I’m back …
Here we go again. The Citizen newspaper has kindly and courageously offered me a home for my column. My first tabloid! This is tremendously exciting.
Cut & Run appears for the first time today but will in future be published on Wednesdays.
Part of the deal is exclusivity – meaning I can’t spread the column around. It’s not on the paper’s website and it won’t appear on my blog. So if you want to read it, and you’d be an idiot not to, you will have to either buy the paper or subscribe to the newspaper’s e-edition. You can even pay for just a single copy. On, for instance, Wednesdays.
Here’s the link http://thecitizen.pressreader.com
Excellent news, I’ll definitely subscribe, R7.00 a Wednesday equates to a Pint and a half…good horse tips in the Citizen as well.
NO!!!! Don’t do it! There will be deadlines, pressure, arguments, etc.
We will miss you. I am glad that you wont forget us. I wish you all the best.
Well, I’m pleased for you that a newspaper, albeit that rag, The Citizen, has had the good sense to pick up a regular column from our favourite wordsmith. It’s a double-edged sword of sorts, Ben Trovato on the one side and the legacy of Eschelle Rhoode on the other. God help us if the two should slip and there be a commingling of the bloods. What sort of beast would emerge. The love child of Tom Cruise and Madam Mao perhaps? Heaven forbid, even Deildrin couldn’t save us! I wish you speedy success in the eventual overthrow of the established order! Viva revolucion, a la Ben Trovato! PeterG, Cape Town
Thanks Peter. To be fair, though, the Info Scandal was almost half a century ago. I think those ghosts have long since departed the premises.
Ben – baie geluk!
Ek kan nie Engels lees nie maar sal ‘n plan maak om jou nie te mis nie😛
Dewald (en almal in my straat)
Dankie Dewald
I used to read your columns while spending the European winters in lovely, balmy Cape Town. But since last summer I’m back in Amsterdam, the Netherlands for good. There is no shop or kiosk in my home town where I can buy the Citizen, so there is no way I can read your colums unless I start flying to CPT every Wednesday…
Can’t you convince your new boss that publishing your colums on line 2 or 3 weeks after the original publishing date really won’t harm their paper? Please? P l e a s e…
Hi Fon. You’d be able to read the column if you subscribed. Is that not an option for you? You can even just pay R7 for a single edition – the one with the column in it. Here’s the link http://thecitizen.pressreader.com
The Citizen’s gain is our loss.
Can’t you wrangle it into your contract that you make it available on your blog after a reasonable time lapse, say two weeks or so?
Incisive literature like this should not go to waste.
Thanks Yogan. I doubt they’d go for it. They want people to subscribe or buy the paper.
And fair shout to them. In this craven, commercial World everybody needs to find, invent or steal new ways to pay the bills. Penury, shame and poverty are the alternatives. Not a pretty sight from any angle. Provided that your compensation package is fair and up to snuff I see no problem with the exclusivity proviso. But, the question begs asking; who holds copyright to the material? To my way of thinking, exclusivity has an expiry date. 6 months, a year, whatever. But, copyright must always vest with the creator/author. Am I being naive?
I don’t have a contract yet. I’ve always held onto copyright in previous incarnations, so I don’t see why it would be any different this time around.
Nice. What a long way they’ve come!!
They sure have, Graeme. Quite astounding that the paper even managed to survive that madness 45 years ago. The only good that came out of it was that John Vorster had to resign. Then again, that paved the way for PW Botha. Swings and roundabouts.
Oh. OK. However, I am still pondering whether, having being born here, I am a CITIZEN (read subject) of S Africa because I am a Native or whether I am Naturalized.
Relief for your pocket. Sad for my free Poison addiction; have to go into rehab.
It’s okay. I’ll still be subjecting the loyalists to the occasional rant.
I am disappointed. I would much rather the ANC sponsored a column from you on their website. You would reach a far wider audience to piss off. I cannot forget how The Citizen was conceived by f*****g the taxpayer to promote the agenda of the then ruling party.
That was a long time ago, Dairmuid. I imagine most people who work on the paper today weren’t even born when The Citizen was conceived. Try to forget.
Im betting their circulation will rise considerably. Good move on their part.
Thanks Ginny. Let’s hope so.
what a dastardly thing to do to scumbags like myself who want , no, who need free stuff. Im deeply saddened that youve had to sell out to the running dogs of WMC capitalism in order to keep a Tafel Lager on the tafel
No fear, Michael. I still plan on giving my loyal scumbags free words as often as possible.
Hi Ben, I’m happy for you but sad that I will no longer be receiving your perfect analysis of our sorry state. I have a strong dislike of newspapers in general, the Citizen being no exception. Anyhow, best of luck for the future.
Thanks Laurie. It’ll take more than a regular gig to shut me up. I’ll still be posting stuff on the blog.
Happy for you Ben and Citizen subscribers, so sad for the rest of us, who breeds on social media, hahaha…
Perhaps you can through our movement a bone, on one of your future “blogs”. http://www.cmosa.org
Hi Lorraine. Fortunately the deal doesn’t preclude me from writing other stuff, so I’ll still be posting random gibberish on this site.
I am very glad for you. Hope 2019 brings you good health and lots of money.
Thanks Claudette. Doubt the money thing will happen, but I’ll settle for reasonable health.