Dominante motiewe in die transformasie vanHuisgenoot, 1916-2003

Abstract

Huisgenoot is the oldest and most successful Afrikaans magazine ever. It was founded in 1916 with a twofold motive: to financially support the struggling political mouthpiece of the Cape National Party, De Burger, and to provide the Afrikaner people (volk) with the inspiration, information and light entertainment it desperately needed. This article plots the changing motives (idealism and profit) through the years. It is found that the idealism of Afrikaner nationalism dominated for a considerable time, although editors obviously had to make some concessions to populist taste. For example, photos of Afrikaner heroes such as Paul Kruger dominated the early covers, but later made way for photos and drawings of South Africa's natural beauty. In the 1950s and 1960s attractive women, in particular film stars, were frequently used on the cover. The idealism and formalised cultural life and mores were slowly making way for a more secularised money-driven culture. But in 1978 the magazine was in dire straits. New editors took a definitive step towards profi t-driven populism and Huisgenoot became a publishing phenomenon, climbing from a circulation of 140 000 to 500 000 per week. This unheard of circulation for any South African magazine was founded on a populist diet of celebrities, news on TV programmes and personalities and a general mixture of must-reads. One can conclude that Huisgenoot's dominant motives changed markedly, in step with changes in the views held by the Afrikaner as well as the pressure to produce profi ts for its owners in a purely market economy.

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