Stones quits Business Day after 12 years

One of the country’s leading technology journalists has resigned from her job. Business Day IT editor Lesley Stones said on Wednesday morning that she had tendered her resignation and would go freelance in the new year.

Stones, who joined Business Day 12 years ago, says she plans to focus more on travel and leisure writing, though she says she won’t be lost completely to the technology sector.

“I’ve been planning this move for six months now,” Stones says.

UK-born Stones worked in Cairo, Egypt for four years before relocating to SA. She was editor of the Middle Eastern edition of ComputerWorld magazine before taking a job at Computing SA, a long-defunct SA IT newsweekly.

“I loved Cairo but I also hated it,” she says. “The culture got to me in the end. I had a fabulous time, but four years was enough.

“There wasn’t much work ethic,” she says. “It was either leave while I was still employable or stay forever.”

Stones had always wanted to visit SA, but had not been keen to visit in the apartheid days. “It was perfect timing, because I knew I didn’t want to go back to England.”

After she’d visited SA on a press trip with Novell, she fell in love with the country. “I brought my CV with me and I went back with a job.”

Stones, who studied journalism in the UK, left Computing SA after six months to take up the post at Business Day.

She first started writing when she was still at school — producing reviews of rock concerts for a national music newspaper.

Her first exposure to IT journalism was in Egypt, where she’d moved with her late husband, who was an engineer.

Now, Stones says she is keen to focus more on travel writing, though she concedes she’ll still be involved in technology writing.

It’s not yet clear who will replace Stones at Business Day. She says the paper’s editor, Peter Bruce, has indicated that he will advertise the post.   — Duncan McLeod, TechCentral

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