Late last night, as South Africa was sleeping, the presses were running.
For the first time, The National was being printed and, today, when you wake up, the first hard copy of The National will be waiting for you.
There is something almost defiant about that.
At a time when journalism is under pressure, when trust is fragile and when information arrives faster than anyone can properly absorb it, we have chosen to build a newspaper.
That, we believe, takes courage.
It takes courage to believe that careful reporting still matters. To verify before publishing. To ask difficult questions of people in power. To challenge the comfortable and listen to voices that might otherwise go unheard. And to accept that getting the story right matters more than getting it first.
We know there is no shortage of news. What is harder to find is journalism that is willing to stand behind what it says. We want to be a home to you, a place were you come, away form the noise, to understand what is happening in the world.
That is what The National wants to be.
We arrive at a difficult moment for South Africa, for the world and for the news business. We know the risks. We know the challenges.
But we also believe that this is precisely the moment when journalism needs people prepared to be brave enough to ask, rigorous enough to verify and independent enough to follow the facts wherever they lead.
The first edition will not be perfect. No first edition ever is. But it is a beginning. It will run alongside our digital home, giving our readers a smorgasbord of what matters in the world, and why it matters.
And as the presses turned and paper became pages, pages became a newspaper, we watched as midnight struck, an idea become something real.
A new newspaper. A new voice. And a belief that some things are not only worth building, but must be built.
Welcome to The National, we look forward to have you on this journey with us
The National team