Cape Town Daily Photo

Die Burger, Naspers and The Borg

Die Burger, first published as long ago as 26 July 1915, is a super-popular print newspaper read mostly by Afrikaans-speaking South Africans. The name is essentially a direct translation of The Citizen, which I would imagine to be a popular name for newspapers all around the world.

Die Burger is owned by Naspers, a large corporate that owns other well-known print brands such as Huisgenoot (and YOU), Drum, Fair Lady, City Press, Shape, Daily Sun, City Press, Beeld, etc. Many years ago Naspers formed a pay-television company, M-Net, and a television signal-distribution and communications company, MultiChoice. The company expanded in later years to create a large Internet service provider called MWeb, then launched the Media24 division (with it's *24 brands), and in more recent years started buying stakes in hot-shot digital startup companies like MXit and Blue World Communities.

People have often referred to large software companies such as IBM and Microsoft as "The Borg" due to their strategy of buying out the competition's software to add to their growing portfolio of solutions. It's become apparent to me that, due to their size and pervasiveness in the market, in some ways Naspers is becoming South Africa's own Borg of the media and publication sector...