A Joy to Be Home - and blogging again

January 2nd, 2011

What a pleasure to return from a six-month sabbatical and find that there have been two of the most exciting developments in our newspaper world in many years: the launch of a new newspaper, The New Age (TNA), and the launch of the Sunday Times isiZulu edition.

Things looked bad for TNA when the first editor, his deputy and three others walked out on the day before the first planned launch a few months ago, delaying things somewhat. I had visited them not long before and it was clear to me then that they were not going to be ready. I was amazed that they got ready for launch so soon in December.

I am always cautious about commenting too quickly on a new newspaper, as I think it always needs time to settle down, develop its character and find its rhythm. TNA has declared that it is aligned to the ANC, but independent - an interesting positioning and a welcome addition to our media landscape.

But I will say this: looking at a few editions, I am not sure who it is aimed at. It is not clear to me who their target market is. At first glance, I cannot see a reason to choose it above other papers. I cannot see much that is distinctive about it, to command attention and get people to switch.

Maybe that will become clearer in time. I hope so. It faces an uphill battle to find its place in the market, and it won’t do so unless there is clarity on its target market and its character.

One real design flaw is the allocation of much of their news space to each of the nine provinces. While there is a real need for more and better coverage of areas outside our big three cities, and I have little doubt there are lots of good stories being missed there, it seems strange to allocate so much space when you clearly are not yet finding the stories. At the moment, much of this space is being filled by puffery, and no newspaper can afford to waste its news space in that way.

One more thing: I SMSed the number they gave to subscribe, received a quick reply saying they would contact me within 24 hours - and have waited for over two weeks. I asked a friend who told me they were also subscribing, and they said the same happened to them. Not very promising.

The Sunday Times’ publishing an isiZulu edition is most interesting and exciting. It is the fifth newspaper now in that language (if you count dailies and Sundays separately), and the other four all appear to be doing reasonably well. Ilanga is the oldest one, with a strong conservative and rural appeal, controlled since 1987 by the IFP; they launched a Sunday edition a few years ago, and it has found its place in the market; umAfrika was an alternative weekly of the 1980s which has survived (and is not often acknowledged for it); Isolezwe was the new daily launched by the Independent group, and they followed with Isolezwe ngoSonto, their Sunday edition. This is now becoming one of the busiest and most competitive newspaper sectors.

Extending the powerful Sunday Times branch adds the third isiZulu Sunday offering - and a very interesting one. I will be watching it closely, hoping that it succeeds - and demonstrates that there is more room in the market for media in all our languages.

It is a joy to be home - and see such a vibrant journalism market. (And I will be blogging regularly again!)

Entry Filed under: Anton Harber, Journalism, Print