Full response by New Age spokesperson Gary Naidoo

We find it very strange that a competitor should be asking questions of this nature as we do not understand its relevance and news worthiness.

Question: Transnet forked out R17.5 million for 18 breakfast sessions while Eskom paid R7.2 million to sponsor six sessions (at R1.2 million each) between November 2011 and last year. Telkom is paying R12 million to sponsor 12 briefings in 2012/13. Answer: The New Age has developed relationships with several entities, both government and private to secure revenues. Some of these relationships are based on a mix of event sponsorship (business briefings is one such example) and advertising and these relationships are based on confidential agreements between the parties. As with your key client relationships, the details are closely held as revealing it to a competitor will reveal a key element of our business plan. We find it very strange and unethical that as a competitor so much focus is being brought on the clients we have secured. These same clients appear in your newspaper and it would seem your questions are driven by the fear of losing market share. It would seem that your motive is one of finding a mechanism to place a chilling effect on those clients who have bought into our visions of being proudly South African, and fiercely independent through the publication of news in a balanced fashion. Our innovative packages have clearly won us market share at the expense of some competitors and we have no doubt that this is the reason for questions of this nature which are clearly aimed at providing a chilling effect on advertisers who have seen the advantage of supporting a new voice in the current media market. We know that our loyal partners will see through this bullying by competitors and continue their support of our newspaper.

Are these state-owned companies helping the New Age stay afloat? The question is truly nave. Government and state-owned enterprises are major advertisers in all titles, including City Press and The New Age. So the question could quite easily apply to City Press and perhaps you should reveal the size of revenues City Press receives from government and its related parties and what impact it has cumulatively on your profitability.

Is it true that the briefings are broadcast for free by the SABC's Morning Live?

Our agreement has undergone the scrutiny of the SABC board and its senior executive. Our relationship has also been reviewed by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on communications and it has been judged as in order. Our innovation has given us competitive advantage against our print competitors, some of whom have tried to persuade the SABC to replace us with them in this project. Using the cover of journalism to understand our model is not the way we chose to do business and we would urge yourselves to consider the ethics of your approach.

Has the friendship between the New Age's owners, the Gupta family, and President Jacob Zuma played a part in helping the paper secure the multimillion-rand sponsorships from the three state-owned companies? Those in business always try to foster relationships with those in power. Your shareholders themselves have had close relationship in the apartheid years with the then ruling government. Your shareholders also had a close relationship with the government of President Mbeki. Does your questions therefore suggest that your shareholders relationships with those in power were used for commercial benefit to your company? For the record, we have repeatedly challenged anyone to show us where we have done anything wrong in any business deal and our challenge has always been met by a deafening silence. We believe very strongly in an ethical approach to business.

What value do these companies extract from their sponsoring of the briefings? The question of benefit to the individual companies should really be raised directly with them. However, our relationships are regularly reviewed between our clients and The New Age team on the basis of finding true value.

We would hope that newspapers like yourselves will not abuse their dominant position to harm new entrants like ourselves with damaging journalism as your questions suggest when there is nothing untoward in a new entrant using innovative packaging of events and adverting to building a future for itself.