In order to find out exactly what it was that the Black South Africans of the time wanted, it was decided that a Black editorial board should be established to advise on matters to be featured in the magazine. They were Joe Rathebe, Dan “Sport” Twala, and Dr. Alfred Xuma and Andy Anderson. The board met once a month and discussed past issues, what they wanted to see more of and what they thought was wrong with the ones they had. The only staff members at the time were a secretary, Sampson and Henry Nxumalo. Nxumalo was sports editor, journalist and later became "Mr. Drum", exposing, among other issues, prison conditions and farm labourer’s abuse by the farmers. Later Todd Matshikiza joined the team as music reviewer. Jurgen Schadeberg joined as investigative photographer and later became photo editor of the magazine. Bob Gosani started off at Drum as a messenger but because he was so bad at it he was moved to the photographic department where he became Schadeberg’s darkroom assistant, the first of many to come. He later became one of the best photographers the magazine had. Arthur Maimane was next. He was brought in by Father Huddleston to be a journalist on the publication.
Picture features, bright covers, jazz, girls and crime stories pushed circulation up to 35 000. But it was still below its rival Zonk. As the magazine grew and gained black readership, Drum lost many white supporters. They lost their subscriptions, missionaries complained and schools stopped their orders. But circulation went up. The first big story “Bethal Today” , an eight-page article written by "Mr. Drum" published in March of 1952 was sold out. Although the idea was not to get involved in political issues the editorial board felt that Drum would be meaningless and incomplete because politics were a large part of the Black South African’s life. Stories of atrocities suffered started being included. One year after the Bethal story, 60 000 copies were sold in South Africa. Drum has since, been accused of not reporting on a lot more political activity of the time though. Although it opposed racism and apartheid some of the key events of the struggle against the regime were not published. Jim Bailey did not approve publication of any reports or photographs of the Sharpeville massacre nor the terrible work and living conditions of migrant workers on the mines. This is said to be due to his involvement with the Chamber of Mines.
Towards the end of 1953, Drum branched out to produce East and West African editions, selling 500 000 copies in English speaking Africa. The magazine kept on losing white supporters and instead gained communists, African nationalists and revolutionaries. There were stories written about Drum worldwide: News Chronicle, Observer and Time magazine featured Drum’s progress in their pages. Africa magazine and Golden City Post were also formed at that time. Golden City Post sold 300 000 copies a week in South Africa alone. In 1955 Peter Magubane was hired as a driver and a messenger but as he went out with the team on stories, he became more and more interested in photography. He was transferred to the photographic department and was later joined by others such as Ernest Cole, Alf Kumalo, Victor Xashimba, Gopal Naransamy, Chester Maharaj as well as GR Naidoo and others.
As there were no educational facilities for black journalists and photographers, many of them attached themselves to a publication that allowed them to work. As there weren’t many like Drum, those who were interested in social writing and photography went to Drum. Here they could obtain hands on experience and education through the journalists and photographers already there and they became known as graduates of the “Drum school”. Many of the writers used satire and irony when referring to the conditions in which black people in South Africa found themselves. Among the contributors there were writers such as Peter Abrahams, Alex la Guma, Es’kia Mphahlele and Richard Rive who have become internationally renowned. Can Themba, a teacher in Sophiatown, won a writing competition held by Drum and was offered a job as a writer for the magazine. The writers of Drum used language learnt from American writers and movies. From this they created a fast, slangy, mixed-language street talk that few have been able to imitate. Towards the end of the 1950s Lewis Nkosi and Nat Nakasa joined Drum. Nakasa started a literary magazine called Classic and won a Nieman Fellowship to study journalism in the United States. He left South Africa on an exit permit and was unable to ever return home. He committed suicide a little more than a year later, depressed and missing home.
The first issue of Drum came out in March 1951 and it ended its term as a monthly in April 1965, due to political bans. It still came out as a bi-weekly supplement to The Golden City Post.
