Facelift for Saturday Star

“Our research shows that our readers’ priorities are hard news, people stories, Africa and world stories, celebrities, entertainment, sport and business, so our aim is to basically consolidate these themes throughout the sections,” Smith said.

“We have revitalised this newspaper by creating a fresh feel, centred more on news but packaged to make it easy for our readers,” she added.

The first section (page one to page 12) of the new-look newspaper will, from now on, comprise hard and breaking news, news features, backgrounders and dossiers. The second section, Life, will now be more inclusive and carry elements such as strong people feature, gardening with upscale content, Victor Strugo and Wheels share, and Spice will feature on its back page.

More comprehensive

Canvas – more comprehensive than ever – will move behind Oped next to Media and Marketing, with a special focus on suburbs.

The 48Hrs section will made up of mostly entertainment. It will carry more celebrities’ news, TV schedules now in full colour, movie reviews, big TV story of the weekend, puzzles and crosswords (moved out of the main body) and many more.

“The big challenge for us is to give our readers a good product, keep them informed and always entertained. We know that sometimes we do not get it right but we are trying our best to satisfy them as much as we can,” Seery told Bizcommunity.com.

Seery, who worked for several years in more than 20 African countries, also said that the newspaper will, this time around, be more focused on news from the rest of the continent, which he believes must be given the importance it deserves in this era of globalisation and in terms of the spirit of African Renaissance.

Bigger picture of Africa

“Africa is not always about wars and famines,” he said, adding that people in this country need to look at the bigger picture before they become ‘entangled’ in the world of xenophobia.

This is what the new-look Saturday Star intends to do in the near future. “Our news team has had a huge dose of social consciousness over the years, pushing these social issues week in and week out and we intend to do even more than we did in the past,” Smith said.

More niched

Asked if he foresees Internet media overtaking newsprint any time soon, Seery replied: “Not at all. Okay, perhaps they are able to catch all the latest and breaking news but what they will never have is to catch the emotions – I mean the real and riveting pictures that speak for themselves. Look, newspapers, especially those that are trying to become more niched, not only will still have a lot of credibility but will survive as well.”

However, as the winds of digital revolution continue to blow, bringing very unpredictable changes in every field, Smith said that the management is aware of electronic competition and it is preparing to deal with it accordingly.

“One thing we have realised is that our website is of a critical importance to us. And now that many people have Internet at home, during the weekend they will log on our website to check for news. Believe me, they will find everything they want in there,” she concluded.