a new wave of tabloid journalism that began in South Africa in 1999. It is primarily aimed at the "coloured" population, which makes up 50 per cent of Cape Town's population and mostly live in the Cape Flats townships.

The Daily Voice is a tabloid in the "classical British and Irish tradition", Brophy said, with "a fair amount of sex, but not overly" and political and social coverage.

"Nobody's really taken on government, the councils, the mayors like we have in the first few weeks."

The latest circulation figures (December 2004) show that tabloids account for 1.3 million weekly sales in South Africa. The tabloids have livened up the stagnant South African newspaper market.

The Daily Voice has a print run of 100,000, Brophy said, but would not say what the circulation figures were. They hope to have a circulation of 200,000 within the next three years.

Last month the newspaper published stills from a videotape showing police officers partying with an alleged gang member. The expose led to the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) anti-corruption task team descending on the relevant police station and they are now looking into "serious allegations of corruption" in relation to six policemen.

The newspaper had another successful campaign, "Kill the Bush", which resulted in the mayor of Cape Town pledging to cut down an extensive thicket where women and children have been raped and murdered.

Brophy also cited a front-page lead story, "Jesus lives in my toilet", about an apparition of Jesus in the frosted glass of a bathroom window. Another story headlined: "Muffi hooker shot in the gat". ("Moffi" is slang for gay, and "gat" is slang for bottom) caused outrage among the conservative South Africans. The story explained "he dressed as a woman then ripped off horny clients". The article was met with calls from other journalists for "responsible journalism". But Brophy defended his title, saying the South African media was "boring" and that his paper brought "fun" as well as serious reporting to it.

Independent News and Media owns two other Cape Town newspapers. Between them they "completely dominate" the urban market, Brophy said. They also have the usual Independent titles in South Africa as well as a Zulu language newspaper called Isolezwe, which they launched over two years ago. There is also a glossy magazine called Glamour.

Sales in South Africa account for 12.7 per cent of Independent News and Media's worldwide sales. Their operating profits for South Africa were up 31.9 per cent to €31 million in 2004. The company has also recently bought a 26 per cent stake in a two-million selling Indian newspaper, Dainik Jagren.