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Celebs help to make Sunday Sun shine...
Through all the shot and shell
and circulation disasters that have assailed most newspapers in the country this
year, the Sunday Sun has prospered!
In fact, the July to September figures this year give our Sunday baby an average
paid circulation of 228 681 every Sunday...
That's compared to 217 731 during the same quarter in 2009...more than 10 000
copies UP!
So from whence - and how - this ray of light in a gloomy landscape?
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...the
point is clear. Newspapers must change... and change... and change
again. |
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Newspaper success has many roots...
In the Sunday Sun's case, I think it comes down to one word: CELEBRITIES!
There's nothing particularly original in that...celebrities are main drivers of
popular, 21st-Century journalism in much of the world already.
In SA we've had stabs at the phenomenon - mostly in magazines.
But at Sunday Sun we took a cold and conscious decision...let's go for
celebrities as the spearpoint of the editorial effort.
So, for example, behold some pages from last week's paper...
Page One lead story: Why the son of the premier of Gauteng hanged himself.
(see picture >>)
Page Three lead story: Cops are hunting for a former Bafana Bafana star who
is needed to “assist with enquiries” into an incident of hijacking.
(see picture >>)
Page4: Local beauties - including Khanyi Mbau who plays the game better than
anyone else and who has become famous for being famous - react to the news that
Botswana's president doesn't want a fat woman for his first lady...
(see picture >>)
And deeper in the paper: A SunBabe - one of our paper's own beauties - gets high
praise for her community work; a kwaito star warns kids about the evil drug,
nyaope; and Khanyi Mbau again...this time her manager shows off his car and
tells us why he likes it
(see picture >>).
All of this is not the ONLY stuff that pushes Sunday Sun's sales...there's a
really good magazine, lots of good sport...a great cartoon (our own Africanised
version of Prince Valiant, King Shaka and Mad Max all mixed together) and even
some traditional news of what happened in the world the night before.
But the point is clear: Newspapers must change...and change... and change
again.
If they don't - and as the world changes faster than them, as it will - they're
doomed.
There is no sunlit upland where newspaper people can subside with a happy sigh
and say they've arrived.
No sooner have they arrived than the landscape changes.
Even Rupert Murdoch has now launched a paper entirely for electronic tablets
like iPad.
Murdoch has in fact been quoted as being of the view that "these tablets are the
new printing presses..."
That would be a joy...though not around here right now I fear....
Meanwhile, papers like Sunday Sun - resolutely recognizing that news is a
commodity and that different sorts suit different folks - will continue to
thrive as we keep our antennae UP...and do what we must do.
Regards
Deon du Plessis
SunPublisher
about 4 hours ago from SunPublisher, Deon du Plessis
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