Thom Mclachlan
16 January 2008
Johannesburg — THE Times, sister publication of the Sunday Times, will be available on newsstands in parts of Gauteng from mid-February . The daily, delivered to about 126000 Sunday Times subscribers for free, is expected to retail at R3,50.
Mike Robertson, head of media at The Times's publisher, Avusa, confirmed the newspaper would be available next month . Avusa owns the Sunday Times and half of Business Day, among other titles.
Times editor Ray Hartley said this week on his blog: "We hope that others will buy the paper, enjoy it and join the subscriber family."
Media buyers say the newspaper has been bundling its advertising with Sunday Times advertising deals. The move means the newspaper will become a standalone , and will have to recoup its costs by increasing readership, rather than piggybacking .
Avusa CEO Prakash Desai said last year that The Times had cost Avusa R21m in the first four months since its June launch . It had helped drive up Sunday Times subscriptions by 20000 over that period.
One media buyer was surprised by the move, as she had been assured The Times would always be for Sunday Times subscribers only. The newspaper's original value was that it could provide advertisers with well-defined reader segments. This latest move raises questions about the success of the initial plan.
But overall, media buyers said the move made sense as The Times had been well received and a wider readership would increase advertisers' interest.
Mediacompete director Adriaan de Buck said it was a "unique product that will attract a different readership ".
At R3,50, the paper w ill compete with dailies The Citizen, The Daily Sun and The Star. Some staff at The Times are concerned they may not have the capacity to compete with major dailies.
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