So long, and thank you, for everything

Exactly a year ago, a single sentence was sent into the Twittersphere. It said simply: “The Daily Maverick, now live.” It was an inconspicuous beginning to a project that would soon turn into an adventure, a road trip that is increasingly looking more like the ride of a lifetime.

The idea seemed simple back then: launch a news website that was good-looking and a pleasure to read, meaningful and pertinent, honest and truthful to readers and advertisers alike.

Of course, us being us, The Daily Maverick [we dropped the definite article in the following years] had to break just about every convention conceivable. Each story had to be a great, magazine-quality read with big photographs of superior quality that added extra meaning to the narrative.

To make things even simpler, we wanted to also send our readers a daily newsletter that was freshly made each morning for people who had just woken up; a newsletter that would, over time, garner a religious following of bleary-eyed folks who got hooked on its newsiness, irreverence and the sheer pleasure of reading clever stuff First Thing in the day, knowing it was custom-made for them. Even if that required one-half of the original team, Phillip de Wet, to officially renounce sleep and other unnecessarily highly rated comforts.

It was a simple idea from every angle. But we couldn’t do it differently. After the terrifyingly painful demise of Maverick and Empire magazines, we made the decision to move online, but also decided to remain true to our ethos and our dedication to you, our reader.

It is safe to say that this was a momentous year for all of us here. As South Africa’s political scene steadily grew more and more chaotic, we created a safe haven for reason, a publication you can always turn to when you need to understand what is reality, what is driving it and what is likely to happen next. Today, at the beginning of our second year, we believe that, by being true to what we stand for, we’ve created a bond with you, the reader, that will not be broken.

And, of course, being only at the beginning of our road, we’re peering excitedly into our own future. It is a future in which we see ourselves as SA’s premier news website; always moving, always creating and always excited about the next day. The one we just can’t wait to share with you.

(Read the whole letter here.)

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Today is 30 October 2024, Daily Maverick’s 15th birthday, a full 14 years since I wrote this. And boy, this turned out to be an adventure, the ride of a lifetime!

We knew it would be a crazy ride — but we did not count on it being so wild, dangerous and profoundly meaningful. All along this Route Fantastique, Daily Maverick grew in size and importance, affecting so many lives as a central part of the fight against corruption, State Capture, authoritarianism and incompetence.

On this trip, I met my epiphany on the killing fields of Marikana; in the GuptaLeaks I met my sense of meaning, and in Styli Charalambous I met my partner, collaborator and friend for life.

These 15 years saw our team grow from six to 120, our readership explode from 30,000 to 14 million and our coverage get better, more impactful and inspiring every day. That little website from our first birthday message grew over the years into a modern publishing company that enriched its work with profound investigations, newsletters, The Gathering, webinars, book publishing, a weekend newspaper, documentaries and … forgive me if at this late hour I cannot think of other things we do — there’s just so much and we do it all at a world-class level.

We also kept our other original promise — anyone can still read us for free. To accomplish this, we developed Maverick Insider, which is celebrated around the world for its depth and innovation.

Most importantly, Daily Maverick grew into an unprecedented talent magnet and the team we’ve built over the years is simply peerless. Equally importantly, our relationship with our readers remains rock solid — and I cannot state emphatically enough how important it is to me personally, and to our team.

I consider myself a winner of the lottery of life — I never won any money, but my family, my team and our readers are what matters in my world. The last 15 years also brought pain, misery and desperation and yet the beauty of the people around me and on the other side of our every article, made up more than handsomely for it. The meaningfulness of our job cannot be measured in monetary terms.

So, this is it. My last day and my last letter to you.

To my successor, Jillian Green, good luck, my friend. Remember the song.

To my team, I love you. All.

To the readers, I did the best I could — please forgive me for all the imperfections.

To all of you, I hope we meet again. I love South Africa like no country on this planet. You took in a man whose soul was broken by civil war and helped him find it again. For that, you will always hold my eternal flame. DM