The Times takes to the streets

January 8th, 2008

The Times takes a big step forward in the next few months, when it will be sold on the streets for the first time. This is a move likely to shake up the newspaper market significantly.

The six-month-old daily paper has until now only been available free of charge to Sunday Times subscribers. But a board meeting of the parent company Avusa (formerly Johncom) late last year approved a plan to start selling it on the streets as soon as possible, and the newspaper is gearing up for this expansion in the next few months.

They will take it slowly, says editor Ray Hartley. It will still target Sunday Times subscribers and potential subscribers, and will be tested only in limited areas at first.

The cover price is expected to be R3.50, and there will be a strong push to get street buyers to take the joint six-day-a-week subscription package with the Sunday Times.

This is going to be closely watched by the other dailies, particularly in Gauteng where the market is crowded (with seven daily papers). Already the paper has a circulation of 130 000 nationally (this being the number of Sunday Times subscribers) and it has had the advantage of knowing its readers very well because of their relationship with what is the country’s biggest weekly.

This makes it already the third biggest daily in the country (with the Daily Sun at 500 000, the Star at about 168 000 and the Sowetan at 130 000), so it won’t need a lot of street sales to compete, particularly for advertising. Of course, one has to bear in mind that its sales are national as opposed to most of the other dailies, which are regional and therefore still have dominance in their particular areas.

Apart from the Daily Sun, which is aimed at an entirely different market and is not a competitor, the Sunday Times will be offering by far the biggest national footprint (the only other national daily is Business Day, with sales of about 42 000 000) and will be clearly targeted at upper-income readers.

So far, there is little evidence that the Times has stolen readership from other dailies, but the crunch is likely to come when subscribers have to choose between renewing a paper like the Star, Citizen or Daily News, and a package which gives them the mighty Sunday Times as well as a daily.

Business Day, which is in fact a sister-newspaper to the Times, might be jumpy. It will likely have an overlapping readership with the new paper, but can probably rely on the fact that no one else can offer as comprehensive a package for business readers as they do. They should be secure in their niche and their office-based subscriptions.

The other papers will be watching for long-term plans. The Times strategy has been to create a daily paper by stealth, taking one safe step at a time.

It is a fascinating approach. Remember the fanfare and bold promises which accompanied This Day newspaper, which lasted a year. In contrast, the Times seems to be choosing to do it in small and quiet steps, promising little and therefore able to meet modest targets.

Sceptics have suggested that the Times must be costing much more than Avusa are letting on, with some saying it can’t be done without spending hundreds of millions. But Avusa management are adamant that they have kept marginal costs much lower than this and that advertising revenue is beating targets. Of course, they do have the advantage that at least some costs can be hidden in the giant Sunday Times cash generator.

The Times at the moment offers a quick and light tabloid read, acknowledging that its core readership is pushed for time. It is notably well designed and punchy, but has been inconsistent in breaking big news, not always competing with the hard edge of some of the other dailies. Hartley, however, is quick to acknowledge that they will have to take their paper up a notch, particularly in the hard news arena, to compete on the busy newsstands.

They have also made a big play of their multimedia website, which has grown significantly in the last few months. However, the website content remains quite amateurish and haphazard, and adds little to the package, as far as I can see.

- the daily paper delivered free to Sunday Times subscribers

Entry Filed under: Anton Harber, Journalism, Online, Print