Graphic through the years

The Graphic Communications Group Ltd (GCGL) was established in 1950 in the then Gold Coast as a private business known as the West Africa Graphic Company Limited.

It was a subsidiary of the Daily Mirror Group of the United Kingdom.

The Founder and Chief Executive Officer was Mr Cecil King Jnr., who appointed Martin Therson-Cofie, a Ghanaian, as the first Editor of the Daily Graphic and later the Sunday Mirror, now The Mirror.
Prior to his appointment with the Daily Graphic, Mr Therson-Cofie was the Editor of the Ashanti Times.

Mr Therson-Cofie’s appointment was to appease the Council of Chiefs, with headquarters at Dodowa, which had rejected a petition from journalists in the Gold Coast who had kicked against the establishment of the Graphic Company.

The journalists were led by Dr Nanka Bruce, who was the financial backbone of the Spectator Daily.

The journalists had resisted the setting up of the company over fears that it would stifle Ghana’s struggle for independence, given that the owners of the newly established media company were from Britain, the colonial master from whom nationalists were fighting for independence.

The chiefs, however, rejected the petition of the journalists. The chiefs were of the view that the Daily Graphic’s entry into the Gold Coast newspaper business would bring about competition, technology transfer, high professional standards and employment.

They, however, requested that the new company employ a Ghanaian among its leadership, and Mr Therson-Cofie was the answer.

Name changes

Following the controversy, and having now been established, the company went through name changes.

After the Gold Coast gained independence and changed its name to Ghana, the company became known as the Ghana Graphic Company Ltd.

Then, by a legislative instrument, Graphic Corporation Instrument 1971, L.I. 709, 1971, it was renamed the Graphic Corporation, which enabled its incorporation as a statutory corporation.
Before then, the government had, in 1962, acquired the company from The Mirror Group of London. Its incorporation was, therefore, in compliance with the Statutory Corporation Act, 1964 (Act 232).

The company bore the name Ghana Graphic Company Ltd until 1999, when it was converted into a limited liability company through the Statutory Corporations (Conversion to Company) Act, 1993 (Act 461) and assumed its current name, the Graphic Communications Group Ltd.

The conversion helped the company to redefine its vision towards achieving a multimedia status.

Quality

The group is known for its professionalism and quality journalism, virtues it guards jealously.

The publications of the group have gained so much credibility with readers that, in Ghana, “Graphic” is almost synonymous with “newspaper”.

The company boasts staff of high calibre who are continuously trained, a practice that accounts for the numerous local and international awards for the brands, the staff and the corporate entity.

More than 15 journalists of the GCGL have won the coveted Journalist of the Year award over the years, including the reigning Journalist of the Year, Ms Doreen Hammond.

Technology

The GCGL is always the pacesetter in the application of technology in its operations.

When it launched its first newspaper, the company was operating with a letterpress. Twenty-six years later, in 1976, it installed a semi-automatic Harris web offset press from the United States of America which had two production lines — one was a four-unit press and the other a two-unit press.

However, both could be set to work together if more pages had to be printed at the same time. It was the first web offset colour printing machine in Ghana.

In 1995, the company bought an upgraded version of the machine, the Heidelberg Harris Press, and later, in 2012, installed a KBA COMET press, a more efficient machine with a higher capacity to print 75,000 copies per hour. It uses the computer-to-plate (CTP) technology, which cuts down the process from keying in to printing.

It can also print 32 pages full colour for a 64-paged publication, as well as print small-size adverts in colour on any page, according to the client’s choice.

In our stable

Daily Graphic

The GCGL has introduced a number of brands since the first and flagship brand, the Daily Graphic, was born on October 2, 1950.

It has the largest readership among all the newspapers in the country and controls over 60 per cent of the newspaper market.

The readership includes politicians, technocrats, civil and public servants, students, chief executive officers, diplomats, researchers, academicians, traditional leaders, traders and drivers.
Kobby Asmah is the Editor of the Daily Graphic.­

The Mirror

Three years after the setting up of the company, on August 2, 1953, it came out with the Sunday Mirror, now The Mirror.
Both the Daily Graphic and the Sunday Mirror had one editor, Therson-Cofie, the first editor of the company.

The Mirror is a weekly newspaper that comes out on Saturdays and it is the leading weekend newspaper in Ghana.

It is a newspaper for the family. Among other things, it features articles on family health, relationships, family law, fashion, interior décor, children, lifestyle, tourism, investment advice, entertainment and sports.

The Mirror controls about 60 per cent of the weekend newspaper market. The current Editor is Ms Janet K. Quartey.

Graphic Sports

The Graphic Sports, which is the leading sports newspaper in the country, joined the stable on April 23, 1985. It is
the most authoritative sports newspaper in the country, with the Ghana Journalists Association adjudging it the Sports Newspaper of the Year on many occasions.

Published on Mondays, its online version (www.graphic.com/graphicsports) offers sports enthusiasts the benefit of real time news on sports.

Its Assistant Editor, Maurice Quansah, manages the newspaper.

Graphic Showbiz

On February 24, 1998, the Graphic Showbiz, an arts and entertainment newspaper, was introduced into the GCGL stable. Coming out on Thursdays with an online edition, the newspaper publishes news on tourism, showbiz personalities and culture.

It also critiques music, movies and drama performances, in addition to publishing television programmes and doing event reviews.

The Editor of the paper is Adwoa Serwa Bonsu.

Junior Graphic

Then came in the Junior Graphic, the paper for the youth from upper primary to senior high school, on September 6, 2000, the group’s Golden Jubilee. It was the second coming of the paper, which was first started in the 1970s.

The objective of the paper is to help inculcate the habit of reading and writing in children. Junior Graphic’s content is, therefore, designed to suit a supplementary reader. It also teaches selected academic subjects.

It also publishes letters and short stories by schoolchildren, in addition to a counselling page for them. All these are to promote quality education for overall quality human resource development for the country.

The paper, edited by Ms Doreen Hammond, virtually has a monopoly in its market segment.

Graphic Business

The Graphic Business was launched on August 26, 2008 as a weekly. It offers quality business information, comprehensive enough to help business executives follow trends in the economy to make informed business decisions.

The newspaper achieves this through news segmentation to cover critical aspects of business information that satisfies its readers. Some of the areas include the economy, banking and finance, investment, aviation, tourism, maritime, agribusiness, oil and gas and insurance.

The Graphic Business is published on Tuesdays and the Editor is Theophilus Yartey.

Graphic Online

Graphic Online is another news product of the GCGL.

It is a highly dynamic news website that delivers compelling, rich and exciting media content to visitors.

As a news platform that runs 24 hours, the Graphic Online (www.graphic.com.gh) constantly updates readers with all the major breaking news and follow-ups on developments within Ghana and Africa.

Because of its rich news content, it attracts large audiences of new and social media consumers as ready targets for advertisers.

This is evidenced by the very competitive traffic statistics, which offer advertisers a most convenient avenue to market their products and reach out to their clients.

Isaac Yeboah is the Editor of Graphic Online.

Graphic NewsPlus

The Graphic NewsPlus is digitised news designed for smart phones, tablets and the personal computer. It makes it possible for those who hitherto had no access to the newspapers of the GCGL stable to have them on the go.

It thus places the contents of the newspapers of the group within easy reach of Ghanaians, home and abroad, as well as citizens of other countries.

With Graphic NewsPlus, people in the remotest parts of the country where the hard copies of the newspapers do not reach can now access them, and in good time.

Graphic NewsPlus is also for the audience who would rather read the newspapers on the digital platform.

Beyond the electronic versions of the newspapers, Graphic NewsPlus also provides videos, audios, pictures, podcasts and other exciting information and data to help with informed decision-making and satisfying people’s curiosity.

Subsidiary — G-PAK

The company has one subsidiary, G-Pak, which was established in 1973 as Graphic Packaging.

The subsidiary, which has its own management team and a different Board of Directors, prints all types of print jobs, except high-level security printing.

Textbooks, skillets, calendars, packaging materials such as paper boxes, paper bags, brochures, posters, magazines and reports are some of the quality printworks the company engages in.