Management

Newsletter n°17/28.05.08
Rhodes University Study Looks At Business Strategies for Community Newspapers in South Africa
In a case study of six independent community newspapers in South Africa by the Sol Plaatje Institute for Media Leadership at the School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University, the authors concluded that the values used to describe and define grassroots media "have shifted from resistance to reconstruction and development."

Newsletter n°15/14.05.08
Setting Benchmarks and Breaking Stereotypes: Janine Lazarus Discusses Her Career
A serious and respected journalist, Janine Lazarus reminds all who participate in her media training workshops that "it’s important to be authentic...there’s no point trying to be a replica of someone else." Lazarus certainly lives up to this statement. After 24 years of weaving through the many facets of the South African media, Lazarus has emerged as a forefront figure in the field, knowing what she wants and how to get it. She has done everything from investigative reporting to crime coverage to women’s magazine writing and has more than dabbled in nearly every type of media outlet.

Newsletter n°14/07.05.08
African Editors’ Forum Launches Third Chapter On World Press Freedom Day
The breadth of activities on World Press Freedom Day (3 May) 2008 gave birth to a particularly positive development in the fight for press freedom in Africa. The African Editors’ Forum (TAEF) launched its third chapter in Eastern Africa. Sixty editors from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Somalia and Sudan gathered in Nairobi, Kenya to discuss the regional laws and regulations affecting the media in the region as well as the pivotal role they can play in securing press freedom.

Newsletter n°13/30.04.08
Oppositional Tunisian Newspaper Grapples with Censorship, Lawsuits, and Illiberal Politics

In the week before World Press Freedom Day the Tunisian weekly opposition newspaper Al-Mawkif is faced with the possibility of having to cease publication after 23 years. Post-publication censorship and charges of spreading false news and defamation have manifested in exorbitant fines and severe financial losses. Managing editor Nejib Chebbi and editor Rachid Khechana, of the Progressive Democratic Party’s (PDP) newspaper, spoke to RAP 21 on the long battle ahead of them.

The Al-Mawkif staff is standing unbowed to the series of obstacles they face; Chebbi is running in near quicksand against incumbent President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in the country’s 2009 elections and Kchechana and his colleague, Mongi Ellouze are on a hunger strike.

Newsletter n° 13/28.07.05
African Press Trends 2005 - This Week: BENIN

The World Press Trends 2005 report, released at the WAN 58th Annual Newspaper Congress in Seoul, shows an increase in circulation and revenue from advertising for the newspaper industry worldwide in 2004. As part of a five week special, RAP 21 will publish African data from the report and speak to the leaders of some of the most successful newspapers on the continent about trends in their markets and their views on the future of the newspaper industry.

Le Matinal and Les Echos du Jour are two of Benins largest dailies. In 2004, they had an average daily circulation of 3600 and 3000 respectively. RAP 21 spoke to Charles Toko, publisher of Le Matinal, and Maurice Chabi, publisher of Les Echos du Jour about the performance of their publications over the past year, their strategies for staying at the top of a competitive market, and their views on changing trends in Benins newspaper market.

Newsletter n° 11/12.07.05
MANAGEMENT: African Press Trends 2005 - This Week: NIGERIA
The World Press Trends 2005 report, released at the WAN 58th Annual Newspaper Congress in Seoul, shows an increase in circulation and revenue from advertising for the newspaper industry worldwide in 2004. As part of a five week special, RAP 21 will publish African data from the report and speak to the leaders of some of the most successful newspapers on the continent about trends in their markets, and their views on the future of the newspaper industry.

Newsletter n° 10/01.07.05
Management: Children’s newspaper triumphs in Ghana

In Ghana, a weekly children¹s newspaper has not only managed to survive, but is growing and even diversifying its activities. In November 2003, Mark A. Kwateng put both his personal engagement and money at stake in what seemed to be a hazardous project: launching a weekly newspaper with a target audience of school children between the age of 6 and 16. This would be a great challenge anywhere in the world, and even more so in Africa where newspapers face many obstacles due to a poor advertising market, badly functioning distributions systems and low purchasing power.

In February 2004, RAP 21 spoke to Kwateng about the launch of the "Kiddie Journo". Today, one and a half years later, we catch up with him to discuss how he has defied the odds to make his newspaper a success. (Photo of Editor-in-Chief Mark Kwateng)

Newsletter n°18/03.11.04
Liberia: Learning from Across the Continent
In June 2004, Crispin Tulay, editor of The Vanguard newspaper, based in Liberia, travelled to South Africa to participate in a week-long newspaper management course with a select group of editors from the Southern African region. The newspaper editors were trained in various aspects of newspaper management such as: Leadership Skills, Change, Circulation, Budget, Advertising and Team Management. In the second instalment of a two week series, RAP 21 publishes excerpts from the report that came out of this unique experience.

Newsletter n°17/19.10.04
Mozambique: Vulnerable newspaper industry suffers from lack of capital and management expertise
Ten years after the end of the civil war, Mozambiques newspaper industry is still fighting to get on its feet. The countrys almost 19 million inhabitants have access to a total of ten publications, of which only two are published daily.

Newsletter n°16/06.08.04
Circulation: How to Get to the Top - and Stay There
Why is it that even in mature markets, and even in markets showing decline, some newspapers manage continuous growth? What are the secrets of circulation success? How can you make your newspaper into a circulation winner? Over the next 10 weeks, the RAP 21 newsletter and website will feature the top ten factors that drive circulation success, presented by newspaper expert Jim Chisholm.

Newsletter n° 36/06.11.03
Mauritius: Contributing to National Debate for 40 years
Constant innovation and search for editorial and technical excellence has kept the "l’Express" newspaper in the ring for four decades.In the second part of a three-part series on Africa’s oldest newspapers, RAP 21 speaks to Jean-Claude de l’Estrac, director and editor-in-chief, about the history of the newspaper and the advantages and challenges it has faced since its founding

Newsletter n° 35/23.10.03
Malawi: 100 Years in the Newspaper Business
The general manager of the "Daily Times" speaks of the advantages and challenges to being one of Africa’s oldest newspapers.n a three-part series, RAP 21 explores the history, the challenges and the advantages of some of the oldest newspapers on the continent.

Newsletter n° 29
The Challenge of Local Languages
The dominant commerce and administrative languages in Africa are English, French and Portuguese. This is also reflected in the African newspaper landscape, where the majority of newspapers are published in one of the languages inherited from the colonial powers. But does there exist a potential market for newspapers in local languages? And what is the position of bilingual newspapers???

Newsletter n° 28
Good Journalism in Malawi
"The Chronicle" newspaper is one of the few privately-owned newspapers operating in Malawi. The quality of the newspaper was formally recognised recently when it was awarded a prize for investigative journalism by MISA-Malawi for a political story on the ruling UDF party. This success can be attributed, in large part, to editor-in-chief and owner Rob Jamieson, who has channelled both his professional and personal energy into running a quality newspaper, despite the political and economic odds stacked against it.

Newsletter n° 18/
20.05.2003
Loss of readership & no cooperation
"A review of ten years of media pluralism in Africa" was the title of the third workshop at the pan-African management roundtable for newspaper executives held in Dakar, Senegal, in March. Marie-Soleil Frère, who is responsible for media projects at the Intergovernmental Agency of the Francophonie, conducted the discussion about factors that have influenced the African press in either a positive or negative way during the last ten years.

Newsletter n° 17/
13.05.2003
Paying taxes can strengthen independence
"A review of ten years of media pluralism in Africa" was the title of the third workshop at the Pan-African management roundtable for newspaper executives held in Dakar, Senegal, in March (for articles on the two other workshops, see the RAP 21 Newsletters no 14/2003 & 15/2003).

Newsletter n° 83
Relaunching the editorial policy in a country in crisis
The weekly Fraternite Matin in the Ivory Coast restructured its editorial position just before the attempted coup d’Etat on September 19, putting itself to an unexpected test.

Newsletter n° 68
Outsourcing Almost Everything
Sometimes the most cost-effective way to get something done at a newspaper is to pay someone else to do it. That’s the approach taken by Dagens Nyheter, Sweden’s largest morning newspaper.

Newsletter n° 65
Publishers strengthen independent media
A dozen publishers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have created an association to help reinforce independent media in the country. The "Congolese Independent Press Publishers Group" plans to set up a central buying service, create a common advertising agency and organise training and development seminars for journalists.

Newsletter n° 62
Putting women in charge
In Benin, Sylvia Olatan d’Almida has been the director of the general information daily independent newspaper Le Bninois for the past year. "I am the first and the only woman to run a daily in Benin," she says.

Newsletter n° 62
How to treat customers well through Customer Relationship Management
The World Association of Newspapers recently published a report on the application of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in the newspaper industry. According to the report, CRM can benefit to circulation, advertising, editorial, new revenue generation and operational efficiency.