Mail & Guardian Newspaper South Africa, published by M&G Media in Johannesburg, South Africa, with a strong focus on politics, government, the environment, civil society and business.

The newspaper was initially started as an alternative newspaper by a group of journalists in 1985 after the closures of two leading liberal newspapers, The Rand Daily Mail and Sunday Express.

The paper, originally known as the Weekly Mail, was launched on a shoe-string budget of R50 000 (about $7 000), and relied for its survival on the often unpaid labour of a small staff and part-time volunteers. The early shareholders were liberal professionals, academics and business leaders who contributed a few thousand rands each as a gesture towards maintaining a tradition of critical journalism in an increasingly harsh political climate.

Since the fledgling company could not afford to buy mainstream technology, the paper was produced entirely on personal computers, becoming one of the world’s earliest examples of Apple Macintosh-based desktop publishing.

During the Eighties, the Weekly Mail built up an international reputation as a vocal apartheid critic, leading to a number of clashes with the government that culminated in the paper’s suspension in 1988.