Cape Argus

The Cape Argus

The Cape Argus front page of 21 July 2009
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Compact
Owner(s)	Independent News and Media SA
Editor	Gasant Abarder
Founded	1857
Headquarters	Newspaper House, Cape Town, South Africa
Sister newspapers	Cape Times
Website	www.capeargus.co.za

Co-founded in 1857 by Saul Solomon, the Cape Argus is a daily newspaper published by Sekunjalo in Cape Town, South Africa. It is commonly referred to as The Argus.

Although not the first English-language newspaper in Southern African the Cape Argus was the first locally to use the telegraph for news gathering.

As of 2012, the Argus had a daily readership of 294 000, according to the South African Advertising Research Foundation's All Media Products Survey (Amps) Newspaper Readership and Trends. Its circulation for the first quarter of 2013 was 33 247.

Jermaine Craig is the executive editor of the Cape Argus. He replaced Gasant Abarder, who resigned in early 2013 to take up a post at Primedia in the Western Cape.

The Cape Argus was founded on 3 January 1857, by the partners Saul Solomon, journalist Richard William Murray ("Limner") and the MP Bryan Henry Darnell. However, political differences immediately surfaced between the partners. Saul Solomon was a radical supporter of multi-racial democracy, women's rights and the local "responsible government" movement; while his two partners were virulently pro-imperialist. As the Responsible Government movement grew in the Cape, the reactionary and pro-British views of Murray and Darnell became increasingly unpopular and alienated the Cape Argus readership. Saul Solomon, as MP for Cape Town, had also become the most powerful figure in the new Cape Parliament. Eventually, in 1859-62, Murray and Darnell sold their remaining shares and departed for the Transvaal.

Saul Solomon, now the sole owner of the Cape Argus from 1863, through Saul Solomon & Co., threw the newspaper entirely behind responsible government and support for non-racialism. He was immensely influential in building and shaping the company, which quickly became the leading newspaper of the Cape, overtaking the "Commercial Advertiser" of John Fairbairn.

During this time, the Argus and Solomon's printing works served as the official government printing contractor. It was responsible for the Government Gazette, but also took on the parliamentary and stationery contracts. This was principally because it was the only printing company at the time which had the resources and management to reliably fulfill these contracts. It expanded considerably to 200 employees, 8 manual presses and 10 steam-powered presses by 1878.