Telkom invested R34m in advertising in The New Age newspaper from December 2011 to November 2012, City Press reported on Sunday.

The most recent Nielsen Adex report revealed that Telkom, which is 39,8% owned by the government, was the top advertiser in The New Age during the period, according to the newspaper.

It was responsible for a third of the newspaper’s advertising revenue.

The data showed that the newspaper was handsomely supported by parastatals and national government.

According to the data, national government invested a little more than R16m in advertising.

This was not necessarily hard cash, and it could include the value of barter and trade agreements between the parastatal and the paper, according to the report.

National government, Telkom and Transnet made up almost half of The New Age‘s top 20 clients.

Last month, City Press reported that some of the biggest state-owned companies were paying millions of rands to bankroll The New Age‘s business breakfasts hosted by the Gupta family. These included Transnet, Telkom and Eskom.

TechCentral previously reported that Telkom sponsored 12 business breakfasts to the tune of R12m in the 2012/13 financial year. — Sapa