Kampala — THE New Vision chief Robert Kabushenga had both good and bad news for the company's advertisers yesterday. During a breakfast meeting at Protea Hotel in Kampala, he announced that the upgrading of the printing press had been completed, allowing for more colour pages and faster printing.

"We are planning to raise money to further improve our printing capacity and quality and enhance investments in electronic media," Kabushenga said.

He further announced that The New Vision had recorded a growth in circulation of 5,000 copies.

Vision Voice radio, owned by Vision Group, has been well received by listeners since it was launched in December and has become a noticeable player, he noted.

Another Luganda radio station, closely associated with Bukedde, will hit the air waves in July. "The studio is under construction and the equipment will be here on May 15," Kabushenga said.

The Vision Group would soon introduce a new magazine titles to add to its package of four products, Premiership, Citybeat, Bride & Groom and the recently launched Flair magazine.

Flair, which targets the educated middle-class women aged 25 to 50, was a success, with the first issue sold out, Kabushenga said. On the planned Vision Television, he disclosed that the management was negotiating with a production company to generate locally produced content.

The New Vision website www.newvision.co.ug will be revamped by the end of July to become an independent source of news and information.

The bad news, he said, was that the group had to increase its advertising rates due to the rising cost of imports such as newsprint. The 11% raise takes effect from July 1.

The advertising rates in the regional papers of Orumuri, Rupiny, Etop and Bukedde will also go up, starting from July 1.

"The cost of doing business has gone up and we have to take this into account and increase our rates. With these realities, we have no choice."