I don’t understand the complexities of newspaper publishing, but wouldn’t it make sense to keep some of the style and quality of The Weekender alive, perhaps by running The Weekender Review section as a supplement to the Friday Business Day?
The Weekender’s problems seem to relate mainly to printing and distribution; problems that could be overcome if it piggy-backed on normal Business Day operations, which work extremely well.
Would the customer pay for it?
Well, a large number of people paid separately for The Weekender; so I suspect many people would pay a little extra for a Friday supplement that carried more opinion and reviews. I certainly would.
I have noticed my personal reading habits changing over the past few years. As the world becomes more complex and more uncertain, I place a much greater premium on opinion than on news content.
The facts are easy to get. Interpreting what’s really going on is hard, so it’s great to read well-informed and thought-provoking opinion, even if I disagree with it.
Business Day is very good at providing this opinion — it’s a real competitive strength.
This is also why The Economist continues to thrive, despite the relentless decline in print media.
So I would have thought the right strategy for Business Day is to raise the bar even higher on opinion and analysis, and possibly even remove the distinction between “hard news” and “opinion” altogether, so that every news piece includes some interpretation and comment.
In this context, the loss of The Weekender is even sadder, but the demand for this kind of content will not go away.
And in SA, there is nothing like it yet online (except for your excellent new website, of course), so you’ve probably got a few good years ahead to figure out how to respond.
Paul O’Riordan
Via e-mail