The extraordinary tale of a man who still believes in newspapers
PICTURE: Carte Blanche/Facebook
Carte Blanche
In an antique building on the main street of Calvinia in the heart of the Hantam Karoo, 91-year-old Oom Frans Hugo shuffles from his desk to the large cardboard printouts on another table.
He carefully cuts out a black-and-white photograph and sticks it just below the newspaper headline that he’s working on.
This is the newsroom where, for decades, Oom Frans has been patiently producing three weekly newspapers: The Messenger, Die Noordwester and Die Owernuus.
As the future of print news hangs in the balance, and the journalism profession faces an existential crisis, Oom Frans seems unaffected. Once a week, he sets off before daybreak to drive 1200 km in a single day, personally delivering his popular newspapers to readers across the region.
