The Citizen (South African newspaper)
The Citizen is a tabloid-style newspaper distributed nationally in South Africa. While its core readership is mainly in Gauteng, it also distributes to surrounding provinces such as Mpumalanga, Limpopo and the North West. In 1998, "The Citizen" was acquired by CTP/Caxton. "The Citizen" embarked on its digital evolution in 2013. The website went live on 1 August 2013 with a fresh look and more responsive design adaptable to mobile, tablet and desktop. Since then, citizen.co.za has established itself among the top South African news websites. While it is a general news site, it  also reaches niche audiences, catering to its readers’ varied interests. History. The paper was founded in 1976 during the apartheid era by Louis Luyt, at which time it was the only major English-language newspaper favourable to the ruling National Party. In 1978, during the Muldergate Scandal, it was revealed that the money to establish and finance the newspaper had come from a secret slush fund of the Department of Information, and ultimately from the Department of Defence. In 1998, the paper was bought by Caxton and CTP Publishers and Printers Limited, one of the largest publishers and printers in  South Africa. The company is involved in various fields of publishing and printing such as newspapers, magazines, commercial print, book printing, stationery, packaging and labels, as well as manufacturing ink for web presses. In 2012, Eureka Zandberg took over from Greg Stewart as the publisher of "The Citizen". Along with Editor Martin Williams, she brought in renowned design guru Dr. Mario Garcia to give the newspaper a complete revamp. In Dr. Garcia's words, "In South Africa, The Citizen decided to face those challenges and seize the opportunities, while sending a message to its devoted readers: "you have changed, and  so have we"." The new edition hit the streets on 1 August 2013. Zandberg told South African media blogsite GrubStreet that while "The Citizen" had had makeovers before, it was never to the extent of this one: "If you put "The Citizen" next to other papers, it felt tired. We thought that we owed our readers a face lift, a better product and a better experience." On 7 October 2013, "The Citizen" announced that Editor Martin Williams would be stepping down. Williams, who had been with "The Citizen" for 19 years, and contributed to its many successes, retired at the  end of October. His replacement was named as Steve Motale, who at the time was the executive editor of "Pretoria News". Motale had started off as a reporter at "The Citizen" in 2002, later becoming political editor and then editor of "Citizen Metro". The editor is now Trevor Stevens. Stevens, who joined The Citizen in 2001 as a sports reporter, became editor of The Citizen in 2017. He is also the current Saturday Citizen editor – a position he held from 2010.