NewZimbabwe Review

NewZimbabwe is one amongst the very first Zimbabwe news websites to be published from outside of Zimbabwe. The paper is based in the UK and was founded by Mr Mududuzi Mathuthu a journalist who fled Zimbabwe after the closure of the private controlled only daily paper in Zimbabwe, The Daily News. The paper covers a whole range of issues on Zimbabwe from politics, sport, business entertainment and lifestyle news items and opinions.

NewZimbabwe has a vibrant team of bloggers which is a relatively latest addition to it's opinion pieces. The paper and its editor have long been considered enemies of the state by the government of Zimbabwe and the paper was once listed as a target to be shut down. New Zimbabwe is a paper dear to many Zimbabweans in Zimbabwe and those living abroad. It is a free online paper that attracts over 50 000 visitors per day. It's main channel of revenue is advertising via Google contextual ads as well as private direct placements.

NewZimbabwe received a recent face lift after years of a lack of sophisticated design. The new look front page came with video presentations amongst other reader engaging content. The clutter from excessive advertising on the previous outlook also appears to have been resolved in the newly designed web page. You may view the old front page from 2003 on the Internet way back machine.

Due to the problems in Zimbabwe and the general intolerance of media criticism by government, according to sources staff and the editor of the paper have not travelled to Zimbabwe in years. However, the paper has some undercover reporters within Zimbabwe just like other papers critical of the government of President Robert Mugabe such as ZimDaily, Zimonline and others. NewZimbabwe has certainly a more professional outlook than many other so called online publications on Zimbabwe. The digital paper is widely respected and often quoted on Zimbabwe.

NewZimbabwe has however been criticised in some circles especially at the split of the MDC in 2005 to have openly supported the smaller MDC party of Professor Aurthur Mutambara generally viewed as being from Bulawayo. It would appear Zimbabwe has some unfinished business on tribal issues which time and again surface when accusations are exchanged. In this case the owners of the paper were accused of being tribalist by opposing Morgan Tsvangirai because they are from the Matebeland region.This however could be open for debate.

New Zimbabwe commands a very active forum involving thousands of Zimbabweans. It is worth noting that the paper has organised live question and answer sessions on the forums with prominent people of Zimbabwe such as Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor , Gideon Gono. This particular question and answer was important to many Zimbabweans living abroad because of the doomed Homelink project started by Gono to serve Zimbabweans abroad.

In recent years since its launch in the early 2000s, the owners of the paper have made moves to transform the publication into a fully fledged business. Like other online papers on Zimbabwe they have also attempted to transform the paper into a print edition. This edition has been available in the UK and elsewhere but very difficult to access in Zimbabwe.Penetrating the Zimbabwe market has proved very difficult for many due to very restrictive media and publication controls.

Technology wise, the paper is robust and its website hosts are amongst the fastest on the Internet based in the United States. The paper has suffered some serious set-backs before from malicious attacks on its servers causing website outage for days on end in some cases. Even though the general belief is that government agents are behind some of the attacks behind Zimbabwe news online publications, this notion has never been fully proved. However, NewZimbabwe is set to be on the Zimbabwe news map for years to come and indeed and formidable news leader and opinion maker.