The Sunday Times, South Africa’s biggest weekend newspaper, has had a wretched couple of years. As it emerged from a series of embarrassing lapses in accuracy, the recession hit and the paper has been battling circulation decline, a fall in its main revenue stream – recruitment advertising – and now competitor Media24 is aggressively going after its market share. I spoke to new editor Ray Hartley, who moved in April 2010 from sister newspaper The Times to take over the hot seat of the jewel in Avusa’s media crown.
Gill Moodie: I don’t know if there’s more news space but it seems to me there are more stories up front (in the first section of the paper) since you took over.

Ray Hartley: I think we want to busy it up but also copy taste very well for what we’re using and what we’re making page leads. And we have slightly more space – not much more. We’ve had some pretty good advertising so the front section has been running at a slightly higher number of pages.

Ray Hartley

Moodie: When I interviewed Mondli [Makhanya, the previous editor] in March, he said the squeeze on news space (due to more advertising in the first section because of a redesign) was one of his greatest frustrations.

Hartley: Yes, absolutely. I think part of [how it looks now] is busying it up – more stories per page. And more potential entry points means less pages you would turn over without stopping, which means a sense that you’re reading more. So that would be part of what I’m trying to achieve.

Moodie I see page three, which is one of the most important pages in the paper, is not just celebrity news anymore. You’ve had some good hard news and human-interest stories there. Is that deliberate?

Hartley: Ja, I think stories have to fight for space. We’re not going to put a celebrity story on page three on principle if it’s a weak one and there’s a good human-interest story that’s going to lose out. The Lolly Jackson story was quite a serious story about the crime underworld connections and so on – we ran that on page three.

Moodie: I was getting rather weary of seeing celebrity stories on page three every week, I have to say.

Hartley: Ja, if it’s gratuitous, it shows very quickly… TO READ THE FULL INTERVIEW, CLICK HERE TO GO TO BIZCOMMUNITY, FOR WHOM I WRITE A WEEKLY COLUMN ON MEDIA.

Popularity: 5% [?]

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.)

GILL MOODIE: 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.)

Mondli Makhanya

MONDLI MAKHANYA: 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 for R7bn 22kms of coast line and 90kms of sea in Table Bay in Cape Town to investors in London and Dubai.)

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 innacuracies 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…. TO READ THE REST OF THE INTERVIEW, CLICK HERE TO GO TO MY WEEKLY COLUMN AT MONEYWEB.

Popularity: 14% [?]

The Sunday broadsheet market is hotting up, with both Naspers’s Media24 and Independent Newspapers making aggressive plays for more market share. Media24 now has Ferial Haffajee, the highly regarded former Mail & Guardian editor, at the helm of City Press – and the paper is moving upmarket – while there is a definite change in the wind at Independent Newspapers. Not only does the Sunday Independent have a fulltime editor and deputy editor for the first time in many years but the company has also invested in a group investigative unit and an in-house training unit for young journalists. Last week I spoke to Haffajee and Makhudu Sefara, who took over as Sunday Independent editor five months ago. Here is an edited transcripts of the interview with Sefara:

Click here to go to the interview with Ferial Haffajee.

Click here to go to my Moneyweb column, which this week is about the battle of the Sunday broadsheets.

QUESTION: The Sunday Independent has been the poor step-sister at Independent Newspapers for some time. What did you find when you walked in the door as editor? (Previously Sefara was at City Press and Independent Newspapers.)

Makhudu Sefara

ANSWER: There weren’t many people. The paper had survived on group contributions (from other Independent newspapers and from cross-title units such as the political desk) but we’ve tried to turn things around and propel the paper in a different direction. We are now joined by Mpumelelo Mkhabela from the Sunday Times as the deputy editor and we’ll be getting other new people very soon. We’re putting out the ads… There are great plans to pay much more attention to the title.
The past five months have been quite gruelling… but we’ve seen the numbers increasing. In September last year, our total sales were about 31 000 and going down. We’ve now managed to stop that decline and not only that but to get 4000 new readers since then and the graph is pointing upwards.
I think that’s what it makes it worthwhile… it’s not that this is difficult but it requires quite a lot of time that you don’t always have to deal with the many things that require your attention.
But you see the response that we have received, and you can stop and say: ‘Ja, it’s really worth the fight. Let’s keep on going back there and trying to improve and change things here and there and look at what we don’t provide and how we can accommodate it in the title, where we can get the resources to provide new items’ … Of course, it’s a constant struggle, to look at what works and what doesn’t work, what must be retained and what must be thrown out the window. And if you’re throwing it out, how many readers are going out with it. If you’re introducing something new, to how many people is this going to be relevant. It’s a constant to and fro.
But so far it’s looking good and we’re hoping to maintain the momentum… towards the end of the year, we should be chasing 40 000 to 45 000 (sales).

QUESTION: When the Sunday Independent was started, The Sunday Times had a very clear proposition in that it was the agenda setter of the country and you went to the Independent for the extra stuff – the analysis and the good international copy. Are you guys sticking with this traditional Sunday Independent role when the Sunday Times is no longer consistently setting the news agenda?
ANSWER: I don’t think we need to surrender the battle to set the agenda to the Sunday Times – and to others. What I think we should do is to use whatever resources we can muster on the front page to set our agenda. If you look at the stories we did, for instance, Nathi Mthethwa’s deal and the hotel in Durban, those stories have set the agenda. I’ve gone on a number of radio stations and those stories have continued for a number of days – if not weeks, to be followed up daily papers.
Traditionally, the Sunday Times published their lead and on Monday everyone was following up. They still continue to try to do that but my view is that they are not consistent. There are times when they get a good story like the Jacob Zuma “Babygate” story and the Jacob Maroga R85-million. But if you look at how anybody with resources could have got the Jacob Maroga piece, it’s easy stuff – it’s not something that you can say that only the Sunday Times should do. So we’re going to try to do that.

QUESTION: But do you have enough staff to do that?
ANSWER: I think our (cross-title) politics team is actually the strongest in the country. It has about eight people and politics, for us, has become the mainstay of the paper. So we’re looking at politics, investigations and news breaks on the front page… I’m also very keen on education and health as those are minefields that are not explored properly so when we get more people (at the paper), we’re going direct them into those areas… I’m quite certain there are many stories that are untold, both about the hardships that people experience and the corruption involved in multibillion tenders.
The challenge is to be able to do that and retain the quality analysis of our own national politics and the geo-politics, for example, what’s happening in Greece at the moment.

QUESTION: The Sunday broadsheet market has got so interesting this year, with Ferial Haffajee now at City Press and taking steps to reposition the paper. What do you make it of it?
ANSWER: The paper that (previous City Press editor) Mathatha (Tsedu) put out was a distinctly African newspaper. The paper that Ferial is putting out is a paper that is trying to balance a mix of races. It’s a tough task that she has because she’s trying to downplay politics and introduce new elements. The paper Mathatha produced was by comparison heavy with very few light pieces – and it worked to an extent as the sales went up to about 200 000 but then it stopped growing.
If you’re Ferial, you want to attract mainly people who are reading the Sunday Times to increase your numbers. You need to be mindful not to lose the 200 000 people who are already buying your paper. It’s a balancing act of sorts, an egg dance. It’s a tough task but a very interesting one.
And, if you’re Mondli at the Sunday Times, for example, and looking at what Ferial is doing and what we’re doing at the Sunday Independent – even though we’re coming in with only 31 000 to 35 000 and still counting – you want to ask yourself, if you’re at 500 000 (sales), do you want to increase or maintain this? Are there things that you need to do that you think Ferial is going to do to try to steal readers from you or is City Press going to appeal to other people who not reading the Sunday Times?
So it means Mondli must check constantly what City Press is doing and what we are doing and I’m saying (for the Sunday Independent) that it has not been a year yet. Give us till the end of this year and, hopefully, given the resources that we will get, we will be an entirely different ball game. The paper that we will be putting out will be both setting the agenda and offering readers in-depth analysis on both local and international news in a way that nobody else is going to be able to do.

GILL MOODIE: There is obviously a decision by Independent Newspaper to invest in the paper?
MAKHUDU SEFARA: Ja, for the first time in a long time we now have a fulltime editor and deputy focused on the paper from Tuesday to Saturday – though it feels like from Tuesday to Tuesday — and we will be getting new people and things should improve. It is already much better now than a year ago in terms of staffing.

QUESTION: Last year was a horrendous year for everyone in terms of advertising. How are things are looking for Sunday Independent this year?
ANSWER: This is an interesting story. When the Sunday Independent was founded, the model was to have the paper sustain itself on the cover price,… (The paper cost R12.50 in the third quarter of last year) that it should be able to recoup production costs. As a result they did not employ someone to look after advertising for the paper and when the paper failed to sell the number of copies envisaged, that created problems. It needed to subsidised.
But effective last month, we have now employed someone to look at advertising specifically for the paper. And it is already looking good… She said last week that she had already made her target for this month. So we’re beginning to see the first sun rays to give us hope that this thing can be turned around if you pay particular attention to it… I’m quite confident that in quite a short space of time we will be able to announce that the paper is now viable.

Popularity: 16% [?]

The Sunday broadsheet market is hotting up, with both Naspers’s Media24 and Independent Newspapers making aggressive plays for more market share. Media24  now has Ferial Haffajee, the highly regarded former Mail & Guardian editor, at the helm of City Press – and the paper is moving upmarket – while there is a definite change in the wind at Independent Newspapers. Not only does the Sunday Independent have a fulltime editor and deputy editor for the first time in many years but the company has also invested in a group investigative unit and an in-house training unit for young journalists. Last week I spoke to Haffajee and Makhudu Sefara, who took over as Sunday Independent editor five months ago. Here is an edited transcript of the interview with Haffajee:

Click here to read the Q&A with Makhudu Sefara.

Click here to go to my Moneyweb column, which this week is about the battle of the Sunday broadsheets.

GILL MOODIE: When you took over at City Press, everyone assumed because of your background at the Mail & Guardian and Financial Mail that you’d been hired to take the paper upmarket and move into the Sunday Times’s space. But is this in fact the case?

Ferial Haffajee

FERIAL HAFFAJEE: My brief from the board is very clear. They want to reposition City Press while retaining that which the readers like. So we want to move it up the market; not right into the Financial Mail/Mail & Guardian space at all – but to play in about LSM (Living Standards Measure) 7-10. At the moment we’re spread into LSM 5 and up to 10.

QUESTION: But that is into the Sunday Times’s territory, isn’t it?
ANSWER: Yes, I guess so. Together with Rapport (the Afrikaans Sunday broadsheet owned by Media24) it’s quite a clear strategy  to be competitive but you’ve got to see the two working together.

QUESTION: What fascinates me as you have a hugely challenging task that, if you pull off, will be quite a thing. Can you reposition and retain the 200 000 sales that you already have. I would imagine many of the readers are quite conservative and identify with City Press’s distinct Africanist identity very strongly. At a certain point, won’t you have to kiss some of them goodbye?
ANSWER: I think that is the brief as well: knowing that we are going to lose some readers. I’d like to not lose too many of them because in various readership surveys, there’s a real love relationship between its readers and City Press. In that way, it’s the same as the M&G… something that you carry with pride and you identify with very, very closely.
But I do recognise that in pulling the paper along to where my brief needs it to be, we are going to lose some readers.

QUESTION: The Sunday Times (which is owned by Avusa) did that under Mike Robertson when it said goodbye to some white readers and it was a great success as it gained many readers in the black middle and upper-income groups. You can’t please everybody.
ANSWER: It’s a nerve-wracking thing to do. You know, no editor wants to lose readers but that’s my very clear brief. It’s not too different from the M&G because my brief from (M&G publisher) Trevor Ncube  was that he wanted it to be a far more a South African/African paper. He wanted it to be  far less owned by only the white-liberal group of readers and bring in many more black readers, which he were  successful in doing by the time I left.

QUESTION: You started at City Press in July but the ABC (circulation) figures for the last quarter of last year are delayed. The City Press was at 183 985 sales in Q3 of 2009 compared to 198 727 in Q3 2008. Practically everybody had a decline in circulation last year but where would you guys like to be in a year’s time?
ANSWER: I’d like it to be at 200 000. We have done dipstick surveys and I’ve been watching the numbers very carefully. We were hit very hard by the recession. Our surveys  did ask the question on whether the changes in content did impact on buying patterns and they showed up only in a positive way. Some readers did express concern that we were maybe packing into much of the gossipy Khanyi Mbau stuff, which they didn’t like — but which I think it’s an essential part of a Sunday read so I’ve got to look at that quite carefully.
The biggest  thing has been that our Careers section got much smaller and that’s a key reason for buying. That for me, would help to understand why we have had this dip in the recession: Careers getting smaller plus, like with all papers, many more people sharing copies (of the paper.)

QUESTION: Under (previous City Press editor) Mthatha Tsedu, the paper was very heavy – it was politics, politics, politics. It does seem to me that you’re mixing it up more and bringing in new elements.
ANSWER: And also trying to change how we write stories,… to write much tighter and offer readers more options – almost like a sushi board – so that they can dip in and dip out and the really committed ones read your entire package.

QUESTION: Every new editor stamps their mark on a title and makes new appointments? Have you made any?
ANSWER: Other than a creative editor, I’ve not made major appointments. I moved quite carefully and used the first months to assess the strengths of the staff I found there.  It’s a very senior, talented, fun group of people to work with and, like I said to them yesterday: ‘It’s been nine months now; if I had a list of people I wanted to bring with me, I would have done so by now’.
But I do also have 15 vacancies and while I’m not going to fill all them, I do want to fill the key ones and I’ll start doing that now in the new financial year.

QUESTION: City Press was part of the voluntary retrenchment process offered by Media24 earlier this year. Did you lose any people?
ANSWER: Not at all. Because we had this large number of vacancies, I was coming in well within budget. It was a completely voluntary exercise and none of my people applied for it.

QUESTION: What would you say has been the biggest challenge since you took over at City Press?
ANSWER: Like I say I found a nice team — very friendly. Trying to shift the paper while retaining readers has been very hard and then I think that editing through a recession is incredibly tough for any editor. You’ve got frozen posts while trying to retain and grow circulation… But at the moment we’re at quite an exciting place. We’ve got this amazing designer and I think the paper is going to look very beautiful.

QUESTION: I was going to ask you about that because the typography in particular is so dated – it’s so 80s.
ANSWER: Well, now we’re going to take it right into the Noughties.

QUESTION: It  does seem to me that the first things you wanted to do was build your team, get the content mix right and a redesign comes later. When will see the new look?
ANSWER: I’ve had to bed down my team, work out a strategy, define a content path  that’s going to be unique to us and get buy-in for us. The designer started working with us in December and we’re taking it quite slow so later this year we will introduce the changes: lots more  colour, a completely new typography – quite a modern, 21st century look. I really like it.

QUESTION: You mentioned defining a new content path. Can you tell me more about that?
ANSWER: My philosophy is that news must lead and unlike the US or Europe, we’re not yet (in SA) in a place where newspapers are only a place for analysis or explanation because the public broadcaster is still quite weak and TV and radio tends to follow print.
So I’m news driven and am trying to instil in our team that every page has to have a significant news break,… to be quite agenda setting and at the same time that every page has something pleasurable or funny or beautiful to read or look at because that’s the nature of  Sunday. I don’t always succeed in that, I must admit, but that’s the philosophy.

QUESTION: As we’re talking about setting the news agenda, do you think the Sunday Times has left the door open on this to you guys and the Sunday Independent as they no longer consistently set the national news agenda?
ANSWER: Look, I think (Sunday Times editor) Mondli (Makhanya) has found his  mojo this year. They’ve had significant breaks one after the other. But I think that none of us should assume that (becuase) the Sunday Times is going to do it,  we can settle into comfortable analysis. I think we’ve got to go right in  there and fight for the news. That’s why I’m quite excited about Investigations24 (the new Media24 investigative unit led by Jacques Pauw). They’re beginning to break the big stuff like Schabir Shaik. That was very good for us and they’ve got quite a few more up their sleeve.
Generally at City Press we’re putting it on a very strong news footing. I have  really good news editor.

QUESTION: It seems to me that the Sunday broadsheet market is getting really competitive, with you at City Press and Makhudu Sefara now at the Sunday Independent.
ANSWER: Yes, look, Makhudu  was our big news breaker at City Press. (Sefara was political editor at City Press when he left to take up the Sunday Independent’s editorship five months ago.) I was very sad to lose him as he’s really well connected and he can pull a lead out of a hat on a Saturday afternoon.
I  think (the competition is) excellent. I think if newspapers get into high competitive mode, we’ll ensure our longevity for maybe five to 10 more years.

QUESTION: Is there anything you wish to add?
ANSWER: I want to go back a little to the task of moving along a very established reader. I’d like to think that we (in South Africa) are not as racially boxed as some marketers and the media industry would have us be. For me, it’s finding that cross-over appeal. I look globally at how figures like Obama or Oprah have transcended race but still be quite black in their identities – and I look locally for examples and try understand what is it that appeal that speaks to all sides of the spectrum. I  was one of the few people in our newsroom who fought to keep (the City Press slogan) “Distinctly African”.

Popularity: 20% [?]