Breaking News: Two new weeklies for the guys

As predicted on the media.toolbox blog (http://mediatoolbox.blogspot.com/2006/08/two-new-weeklies-for-guys.html) a while ago UpperCase Media
(UCM), publishers of FHM and the country’s premier celebrity and heat, will be launching ZOO Weekly and an Afrikaans version ZOO Weekliks as before the end of the year.

Says UCM Publisher Kim Browne: “From our experience with FHM and heat, we realised SA is a hungry market for new media development, which includes magazines. If done right, magazine brands with proven success in other countries can work really well here. With almost three years of international track-record with ZOO Weekly world-wide at our disposal, including all our own extensive local research, everything indicates South Africa is ready for a men’s lifestyle weekly – and ZOO Weekly is the best brand in this category.”

Browne says the reason why UCM decided to launch an Afrikaans version of the magazine is due to the significant growth the Afrikaans magazine market has experienced during the last few years. “We believe this trend will continue as Afrikaans readers who fall within our target market are longing for a title that entertains and informs in their own mother tongue. This is a potentially very profitable market. Advertisers will also benefit directly from this opportunity to communicate frequently with affluent English and Afrikaans guys in their preferred language, through a medium such as ZOO Weekly/Weeklik.”

Launching with a combined total print run of 85 000 copies for both the English and Afrikaans editions, ZOO Weekly and ZOO Weekliks will be on sale weekly from 24 October 2006 and will retail for a competitive price. The launch of ZOO Weekly/Weekliks will create around 25 new jobs for editorial and advertising magazine professionals.

World Report Media is also launching Krew in October. The content of the 96-pager will be mostly locally generated but will also include content from UK magazines Nuts and Loaded. Krew will be printed by CTP Printers and the distribution handled by RNA. The initial print run of 15,000 is expected to increase to 30,000 by the end of the year.