The pandemic-induced lockdown in 2020 brought with it many misfortunes. However, for the TygerBurger newspaper, it brought an opportunity to extend the possibilities of what a newsroom can be. This was according to Cecilia Hume, editor-in-chief of the TygerBurger.
The TygerBurger is a weekly community newspaper, owned by Media24. It distributes more than 300 000 newspapers papers free of charge, in the form of a knock-and-drop, in the Northern Suburbs of Cape Town, according to the newspaper’s website.
“We publish 14 different newspapers under TygerBurger every week. Each newspaper is hyperlocal in content to its specific community,” said Hume.
The TygerBurger claims to be “the number one source of local news in the northern suburbs [of Cape Town]”. PHOTO: Supplied/Issuu
The content in different versions of the TygerBurger sometimes overlap – depending on whether it is relevant to more than one community in the Northern Suburbs. This was according to Carina Roux, a journalist at the TygerBuger who covers the area of Kuils River. She also covers general entertainment.
The TygerBurger has one editorial team that produces content for all 14 of their newspapers.
A few of the 14 different areas that the TygerBurger publishes for and delivers newspapers to are Durbanville, Parow, Brackenfell, Goodwood and Milnerton, according to their website.
Money Matters
The health and safety of staff was a priority to the TygerBurger when the pandemic started, which enabled them to be proactive in the face of lockdown regulations, according to Hume. “By the time the president announced [the first] lockdown, our entire team had already been working from home,” said Hume.
The virtual newsrooms have continued despite the easing of restrictions. “Most of us continue to work from home,” said Roux.
More than 300 000 copies of the TygerBurger are distributed free of charge in the Northern Suburbs of Cape Town every week. PHOTO: Supplied/Facebook
The TygerBurger’s main source of income has always been advertising – with approximately 50% of the newspaper reserved for advertising space, stated Hume.
“We experienced a decrease in advertising due to the impact of lockdown regulations on general commerce,” Hume said.
Measures were put in place to offset the decline in income from the decrease of advertising, claimed Hume. “We had slightly [thinner] newspapers during hard lockdown, with one combined edition instead of 14 different ones,” said Roux.
The economic difficulties brought about by lockdown have mostly passed, according to Hume.
“As lockdown restrictions were eased and advertising started picking up, we also slowly phased back into normality [with] distribution, and our 14-zoned editions are now back to normal,” she added.
Reader experience
The TygerBurger decided to not do door-to-door deliveries during lockdown level five and four, in an effort “to put the health and safety of our staff, deliverers and readers first,” explained Hume.
Instead, the TygerBurger distributed their print copies via select retailers, according to Hume.
The TygerBurger is bilingual, publishing in both English and Afrikaans. PHOTO: Sourced/Issuu
“I always read the TygerBurger to find good deals for my next shopping trip. I usually stumble across interesting stories which I didn’t know about before,” said Janice Lodewyk, a Milnerton resident who reads the TygerBurger weekly.