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Other articles in the RAP 21 Newsletter n° 49/2002:
The Business of Newspapers
Non-existing advertising market silences the Gabonese press
Newsletter n° 49
THE BUSINESS OF NEWSPAPERS PRINTING & DISTRIBUTION

Sports news likely to increase readership

"We publish an 8-page sports magazine every Saturday. Besides that, we publish between 3 and 4 pages of sports every day out of a total of 48 pages," says Fred Waga, sports editor of the Daily Nation.

The sports magazine was a result of a marketing survey that the Daily Nation conducted last year, in which the readers asked for more sports news, particularly on week-ends.

"We actually made a re-package of the whole newspaper, but the biggest single change was the introduction of the sports magazine. The readers had asked for more sports in general, but especially on week-ends, probably because they have more time for reading the newspaper then," says Mr Waga.

There are 4 full time staff writing the sports magazine, as well as 17 stringers spread all over the country. The magazine also uses material from the international sports scene from foreign news agencies.

The main subject of the sports section is quite naturally football. But in connection to any big sports event, the newspaper publishes both articles about the game itself and sidebars treating the event from different angles.

"Traditionally Kenyans are very interested in politics and this also concerns sports; when the politics behind a sport or a sports event are interesting, the Kenyans want to read about it."

Still, Waga sees the role of the sports section as mainly entertaining and informing. In contrast to sports news in Europe, the informing role is essential: whereas Europeans can follow sports on TV, most Kenyans get their information from newspapers.

Still, sports can play a very important role for an European newspaper too. For the French daily newspaper Le Parisien, sports news helped increase the general readership.

The philosophy of Le Parisien is that the sports section should not only entertain the readers but also unify them. Sports can rejuvenate the paper and reinforce its identity. Like the Daily Nation, Le Parisien is devoted to football: 40 to 50 percent of their coverage concern the sport. But the newspaper will write about any sports where France stands out.

Le Parisien puts an emphasis on producing sports news with an emphasis on a human interest angel, rather than a technical one. They want the larger public to identify with the sports men and women. The newspaper tells its readers about things that they cannot see on TV, giving glimpses from behind the scene. Moreover, there is a sports presence on the front page of Le Parisien every day.

The only big group that the sports news of Le Parisien does not seem to attract is women. All studies undertaken by the newspaper show that sports do not gain new female readers for the newspaper and in surveys it also gives sports a rather low position in the hierarchy of interests.
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