Online Reporter
George Maponga
Masvingo Bureau
The country’s largest integrated and diversified media company, Zimpapers, continues to expand its digital footprint across its platforms that now boast more than 11 million followers as the firm continues to exploit vast opportunities that exist in the digital sphere while fulfilling its core mandate to keep the nation informed.
Zimpapers chief executive officer Mr Pikirayi Deketeke said his company was working round the clock to explore new opportunities that exist in the digital sphere where its platforms like Star FM, the nation’s leading daily The Herald and others had managed to grow a very solid base of followers.
The Zimpapers chief, was speaking on the sidelines of an ongoing strategic plan review workshop organised by the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services near Lake Mutirikwi in Masvingo. The week-long workshop started on Monday and will be officially opened by the Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Dr Jenfan Muswere today.
Media stakeholders including parastatals under the Information Ministry are attending the workshop, where those in the media sector and the Government are crafting ways of how best to fulfil the information dissemination mandate as Zimbabwe moves towards upper middle income society status by 2030.
Mr Deketeke said Zimpapers was taking advantage of opportunities that abound in the digital space.
‘’Our digital footprint now reaches 11 million followers across the different platforms. We are very big on Facebook and for instance Star FM (Zimpapers commercial radio station) alone has more than 1,2 million followers, The Herald ( national daily newspaper) with its own website reaches more than 800 000 followers,’’ said Mr Deketeke.
‘’So the readers that we have lost in the print format, we have gained in the digital formats and the challenge is really how do we really monetise the huge audiences that are following our platforms so that we generate more revenue.’’
Zimpapers wanted revenue generated from monetising the big audiences on its platforms to be reinvested into writing of stories and packaging content so that the company kept abreast with the demands of its core mandate which is to keep Zimbabweans informed.
Keeping the nation informed with timeous, accurate and credible news was key in stimulating the national economic transformation desired by the Government which has set a target for propelling the country into an upper middle income society by or before 2030.
There have been fears whether the ongoing digital revolution was not sounding a death knell for hard copy newspapers but Mr Deketeke allayed such fears and expressed optimism that the newspaper was here to stay.
Zimpapers publishes many newspapers: The Herald, The Sunday Mail, Chronicle, The Manica Post, Sunday News, Kwayedza, uMthunywa, B-Metro, Suburban and H-Metro and the company has also made huge investments in modern printing presses.
Mr Deketeke said using the yardstick of regional and even global trends, indications are that the hard copy newspaper had a future.
“Well I do think the printed newspaper has a future even though it is facing its own challenges. I think the newspaper is here to stay.
“I don’t know when the ultimate collapse,if ever it will happen,is going to come in terms of reader pattens but what are seeing in terms of reader patterns from other markets in the region and the world over, some are beginning to see a turnaround in terms of more and more people who are reading the newspaper,’’ said Mr Deketeke.
The Zimpapers chief executive said as a strategy going forward, his company was going to continue improving its newspaper content to meet the taste of readers and stay relevant.
“We will continue to invest in our content to make sure that we appeal to more readers and also invest in the distribution of the newspaper itself so that it reaches all the corners of the market. We are doing our best to make sure that our newspapers remain relevant today whether it is a question of content, a question of design and also penetrating the markets that have not been penetrated before,”he said.
Mr Deketeke noted that the ongoing construction boom in parts of the country where new investments in spheres such as mining and other industries were birthing new urban settlements and an expanding middle class that could be a market for the newspaper.
leeroy mupariri
