by Thinus Ferreira
Another staple is disappearing from the magazine stand at tills with tvplus magazine which is shuttering and ending its print run after 23 years.
For over two decades the 69-page magazine covered and brought readers TV programme listings, behind-the-scenes information, as well as interviews and summaries of international and local South African TV shows, soap operas and their stars.
The 23 March 2023 print edition of tvplus, a magazine within the Media24 stable that was published fortnightly with separate Afrikaans and English versions, will be its last.
The first issue of tvplus appeared in October 1999. Karen Hart started tvplus as its first editor, with Lucia Poolman as its last.
"We're celebrating the last two issues with fun trips down memory lane and other storyline articles you won't want to miss," says Lucia Poolman, tvplus editor. "We are grateful to all the readers and advertisers who have been part of our tvplus family for so long."
Over shutting the magazine down Nerisa Coetzee, head of Media24 Lifestyle, in the statement says ""Due to the tough economic climate, together with rising costs, it is unfortunately no longer feasible to publish tvplus".
About starting tvplus in the late 1990s (under the working title of "Seepbel / Soap Bubble"), Karen Hart tells me that the question takes her back to the weekly telephone calls she got from a woman named Carolina of Brits while she was still the entertainment editor of Huisgenoot and YOU.
"Conversations would start with, 'Hi Karen, wow that Brooke...' Anyone else would have thought the woman is crazy, but TV soap characters are like real people to many people".
"It was for the Carolinas that I started TVPlus. And for the more sophisticated market who, still today, have conversations about Netflix and Showmax series and think they're part of an elite group. In truth, everyone has a bit of Carolina in them. Everyone's Brooke just looks a bit different. That was the whole motivation behind tvplus - enjoy your series and chat together."
Karen Hart remembers that the first month's sales of tvplus "exceeded our wildest expectations.
It was unheard of for the launch issue of a new magazine to sell over
100 000". For
the launch, the magazine was presented in a mock TV dinner packaging, including
a pair of oven gloves.
"But it wasn't all smooth sailing," she remembers. "The SABC also
had a TV magazine at that time and wanted to take us to court because we
claimed in the run-on line on the cover of tvplus that we are the best.
Ridiculous, I know, and now I can laugh about it."
Hart says she thinks back fondly of tvplus "with wonder and gratitude. We were a small team who did the impossible through passion".
