Readership & Circulation

Newsletter n°12/23.04.08
Freedom Newspaper Finds Freedom Elsewhere to Serve Gambia
In mid-March 2008 editor-in-chief Pa Nderry M’Bai of Gambia’s online news source Freedom Newspaper received numerous emails from concerned readers in Gambia informing him that they were unable to view the website. The government had blocked the website-a notorious tactic still familiar even to M’Bai who is now based in North Carolina, United States.

Newsletter n°11/16.04.08
A Nigerian Business Newspaper Finds its Niche
Editor-in-Chief Ray Echebiri of Business World in Nigeria spoke to RAP 21 about what his audience wants and how he brings it to them. Launched on 11 September 2006 the paper strives to inform and guide the country on business and economic matters.

Newsletter n°7/07.06.2006
READERSHIP & CIRCULATION: Competition in Cameroon
Scores 2000 was the first newspaper in Nkongsamba (Department of Moungo, Southwest of Cameroon) when it was launched in 1997. It has enjoyed great success, in particular after it changed to tabloid format in 2002. Today, competition from new titles has restrained the growth of the paper.

Newsletter n° 23/24.10.2005
Readership: Why You Need to Know Your Audience
Audience research is one of the key ways to determine how many readers you have, identify who they are and figure out what they want from your newspaper. It is a fundamental revenue generation tool, and when done properly, can help boost circulation and increase advertising in any newspaper, whether small or big. Audience research does not need to be costly, nor does it need to be complicated, but it does need to be professional. Despite this, very few African newspapers carry out audience research.

Newsletter n° 20/30.09.05
WAN EVENT: 6th World Young Reader Conference
“It is time for newspaper professionals to stop being defensive about their medium.” This was the underlying message from the 6th World Young Reader Conference, which challenged the contention that children don’t read and showed what the world’s most innovative newspapers are doing to capture their loyalty. Over three hundred participants from 66 countries attended the event, held in Buenos Aires from 18 to 21 September.

Newsletter N° 16/31.08.05
LAUNCHING A NEWSPAPER: Bringing people back to their roots proves commercial success
With a 21 percent yearly increase in sales since its launch three years ago, the Zulu language newspaper "Isolezwe" is one of the most prosperous newspapers in South Africa today. Through writing about daily life in a local language, Isolezwe has earned a reputation as being close to the its readers and valuing them.

Newsletter n° 9/20.06.05
MAKING THE CASE FOR FREE DAILIES
The concept behind the Metro chain of free newspapers boils down to this: if you can’t beat them, join them. Carlos Oliva-Vélez, executive vice president of Metro International in Sweden, spoke about how newspapers worldwide have faced the challenge of Metro.

Newsletter n° 9/20.06.05
FOCUSING ON THE CUSTOMER TO GENERATE GROWTH
Among the many opportunities awaiting the printed press, there is one in particular that will transform the newspaper business, according to Michael Golden, publisher of the International Herald Tribune (IHT).

Newsletter n° 8/3.06.05
Cameroon: Rural newspapers face unique challenges

Despite daily obstacles such as low purchasing power and a weak advertising market, the rural weekly l’Etoile de la Menoua (the Menoua Star) continues to fight for a rich newspaper culture in Cameroon.

I should say that my decision to launch a rural newspaper came mainly from the fact that I am from a rural background. Not many newspapers really focus their attention on events that happen in the countryside. I wanted to bring to the limelight the lives of my brothers and sisters, says Jean Robert Mbané, editor-in-chief of the French-language newspaper.

Newsletter n° 5/25.03.05
Readership: Younger generation supports open minded newspaper in Algeria

In the year 2000, Al Fadjr, a moderate Arab-language daily, hit the Algerian news stands. Appealing to the younger generation and offering balanced news, the newspaper has benefited from steady growth since its launch 5 years ago. RAP 21 spoke to Hadda Hazem, publisher of the newspaper.

RAP 21: What made you chose Arabic over French as the language of your newspaper?
Hadda Hazem: In Algeria today more people speak Arabic than French, especially the young people because of the stronger presence of an Arabic culture in the school system for the past two decades. There is a lack of moderate voices in the Arabic-language press due to a predominance of media that condemns integration and encouraging Islamic fundamentalism, which, in my view, is one of the origins of the terrorism that has caused the bloody fights which have paralysed the country for years. This is why we decided to publish a daily in Arabic that preaches modernism, openness towards other cultures and condemns fundamentalism and terrorism.

Newsletter n° 2/19.01.05
Readership & Circulation: A magazine for the Illiterate
Somoya Sila is a monthly magazine published in Guinea. What makes this publication unique is that it is written entirely in NKO - an alphabet that was invented in 1949 to allow the people of the Mande language group to express themselves in writing. More than twenty million people in West Africa speak one of the forty languages that belong to the Mande group.

Newsletter n°20/30.11.04
Readership: Cameroonian Newspaper Goes Daily to Challenge Tough Times

In mid-September, one of Cameroons most respected independent publications, Le Messager, went daily. A lot is at stake for one of the bravest voices in Central Africa. RAP 21 spoke to editor-in-chief Pius Njawe.

RAP 21: Why did you make the decision go from appearing three times a week to every day?
Pius Njawe: A number of factors explain our decision to go daily. First, we wanted to fulfil a long-time promise to our readers. We have been promising to make Le Messager a daily since our 15th anniversary in 1994. Unfortunately censorship and various types of repression has taken a toll on the press in Cameroon and did not allow us to take this risk. Weve contemplated this change many times since then, but each time we have confronted obstacles that have stopped us from taking the final leap.

Newsletter n°17/19.10.04
Botswana: Local language newspaper aims to capture hearts and minds of nation
Just over two years ago a new publication hit the newsstands in Botswana. Despite entering an already crowded market, MOKGÓSI offers a unique product - it is the only publication that is published entirely in Setswana, a language which 85 per cent of the population considers its mother tongue.

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° 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° 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° 90
Playing on nearness and specificity
A newspaper which focuses on local news is a media which distinguishes itself and which has a good chance to reach the population at which it aims. In Mali, Match is a newspaper focused on sports and above all on local sports. "It is nearness which is favoured here. We cover 99 percent local news, because nobody will speak about ’our’ sport in greater detail," says Alssane Souleymane, a journalist at Match.

Newsletter n° 87
Science reporting to attract readers
"In the newspaper but also in the country, science and technology are not a priority," says Jean-Ren Bompolonga, who writes a science and technology column for the general information independent daily Le Phare in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Newsletter n° 69
Young journalists for a young readership

Newsletter n° 68
Lighten Up, But Stay Serious
When De Standaard of Belgium wanted to change its image from a newspaper for "fathers and grandfathers," it did so in a big way. Among other things, it introduced a column about explicit sex written by a young woman.

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.