The Rand Daily Mail’s ‘technology- aided’ scoop on Gerrie Coetzee’s win in Monte Carlo 40 years ago almost never got to printSupplied
Rhodes University journalism students could apply for jobs at newspapers in the SA Associated Newspapers group if we attended enough typing classes to reach a standard of proficiency. I had previously had a stint on the EP Herald, where the curse of the “cute animal” story came up, as I had been warned it would, on my first assignment. Kiewietjies were nesting in the path of javelins that would be thrown at them at an upcoming athletics meeting.
I also understood that as a student part-timer I was unlikely to be asked to work on the front page. But the instruction that I received on the first day — that all front-page stories had to be set in a certain font — was diligently noted. Coetzee had pulled off the upset of the decade and beaten Leon Spinks. The Mail would be on the streets in record time. The scoop was secure!