By Remy Raitt

“I was at a law firm during the university vacation and the Vaal Triangle newspapers were in the same building. I went in and told them that I didn’t like their papers because they weren’t reflecting the community properly. The editor asked me what I was going to do about it and I said ‘employ me and you’ll see’.” The rest, as they say, is history.

Although her father was furious, she says the innate story teller inside urged her forward. She began as a journalist at Vaal Vision and Vaal Weekly and within six months was promoted to news editor, she left four years later as the editor.

Since that first meeting journalism has been her main focus, but Zwane-Siguqa did not completely abandon her roots in law. She finished her degree and then went on to do a postgraduate degree in intellectual property law. “It’s something I can always go back to,” she says, “plus journalism and law work hand-in-hand.”

Her first stint at DRUM was in 2007 when she was hired as the news editor. A year later she launched the country’s first black parenting magazine, Move! She edited the magazine until 2010 after which she returned to DRUM in January 2011 as the youngest editor of the iconic magazine in its 64 year history.

In her current position Zwane-Siguqa has boosted readership, which now stands at over 3million, plus she helped cement the magazine’s position in the black market. She says her business abilities are what help her to excel at her job. “My market insight makes me a good editor,” she says. “I’m able to forecast and I understand the trends and sociographics.”

“The weekly environment is tricky,” she says, “you go to bed on a Monday night knowing what the dailies will run with the next day.” “But at a weekly you need to be a prophet of sorts, you need to know what will be interesting in a week’s time.”

Zwane-Siguqa is proud of DRUM’s move into digital. “We are one of the few brands that really held after the move to digital, plus we managed to successfully integrate the print and digital newsrooms into one.” www.drum.co.za dishes daily news online while the magazine hits the shelves weekly. She says in this digital world we live in, magazines need to have a longer shelf life. “Weekly magazines need to offer more insight than dailies or websites.” She explains they need to “delve deeper and offer analysis”, because nowadays news is available immediately, so magazines and even websites need to offer more than just the facts.

In her time as editor Zwane-Siguqa has launched three brand extensions; DRUM Hair, DRUM Weddings and DRUM Food. Under her watch, DRUM readers have also been able to attend DRUM Beat, a concert which began in 2011 and has sold out each year since and DRUM Darlings, a glitzy celebrity awards ceremony that honours readers’ favourite stars.

She says her most memorable experience at the magazine were the two weeks around Nelson Mandela’s passing away and burial. “The passing of Tata Madiba was a huge shock. Yes, he had been unwell for a while and we were geared up for it but when it actually happened, we had to process our own feelings while also producing the best possible product.” DRUM published day-to-day coverage of the events leading up to the burial and Zwane-Siguqa says dealing with the outpour of emotion from her readers as well as her own “very raw feelings” was an unforgettable process. “We cried, we laughed and we worked really hard during that time,” she remembers.

When asked what her favourite things about the South African media landscape are Zwane-Siguqa responds: “One, the fact that it’s evolving; two, the fact that the advent of online and social media has truly democratised the South African media; and three, that we’re an inclusive media landscape.”

But, there are things she thinks could change. “We have a long way to go with regard to transformation, especially newsroom transformation, there are far too few female led newsrooms and this has a direct impact on the stories we tell.” She also says the monopoly of media ownership in the country is cause for concern. Lastly she says; “print media is still stagnant, it hasn’t fully embraced digital media yet”.

Her advice for young journalists? “Be excellent at what you do and stand out. And I mean really, super excellent.” “With things like social media and citizen journalism there is a lot of competition so find your beat, focus on it and perfect it.”

For more information visit, www.drum.co.za. Alternatively, connect with DRUM on Facebook and on Twitter and with Zwane-Siguqa on Twitter.