Nigerian-funded ThisDay hit the streets of South Africa with a resounding thump on Tuesday, landing in an already crowded media market where it is expected to face stiff competition.
ThisDay editor Justice Malala said in a front page editorial that the newspaper, a sister paper to ThisDay in Nigeria, would offer coverage of “politics to business, arts to sport and comedy to science”.
“The newspaper is unique in many ways. It is the first national daily, general interest newspaper to be launched in South Africa,” he said.
“It will be printed in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth, and will reach cities, towns and villages across the country.”
ThisDay Nigeria announced the newspaper’s South African launch just over a year ago, and after embarking on a recruitment drive, secured many of South Africa’s most senior journalists.
But it has had to postpone its release date on various occasions, with insiders at the newspaper saying a shortage of capital was preventing it from getting off the ground.
Last year ThisDay spent millions of dollars buying 71 CNA stationery stores. Poor sales and below-target profitability at CNA forced it to close 24 of the stores and to sell most of its assets in the chain.
Anton Harber, a professor of journalism and media studies at Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand, said in an editorial recently that ThisDay was being launched “for all the wrong reasons”.
“ThisDay is, to put it cautiously, an unusual initiative,” he said in the Business Day newspaper.
“The Nigerian press baron behind it, Nduka Obaigbena, says they did research before announcing the venture, but it is clear that the major motivation was not the discovery of a gap in the market, but his desire having tasted huge success with ThisDay in Nigeria as well as a number of other ventures to spread his personal base to South Africa,” he said.
Harber said ThisDay was entering a difficult market.
“All of the newspapers at this end of the market — Business Day, Sunday Independent, Mail & Guardian, Business Report and the financial weeklies — have had a tough, money-losing few years. There is not enough advertising for them to share, let alone accommodate a new player. Something will have to give way.”
But he added: “This venture has to be taken seriously. For one thing, Obaigbena has had huge success in Nigeria and shown remarkable courage and staying power under difficult circumstances.”
“ThisDay has one strong thing going for it: it has recruited a powerful team of the kind of energetic talent that makes or breaks new ventures.”
Mail & Guardian reporters noted that ThisDay was carrying old, or “banked” stories that had been written some time before the launch.
“It looks great, but the news lacks oomph,” said one reporter.
“It has a traditional style. It’s text heavy and dense. It’s a nice-looking paper. It’s stylish. It’s a good launch paper. Slightly conservative, but that’s the look they’re going for. And there’s a pretty girl on page 12,” said another.
Another reporter said the paper had a “Sunday” feel to it, and was markedly different from other daily newspapers.
“It’s not something you can skim over,” said the reporter.
Unfortunately, while ThisDay managed to get the actual paper on to the streets, visitors to its website (www.thisdaysa.co.za) just got an error message. ‒ AFP, Staff Reporter