Kampala: Uganda's only vernacular daily paper, Bukedde (Daybreak) doubled sales in a remarkable show of force when it posted two record sales highs, beating its own sister The New Vision, Uganda's leading English daily in its own game.
Bukedde, a lower income market tabloid paper printed in Luganda, (a widely spoken language in Central Uganda), surpassed its known previous set records by another 100 % copies, provoking a wild-sale tsunami which blew in favour of the paper in an unprecedented 13-year history of its existence.
The paper sells an average of 15,000 or more copies daily, but steadily it has been pushing Uganda's squeezed market, in a media landscape now fragmented by scores of FM radio and TV stations, to expand and take as much share as possible.
In the last two weeks Bukedde sales jumped from 14,500 to 36,000 copies in its highest peak of the week between 14-20 May and then rose to 39,000 between 21 and 27 May, the highest sales figures the newspaper has ever attained since its founding in August 1994.
The paper's trump card is simple. They feature what the three English dailies treat as readers' trivia. For instance, the death of a local artist, Paul Kafeero, a kadongokamu gyrne maestro, offered a real opportunity to steal the march on the paper's rivals - and it took up the challenge.
The true news story for the singer's death went out on 17 May, but it had been announced dead before - a dozen times in fact - in a bizarre style of some Ugandans who enjoy turning different scenarios into drama for their enjoyment.
It also seems the singer was a bit of a ladies' man - and that added grist to the mill. The result: two weeks of top sales, and proof that vernacular-language media can succeed.
Harry Herber, in an article entitled Seriously Undervalued says that in South Africa, the media brands, programmes and titles that fit into the vernacular category are generally ‘incomprehensible to the average media planner, confusing, misunderstood and undervalued'. For the rest of the article, click here.
