Celebrating five years of growth

On this day five years ago – September 20, 2007 – Democratic Media Holdings (DMH) made the final push to give birth to its last-born, christened Namibian Sun.

News of the baby’s arrival was met with cheers and jeers - with detractors writing us off while the boo-boys made their fair share of noise. The doubting Thomases had already composed obituaries right at our birth when they predicted our early demise and nay-sayers too had a shot at us.

We are headquartered in Windhoek, and when we opened regional offices at Oshakati and Swakopmund, the boo-boy’s silence was deafening. When Media Matrix officially announced that we were the fastest growing daily in the country, the doubting Thomases simply disappeared.

Nay-sayers swallowed their pride when reality hit them that Namibian Sun is a driving force behind informative breaking stories, factual content and balanced reporting. We pride ourselves on being a pillar of journalistic ethics and objectivity.

Of course the road has been bumpy as this lies in the nature of the industry we are in, as well as its dynamics. But those challenges, as tough as they may be, did not distract us from our mission. We still tell it all.

This is a cut-throat industry with dog-bites-dog tendencies, but we lived to survive those.

Time has only helped us to grow a thick skin and the outcome of our resolution is there for all to see.

We are not perfect, either in content or operations. Nobody is. But we are impregnable.

Our contribution to democracy, freedom of speech, pluralism, unity and social cohesion speaks volumes. This is our own little contribution to the revolution as a responsible corporate citizen.

The past five years has seen the Namibian Sun growing by leaps and bounds. We have provided jobs but, more importantly, we are creating wealth for our country - in our own way.

Our distribution and circulation network is one of the best in the country. And despite limited resources, both financial and human, our coverage of news cuts across the entire nation.

We started off as a weekly and are now a daily, with high volumes of copies distributed country-wide every morning from Karas to Omusati and Kunene to Caprivi. We remain completely independent from any political influences and will continue to abide by the strict, vigorous routines of practicing journalism.

That we promise.