Son nou in Engels

Media24 Jan Malherbe, CEO of Media24 Newspapers, provides some background information on the launch of an English edition of Cape-based tabloid Son.

Son was launched some three years ago as an Afrikaans weekly appearing on Fridays with different editions for different provinces but mostly the same content. It did very well, particularly in the Western Cape, bringing huge growth in Afrikaans newspapers readership.

In April last year we launched it as a daily newspaper in the Western and Southern Cape, while still having the Weekend Son as a weekly in other provinces. The daily has also done surprisingly well.

We have now introduced an English version of Son as a daily for the same area. The target market is middle income readers who want an entertaining, less serious tabloid dealing with issues of concern to them and their communities. The content is mostly the same as the Afrikaans edition, with some zoning for different areas.

The launch date was last Friday (October 7, 06) so it is far to early to talk about circulation. The Afrikaans market is bigger but we anticipate that the English version will add sufficient numbers to make the combined circulation even more attractive.

All this is totally separate from the Daily Sun which has a different target market.

Ingo Capraro is the national editor of all Son editions.