Splitting hairsHow the Sunday Times is fighting back |
Editor Mondli Makhanya speaks to Moneyweb about the papers fall and comeback.
EAST LONDON - The Sunday broadsheet newspaper market has become fiercely competitive with Media24's City Press and Rapport making an aggressive play for more market share on the one hand and Independent Newspapers' investing in the Sunday Independent for the first time in many years. This puts Avusa's Sunday Times, the biggest-selling Sunday paper in the country, in the hot seat with serious rivals going after its readers at a time when the paper dropped the ball in being the big agenda-setting newspaper. Last year a succession of weak splashes (that's hack speak for front-page leads) on top of the recession led to a decline in circulation. But the Sunday Times has come back this year with some excellent splashes, most notably the Zuma Babygate story, "How Malema made his millions" and the Alan Knott-Craig alleged nepotism story. In this last in a series of interviews with Sunday broadsheet editors, I spoke to Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya last week about what went wrong in 2009 and how the paper is now fighting back. (Click here to read the interviews with City Press's Ferial Haffajee and the Sunday Independent's Makhudu Sefara.)
QUESTION: Last year must have been a very tough year for the Sunday Times. As we know, you were hit by a downturn in careers advertising because of the recession and your sales declined and then your investigations team of Jocelyn Maker and Megan Power was no more. (Maker left journalism for the tourist industry and Power became the Durban bureau chief.)
ANSWER: Definitely... The economic downturn had a major effect - no question about it. On the advertising side, we felt it very, very strongly and we also felt it on the circulation side and the latest ABCs (circulation figures) will tell you that. You know, people had to make choices: ‘Do I pay R14 X four for a newspaper or shall this contribute to my family's groceries?' So we felt it. In all my years of editing, that was the roughest year ever. Also, we were recovering from a hectic 2008, in which we made some very serious slip-ups to put it kindly - for instance, with the Transnet story. (The story alleged that Transnet had secretly sold 22kms of coast line and 90kms of sea in Table Bay in Cape Town to investors in London and Dubai for R7bn.)
QUESTION: Except no one's going to forget the "Manto: a drunk and a thief" splash (in 2007). That was the story of the decade.
ANSWER: Yes, you come off that high of all those investigations - and you're scoring first - and then we had that front-page apology (over the inaccuracies in the Transnet story). It burns you and it dented confidence (in the newsroom) and we brought in that panel (of Anton Harber, Paula Fray, Dario Milo and Franz Kruger to look into problems in news processes and editorial management of the paper). So we'd gone through some pain in 2009. We were coming off the back of these things and we were in recovery mode... it was a hard year. It was a year of rebuilding.
QUESTION: The key thing for me is that last year you guys gave up dominating the national news agenda, which is supposed to be the Sunday Times's USP (unique selling point). It has improved this year - (City Press editor) Ferial Haffajee told me you've got your mojo back - so what's changed?
ANSWER: As I say, last year and the previous year there had been a major confidence dent and it was a period of rebuilding... we almost had to re-school ourselves in the ways of the Sunday Times so that we don't make such mistakes or mess up like before. And also we had very, very intense sessions last year about "what are we; what are our values; what is it that makes us the Sunday Times" and we did a lot of planning on how to get ourselves back to the top of the premier league again. A lot of what you've seen this year, starting in January, are a result of putting systems in place, for instance, we've reconstituted our investigations unit.
QUESTION: OK, who's in it?
ANSWER: It's Simpiwe Piliso, Buddy Naidu and Rob Rose. So we've got that back and they are working systematically at cracking big stories. And you're going to see a lot of it this year.
QUESTION: OK, the paper is back on track. There's been some excellent splashes this year, especially the Zuma Babygate story but how could you guys give up ownership of the Julius Malema story? Sunday Times and City Press got the same story at the same time but now City Press definitely owns that story with some excellent follow-ups.
ANSWER: I tell you what happened there. Obviously, everybody's been working on that story - on where does the money come from - and I wanted to crack that story in December and in January - but it wasn't there. Then it just so happened that City Press led on the same story... but after that they've been ahead on the story. It's no excuse but City Press has a guy in Limpopo who is very connected. He's got Polokwane sewn up. We have to keep going back there and working people (in Limpopo).
We were going to crack something this past week but we decided against it but it's coming together for this week. Look, I've been feeling kak about it. Basically, City Press's got the lead on us.
QUESTION: Let's look at the Sunday Times's competition. The Sunday broadsheet market hasn't been this competitive in a long time. You've got Media24 with its aggressive dual City Press-Rapport strategy in going after more market share. First there's Ferial (Haffajee, previously the Mail & Guardian editor), who really knows her stuff, now at City Press and the postering of the two titles has suddenly become a lot more aggressive. I'm sure Media24 is selling advertising for the two titles as a package deal as they deliver similar (LSM) markets but in different race and language groups. Then the Sunday Independent has definitely improved under Makhudu (Sefara) and though it's small, it can nibble away at the top end of your market. Is this something you're watching very closely?
ANSWER: Absolutely. I think City Press is certainly a harder newspaper and you can tell they've definitely attacking our market and the Sunday Independent - it's still tiny but they're thinking of themselves as a newspaper. What it does for us is that it kills complacency. You know that the Sunday Times's USP has always been that when Sunday comes around, we kick everybody aside. We can no longer be complacent about being the leader on Sunday. I think we have to fight a lot harder.
There is a very grand plan that we came up with in all those intense sessions last year and the recomposition of the investigation unit is just one aspect. We have very strong strategies around our focus areas. What, for instance, are we going to be doing around politics and various areas of public interest? We are not about to give up the space of (being) the Real Madrid of South African newspapers - and you will see during the course of 2010 all the fruits of the planning and rebuilding process of 2009.
QUESTION: How is advertising looking this year?
ANSWER: Better. We're not flying by any means - I won't lie to you...Obviously there was a dip in late December and early January but if you look at the front section of the newspaper that you're getting at the moment, people are paying loading to be in the front section of the Sunday Times. It's a good sign and I think we've certainly turned that corner. I'm feeling quite positive and it's ahead of the 2010 World Cup and there will be a dividend there.
QUESTION: Talking about the front section of the paper, it seems to me that the redesign (of about two years ago) has translated into less news space up front. That's not a good thing.
ANSWER: Well, one of the things the redesign did for us was that it gave us more colour - it was a question of configuration - so (now) we can get more colour (throughout the newspaper) and, therefore, more colour advertising into the other sections (of the paper).
The (advertising) loading up front is a great frustration for me. There aren't less news pages but you are getting less news space because of the loading up there. But you are also getting a much more substantial review section... and we are able to add more variety. So it's no longer just a section where you get the heavy political stuff - you've got Barry (Ronge) and the arts and Ben Trovato there. And the sports section has a lot more colour than previously so we are able to use pictures better. I would absolutely like more news space and I am hoping it will happen in the near future.
QUESTION: In the last quarter of 2009, the Sunday Times's total circulation was 464 393. (It was at 505 374 in the last quarter of 2008.) If you strip out the bulk (third-party) sales and PMIE ("print media in education" papers that go to schools), the core circulation in the last quarter of last year was 395 560. We can see that Avusa has abandoned the chimera of keeping the Sunday Times total sales above 500 000 so these are more honest figures. However, core circulation is under pressure. (Media24's City Press and Rapport don't do third-party bulk sales. If you strip out their PMIE sales in the last quarter of last year, then Rapport's core circulation was 267 280 and City Press's was at 159 081. )
ANSWER: Yes, last year core circulation hit quite a wobble and we are fully aware of that but we're in recovery mode and now and you'll see in the next ABCs that we'll be a lot stronger. We started the year on a very good gradient.
QUESTION: Because you've had much stronger splashes?
ANSWER: Yes, we started the year very strongly. I can guarantee that you will see in the next ABCs that we're on strong gradient on core circulation.
*Media columnist Gill Moodie spent 14 years as a salaried hack in print media in South Africa and the UK before escaping to the blogosphere and freelance journalism. She is the publisher of Grubstreet http://grubstreet.co.za/ in between unpacking and packing the infernal dishwasher and bringing up a four-year-old with attitude.
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