Rochelle de Kock takes over as The Herald, Weekend Post editor

The Herald and Weekend Post’s former politics editor, Rochelle de Kock, has been appointed editor of both titles.

She had been acting editor since March.

Arena Holdings Eastern Cape general manager Ryan Megaw announced De Kock’s appointment on Wednesday.

Speaking on De Kock’s tenure as acting editor, Megaw said she had steered the newspapers through a rough period with aplomb and confidence.

“Rochelle has been with The Herald for 12 years and has played a strategic leadership role in the political coverage of the platforms over the last 10 years, focusing extensively on the evolving political story of Nelson Mandela Bay and the Eastern Cape,” he said.

“We believe she has the expertise and innovative approach that will grow not only our print audience, but also the profitability of our online audience, which is essential for our business at this time.”

De Kock, 34, joined The Herald as an intern in 2008 and worked herself up, being a senior politics reporter before being appointed politics editor in 2016, a position she held until March.

“The past nine months have been a huge learning curve for me, having to jump in and edit the paper at a very difficult time,” she said.

“But I think I wouldn’t have had it any other way because it really just forced me to step out of my comfort zone, which for the most part was politics, and to just look at news as a whole — how do we package our news, how do we entertain readers during a time when newspapers are not so popular.”

She said her tenure as acting editor had been exciting and had prepared her to take over the reins, and she was able to see the growth of both titles’ online audience.

“I am quite excited about where The Herald and Weekend Post are headed.

“We have this growing digital audience on our websites and we have a whole new reimagined strategy of how we plan to grow the business and I think we will be getting so many more new audiences and initiatives, and we will continue to deliver the best local content we can every day.”

De Kock said The Herald and Weekend Post had become synonymous with good-quality news, independent opinion and truth.

She said she would work to ensure that the titles continued to be the trusted voice that readers could depend on.

The Herald and Weekend Post sports editor Alvin Reeves has been appointed sports editor for all Eastern Cape titles.

This means he will also edit sport at the Daily Dispatch and its weekend edition.

With almost three decades of experience in sports journalism, having started at The Herald in 1995 after three years at the Pretoria News, and then becoming sports editor of The Herald and Weekend Post in 2012, Reeves said he was looking forward to the challenge of creating a synergy between the titles.

“This is a brand new position so we are kind of going to be pioneering a way forward.

“The Dispatch and The Herald sports sections have worked closely in the past, sharing copy, and I’ll be wanting to make that relationship even more intimate.

“Pooling the resources of both sports departments will help ensure that we provide our readers in the province with a good variety of sports coverage, with a focus on our local sports,” Reeves said.