Issued by: Big News


BDFM managing director Mzimkulu Malunga says the aim with the acquisition is to cover the full spectrum of the business market and that it therefore made perfect sense to take BigNews on board. "Our involvement with BigNews extends our publishing reach into the fast-expanding small business market and increases our marketing value to advertisers," says Malunga.

BigNews for the Business Owner was previously owned by the entrepreneurs who launched the title ten years ago and who now constitute management, and the Samdef venture capital fund. Its management team will retain a minority shareholding and will remain on to manage the publication.

This announcement comes in the wake of BDFM launching The Weekender to capture Business Day readers during the weekend and the revamping of the FM as the first choice business magazine.

In adding BigNews to its stable, BDFM now offers advertisers access to all segments of the business market. Malunga says that the addition of BigNews to the BDFM stable will open an additional revenue stream that is not dependent on advertising trends in the corporate market.

Advertising support in BigNews is spread between corporate brand advertising, government advertorials and enterprise development messages (such as corporate sponsorship of educational content).

"BigNews for the Business Owner is seen as the leading small business newspaper in South Africa," says Christoff Oosthuysen, one of the paper's launch partners and now the publisher, "not only because it was started first, but also because it offers the widest national reach."

The Audit Bureau of Circulations report for January to June 2006 shows that BigNews for the Business Owner contributes more than half of the distribution of all newspapers and magazines aimed at the small business and entrepreneurship market.

Last year BigNews received recognition for its pioneering circulation system with a special innovation award from the Independent Press Association.

Nationally, 135 000 copies of the paper are distributed through various agents, based on a unique "free fetch" model. The network of agents provides BigNews with reach to business owners, since these agents are providers of business services and stock to small firms. When business owners visit the agents as part of their ordinary business, they also get their copy of BigNews.

But it is not only the circulation strategy the sets BigNews apart - the paper also developed an editorial style that goes down very well with owner-managers of small firms. As a result, the reporting staff have twice received the SMME Africa Reporter of the Year Award.

"We've been able to pitch our content very well since we've been working as a small business ourselves, employing 20 people and having to deal with exactly the same issues the target readers are worried about on a day-to-day basis such as visiting the bank manager hat-in-hand or being dragged to the CCMA.

"We've been writing for ourselves. And now, with BDFM getting involved, we have to face the challenge of becoming part of a bigger group without losing that editorial edge," says Oosthuysen.

Visit our PRESS OFFICE: Big News BusinessOwner&Co is a media and consulting business with an exclusive focus on owner-managers of small firms in South Africa. We offer large commercial and government clients access to this market through both our media products and our consulting services.- more....

[31 Oct 2006 14:11]

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