A few months ago, I found myself with two long waits to endure. Each time, I brought along a copy of the Financial Mail. I read both issues from cover to cover—or at least the parts that interested me. What struck me, and not pleasantly, was how much the writing and reporting had changed over the years.
The leaders—once the fiery, opinionated heart of the magazine—were pale imitations of their former selves. The features dwelt on topics of little consequence to business people or industrialists. A page “for younger readers” puzzled me: the writing was banal, the thinking shallow. Surely South Africa is not short of bright young voices who could tackle issues of the day with intelligence?
It was hard to reconcile this with the magazine I first encountered in the go-go 1980s. Then, the Financial Mail stood as the pinnacle of business journalism in South Africa. Not “financial” in the narrow sense of stock prices and balance sheets, but business in its fullest breadth—industry, economics, labour, policy.
The magazine itself was founded in 1959, with capital from both the Financial Times in London and SA Associated Newspapers. Even its title feels quaint now: “Financial” (a relic of the Victorian press), and “Mail,” as though it were a circular stuffed through the letterbox. Pedestrian perhaps, but the product was anything but.
The 1980s FM was a model of rigour. Meticulous editing was its hallmark: a business editor would polish the reporting, a sub-editor would fact-check and tidy, and proofreaders—two of them—ensured that errors almost never slipped through. Quality control of the sort that today seems like a luxury.
Technology has not been kind to print. As South Africa’s corporate base shrank—companies delisting from the JSE, multinationals quietly packing up—so too did the readership. Editorial tinkering followed, as the magazine tried to appeal to an ever-shifting audience. But quality in journalism is not like quality in consumer goods. Heinz tomato sauce is still recognisably Heinz, decade after decade. In publishing, however, quality is fragile: it lives and dies with editors, writers, and the willingness of owners to invest in depth and craft.
The international titles have managed to preserve this. The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and The Economist all have global markets, subscription revenue, and digital strategies that reinforce their print editions. They can afford robust editorial standards. In South Africa, the market is small, advertising is thin, and the temptation to cut corners is strong.
Which brings us to the present moment. The Financial Mail is now being folded into its sister daily, Business Day. Management promises continuity, but history suggests otherwise. Finance Week is gone. Finansies & Tegniek is gone. Subsumed publications tend not to survive as distinct voices.
The FM deserves better. It once gave South Africa’s business community a weekly standard against which to measure itself. Whether that spirit can endure within a larger title remains doubtful. Unless there is editorial courage—and the investment to back it—another old name may soon be added to the graveyard of South African magazines.
