citizen

Political transition regularly throws media institutions into turmoil, particularly those that maintained an official or semi‐official relationship with the ancien régime. In South Africa, newspapers across the political spectrum have experienced something of an identity crisis as the transition has reconfigured political relationships and models of professional journalism. Yet the institution that one would expect to undergo some of the most profound transformations — The Citizen, founded as a state propaganda tool in the 1970s, and strongly pro‐Nationalist, throughout the late apartheid era — instead has trod a cautious path ever since its origins were unveiled in the ‘Info Scandal’ of 1978. It secured a surprisingly strong, multiracial readership, and garnered a degee of professional credibility. The paper has used both these bedrock attributes to ride out the transition to majority rule. Indeed, it has emerged in perhaps the most advantageous position of any South African English daily. This article, based in part on in‐depth interviews with Citizen staff, explores the idiosyncratic evolution of this press institution and the factors that allowed it to survive and even flourish in the wake of the Info Scandal. Continuities and transformations in the paper's functioning since the transition began are also considered. The article concludes by sketching a possible scenario for the paper's future in the new South Africa.