THE leading Sunday newspaper in Zambia has made its format switch today, shrinking from broadsheet to the tabloid shape.
It is a new breath in the Zambian media as the Sunday Mail gets better to appeal to all age groups and cater for all sectors.
Zambia Daily Mail managing director Anthony Mukwita said “The Sunday Mail has been turned into a tabloid for a start. A paper that will help readers unwind and relax as they feed on the local courts, and learn new things in the in-depth section. Young and Ambitious and other new columns have been introduced to add to the bite.”
He said it was about time the paper moved with time and be able to give the readers something new, light but very informative as the newspaper endeavours to increase its readership base and offer a balanced national view of various socio-economic and political issues that directly impact Zambians.
Mr Mukwita said this when he featured on the popular Muvi Television programme dubbed Breakfast with the Boys yesterday.
The Daily Mail is excited to introduce a paper that will appeal to an 18-year-old school-leaver, a child in primary school and an economist interested to analyse the inflation, growth domestic production or wether the country is on course in the fight against poverty.
The managing director, however, insisted that the paper would remain professional under its motto Without Fear or Favour.
“As a public media, we will remain professional and there will be no ‘sacred cows’ in our reporting. We want to bring a breath of fresh air in the newspaper industry because we have been told that public newspapers lost readers in the MMD because of their bias towards Government,” Mr Mukwita said.
Mr Mukwita said the paper will remain as balanced as possible and will cover all from intra-party frictions, the opposition and the ordinary Zambians on the street, who are hungry for both entertainment news and developmental news, as well as continue explaining Government policies
And Zambia Daily Mail commercial director Kenneth Sinkamba said the newspaper has made the switch because of the huge shift on consumer profile. Mr Sinkamba said statistics have shown that the bulk of the Zambian population are the younger generation.
“The younger generation is looking for fresh new stuff and we thought the Sunday Mail, being a weekly paper, should try to shift and try to capture that segment. All the good stuff that makes Sunday Mail what it is has been maintained but we also introduced new columns,” he said.
Speaking when he featured on Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC)’s Kwacha Good Morning Zambia television programme yesterday, Mr Sinkamba said the new look of the Sunday Mail still remains a newspaper for all ages, including children with the introduction of more children’s columns as a way of encouraging a reading culture among the younger generation.