Three SA newspapers hit Zimbabwe newsstands

14 Nov 2007

A newspaper marketing company has started selling titles from South Africa's Independent News & Media (SA) (INMSA), just over a month after the Sowetan hit the country's newspaper stands but was quickly withdrawn because distributors had been “testing the market”.

The Saturday Star, The Sunday Independent and Wednesday's edition of The Star join The Sunday Times and the Mail & Guardian (M&G), which have been selling in Zimbabwe for years and are distributed by Munn Marketing, the same company now bringing the INMSA titles into the country.

But the newspapers are experiencing a one-day delivery delay into Harare, the capital, and The Sunday Independent was selling on the streets on Monday, a day after it came out in South Africa. However, vendors said this had not affected sales in any way, as demand looked strong. However, it was not clear if this was due to curiosity over an unknown publication or due to a dearth of newspapers in the country. There are just two weekly independent business newspapers, The Financial Gazette and the Zimbabwe Independent, and last week they were ordered by a government agency to reduce cover prices to Z$150 000 per copy, from Z$600 000 per copy pegged by their respective management to ensure viability.

Munn is the same company that had brought in the Sowetan, which falls under the Johnnic Communications group that also publishes The Sunday Times, in early October but quickly stopped the newspaper's distribution, with an official saying they had been testing the market.

It is not yet clear how the INMSA titles will fare, but the M&G and The Sunday Times have done very well in the Zimbabwean market thanks to their dedicated coverage of the Zimbabwe crisis.

Wednesday's edition of The Star could be well calculated to attract despondent professionals with a keen interest in the South African job market. The Star's Wednesday edition has a supplement, Workplace, dedicated to job adverts.