Covering topics such as lifestyle, architecture and decor, gastronomy, current affairs, travel, popular culture and a range of reviews, the magazine represents a dramatic departure from the type of products that secured M&G Media the reputation of a specialist publishing house providing uncompromising coverage of business, politics, education, arts, culture, environmental affairs and investigative journalism.
Says Garry Rogers, sales and marketing director of M&G Media: "The Mail & Guardian has one of the most powerful and influential audiences in the country. Recent reader research showed that our readers would like us to provide them with more varied content in addition to what we are currently providing. With such a strongly defined brand we need to ensure that we don't dilute the current offering, which is why we've decided to expand our product range in order to cater to our reader's requirements."
He continues: "Since Trevor Ncube bought the group in 2002, the main focus of the company has been to stabilise its flagship publication (the Mail & Guardian), which has shown huge financial losses since its inception. We have made great strides in this regard following internal restructuring and aggressive marketing efforts. We firmly believe that we are now in a position to expand our publishing portfolio in order to meet the growth targets we've set for ourselves."
All four magazines, which will be launched between June 2004 and March 2005, will be inserted in the full print run of the Mail & Guardian newspaper. By the end of February 2005, the Mail & Guardian will thus carry a different monthly magazine in each edition of the weekly newspaper. By following this distribution format, each of the magazines will effectively have an audited circulation figure from the very first edition.
A total of 63 000 copies of M&G Leisure will be printed and distributed with the Mail & Guardian on June 25 2004.
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