Africa-Press – Lesotho. It has been almost eight years since we began publishing thepost after a bruising legal battle in the courts. Since then, your newspaper has continued to grow, and is now a dominant voice in telling the Lesotho story. We have written with authority the political stories in Lesotho.
We have documented the beautiful stories of triumph and resilience in fighting abject poverty deep in the rural areas of Lesotho, and we have kept you entertained through our satiric column, Muckraker, knowing full well that it is important at times to laugh at our own follies.
We believe that laughter can be therapeutic. All this has been possible thanks to the excellent team we have put together at thepost. I wish to salute the whole team at thepost who have worked so hard over the years to get us to where we are.
It has not been easy but your sacrifices and endurance have made this journey bearable. I particularly want to thank the editor, Shakeman Mugari, who has worked his socks off over the years to produce an excellent, entertaining product that you can trust.
But it is now time for a shift in gears. While we remain committed to producing the physical newspaper every Thursday, we realise that the way you consume news has changed drastically.
You no longer wait for Thursday to read the news; you access breaking news on the go through social media – Facebook, WhatsApp and other platforms. If we resist change, we run the risk of being rendered totally irrelevant as a newspaper.
It is against this background that we think it is time for change – by adopting new ways of doing business. I am therefore happy to announce that we shall be launching new and exciting digital products in the next few months in response to the current challenges.
While our commitment to the basic principles of journalism remains unchanged, we want to harness the power of technology to tell Lesotho stories in a different way.
The first of these products is thepost Newsbot. The product borrows heavily from the field of robotics. In simple terms, the newsbot allows thepost to post articles which readers can interact with.
This is an exciting development for journalism in Lesotho. For the very first time, we have created a platform that will allow the reader to pick stories they want to read.
The newsbot will create content at district level and deliver news that is relevant to a particular district. It will also allow specific articles and videos to ‘go viral’ quicker.
One of its biggest advantages, though, is that it is free. Users will only need to go through a simple, two-step process to register onto the platform.
If you are an advertiser, you may wonder ‘what is in store for me and my business?’ Well, the newsbot will provide two key things. First, it will ensure you have better reader insights and reporting.
And second, it will provide in-depth business analytics as to who reads the stories. With virtually every Mosotho on WhatsApp, this platform provides an excellent ‘captive audience’ for advertisers.
Recent statistics show that 43 percent of the total internet usage in Africa was via WhatsApp. This is the audience that we seek to deliver to advertisers.
The newsbot has been jointly set up by The Post (Pty) Ltd and a Johannesburg-based technology company, Engauge Africa (Pty) Ltd. This is an exciting time for journalism in Lesotho and we hope you will enjoy the ride. Sincerely,
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