Graphic is 68 years old

A brief ceremony to commemorate the 68th anniversary of the Daily Graphic, the flagship of the Graphic Communications Group Limited, was held in the newsroom in Accra on Tuesday.

Amid the popping of champagne, staff of the Newspapers Department of the group responded to cheers from the acting Managing Director, Mr Ransford Tetteh, to mark the occasion.

The anniversary coincided with the day the Graphic Communications Group (GCGL) was founded.

The newspaper publishing house, formerly known as the Graphic Corporation, was established in 1950 in the then Gold Coast by the Daily Mirror Group of the United Kingdom, with Cecil King Jnr as the first head of the company.

Its original name was the West African Graphic Company Limited.

Dedication

In his address, Mr Tetteh said the credibility and strong brand that the Daily Graphic was offered an opportunity for the staff to work hard to turn the fortunes of the company around, even in times of difficulties.

“I know we are passing through a phase and the state of Ghana is also passing through a phase. Certainly we will soon come out of it,” he said.

Acting Managing Director, Mr Ransford Tetteh

Mr Tetteh also encouraged staff who work on the various brands in the Graphic stable to support one another in order to take advantage of existing market opportunities.

For her part, the acting Director, Newspapers, Mrs Mavis Kitcher, commended all past editors of the Daily Graphic for their contribution in sustaining the newspaper over the years.

“We salute Mr Kofi Badu. He changed the Graphic Corporation to the Graphic Communications Group Limited and we salute him for his foresight,” she stressed.

Acting Editor of the Daily Graphic, Mr Kingsley Inkoom

The acting Editor of the Daily Graphic, Mr Kingsley Inkoom, asked staff of the company to commit themselves to making the newspaper live up to its former glory, despite the challenges facing the newspaper industry.

“We must remember that this is the paper that gives us our daily bread,” he told the staff.

First publication

The company published its first newspaper, the Daily Graphic, on October 2,1950 and followed it up in 1953 with the weekly Sunday Mirror, now called The Mirror.

The company later changed its name from the West African Graphic Company Ltd to Ghana Graphic Company Ltd, after the Gold Coast gained independence from Britain in 1957 and changed its name to Ghana.

By an Act of Parliament, the Government of Ghana acquired the company from its private owners in 1962.

In 1971, the company became a statutory corporation through a legislative instrument — the Graphic Corporation Instrument, 1971 (LI 709).

That was in compliance with the Statutory Corporations Act, 1964 (Act 232). The company, therefore, became known as the Graphic Corporation.