“An apple a day keeps the doctor away” is a centuries-old proverb. There is a brand with an apple as its symbol. It is the nickname of the vibrant and diverse New York, and Oscar-winning actress, Gwyneth Paltrow, named her first-born daughter, Apple.
There must be something very good about an apple, because the newspaper that is fondly known as the Apple Express, the Port Elizabeth Express, is turning 40 in November – which is quite a milestone for a free local newspaper.
Port Elizabeth Express’s first masthead featured a big green apple. In those days the Apple Express Steam train was a big tourist attraction for Port Elizabeth, so the founders of the newspaper put a bright green apple in the masthead, because “local is mos lekker”.
To this day, people still call the newspaper the Apple Express.
If you google it, the words Apple Express newspaper actually pop up.
While the steam train is unfortunately no longer running, the same cannot be said for Port Elizabeth Express. For a free local newspaper to turn 40 despite many challenges in the print media industry is surely a sign of standing the test of time.
Deeply rooted in our community
There is a saying “the stronger the wind, the stronger the trees; the further the sky, the greater the length; the more the storm, the more the strength”.
A strong tree is one whose roots run deep, yet it is flexible and bends enough to withstand the storms. This is a good simile to describe Port Elizabeth Express: deeply rooted in its communities, while flexible enough to stand tall despite the strong winds of change.
Over the past four decades, the Port Elizabeth Express has never stood still. And while it has moved with the times, it has stayed true to its original roots – of being a community newspaper – a newspaper giving a voice to the people of the community, as well as being the voice, eyes and ears of the community it serves, because those who contribute to it, its reporters and staff members, are an integral part of the community, and community members themselves.
It’s a small world
I was 13 years old when the first edition was published – just completing my primary school days at Summerwood Primary before moving to Pearson High School, and then the former University of Port Elizabeth.
In my primary school class was a fellow pupil whose father was part of the team that established PE Express. Little did I know that only 10 years later this publication, and Media24, would become such an indelible part of my life over three decades.
Browsing through the first edition recently, I saw a former colleague whose picture was published, playing at the beach, when she was only three. She was astonished to see that picture of herself in the newspaper. In those editions I also saw many photos of my fellow learners in the schools’ section; my mom was also featured a few times for her knitting design talents.
On the cover of the front page was a little girl, who later in life became the girlfriend of a friend of mine. We only found that out 10 years ago, when we did a search for that young girl.
In Port Elizabeth one can truly say “it is a small world”.
That is probably one of the beauties of this city, and for the past four decades PE Express has run like a golden thread through every community of this diverse city.
An apple a day
So getting back to an apple a day. . . For many years Port Elizabeth Express was a weekly source of news and great shopping specials, delivered in people’s post boxes every Wednesday. Even Covid could not stop us from doing that.
Over the years, the print orders grew as the newspaper became more popular and soon 120 000 copies were printed, making it the largest single-title free sheet in South Africa.
Especially during Covid it became clear one Apple Express per week was no longer enough. While we had social media pages before the pandemic struck, it forced us to put even more focus onto digital-first news on our Facebook pages, as well as our landing sites on News24 and Netwerk24. In a time of great uncertainty our readers needed to know daily what is fact and what is true.
Now in 2023, Port Elizabeth Express is a daily source of news – trusted news – and our almost 300 000 pageviews on News24 per month, is testimony to that.
Now people have their apple 24/7, and this future-fit thinking is what the PE Express team believes is what keeps this source of news as fresh, healthy and wholesome as the big green apple in its first masthead.
As a tribute to this, we have put the apple back into our masthead for our birthday month. We hope our leaders love it as much as we do.
So make sure to get your apple a day. Here’s to many more decades of serving this beautiful community of ours!
