South Africa Edition 2

THE MARKET
If you read the Cape Times today, you’re in good
company: 315,999 other people did the same
thing. What’s more, the newspaper looks set to
continue its meteoric growth in circulation and to
improve on the 20 percent growth in readership
it recorded in just three years - a feat few other
titles in this competitive market can lay claim to.
Ongoing research into the needs of readers
is partly responsible for the paper’s success,
combined with the Cape Times’ commitment
to insightful journalism and offering valuable
information.
Cape Town’s biggest selling morning daily
newspaper carries the widely read Business
Report supplement every day of the week. The
supplement is also carried in three other titles
owned by Independent Newspapers around
the country: The Star (in Johannesburg), The
Mercury (in Durban) and the Pretoria News. The
paper also carries the Career Times on Monday,
the Life Times on Tuesday, the Property Times on
Wednesday, the Drive Times on Thursday and the
Top of the Times on Friday.
Each of these specialist supplements is
widely read by its respective market and offers
advertisers specific opportunities to target the
markets they need to reach while giving readers
valuable information. For example, the Drive
Times not only carries advertising for new
and second-hand cars, but also gives editorial
coverage of Formula One news, car performance
reviews and even advice on how to maintain
cars. The Monday Career Times supplement is
well supported by advertisers and well read by
Capetonians, with circulation gains of 20 percent
over other days of the week not uncommon.
The brand’s editorial strategy and positioning,
through cover price and supplements, has ensured
the Cape Times addresses the needs of a broad
cross section of locals. Over 60 percent of Cape
Times readers comprise the highest proportion
of shareowners, investors and credit card holders
of all Cape Town daily newspapers. This makes
the title a popular choice for advertisers keen to
reach this lucrative market.
With the newspaper being distributed as far
afield as George and Knysna (500km and a sevenhour
truck drive from Cape Town) on a daily
basis, deadlines are not negotiable for editorial
and production staff. This ensures readers in
outlying areas enjoy delivery of their newspaper
on time, every day and that 17,000 subscribers
get their news by 7am daily.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Campaigns aimed at highlighting the Cape Times
brand, its supplements and event sponsorships,
have been among the most recognised by the
International Newspaper Marketing Association’s
(INMA) annual marketing awards, which draws
entries from newspaper titles around the world.
HISTORY
The Cape Times was launched in 1876 by FY
St Leger as the first daily newspaper in South
Africa. According to Gerald Shaw’s “informal
history” of the Cape Times, the newspaper
was “a success from the start, vindicating St
Leger’s belief that the time was ripe for a daily
newspaper in South Africa which would follow
its own independent line in pursuit of the public
interest”. The newspaper went on sale on March
27, 1876 at a cost of a penny a paper. Its front
page was covered entirely in advertising, much
of it of the kind that you would now find in the
newspaper’s classified section.
It was produced and printed in St George’s
Street, central Cape Town, not far from where
it is now housed in St George’s Mall. The
newspaper soon established a reputation for a
commitment to individual and human rights and
for being prepared to swim against the prevailing
political tide. This is a reputation that was
sustained through the difficult early years of the
Cape Colony, the various wars fought inside and
outside the country and, most notably, during the
apartheid years. This was when the Cape Times
distinguished itself by repeatedly bucking the
illegitimate authority of the time and exposing its
brutality. The formula clearly appealed to readers
and steady growth over the years from a modest
circulation (in a modestly populated town) to the
current 316,000-plus readers is ample proof.
THE PRODUCT
Today, the Cape Times still follows St Leger’s
dictum of an “independent line in pursuit of the
public interest”. It sells an average of around
50,000 copies daily and, while the bulk of its
readers come from the Cape Peninsula, it is
distributed as far afield as Plettenberg Bay on the
East Coast and Saldanha Bay on the West Coast.
Its positioning statement is: “The dominant and
authoritative morning daily newspaper in Cape
Town, servicing the needs of the upmarket
reader, emphasising business news and providing
in-depth coverage of current issues.”
The Cape Times sets out to keep its readers