AMASA Jo’burg Meeting - Wednesday 27 August

Battle lines are being drawn for the latest round of the daily newspaper circulation and revenue wars. The first missiles have been launched and not surprising from New York where Justice Malala, incumbent editor of ThisDay has been based, expressing his opinions on the current SA newspaper landscape.

Currently owning the title of "country's largest circulating daily" is the Daily Sun, attacking lower LSM readers at a Rand a copy and yet to celebrate its first birthday!

The Sowetan, the 90's paper of choice, finds itself being squeezed from two sides - circulation pressure from new entrant Daily Sun and further potential reader loss from aspirational readers migrating to The Star. Having shifted its front-page leads to a more populist positioning, The Star will no doubt enjoy circulation gains but in diluting quality, how will this affect ad revenue?

Then there's the long awaited ThisDay, having recently announced a September 8 launch. Promising a quality read, will this paper pick up where The Star has left off?

And where does The Citizen fit into all of this? Will the paper finally be able to shake off its "blue collar" image?

AMASA has invited The Star, The Citizen, ThisDay, Sowetan and Daily Sun to participate.

Be there! It's going to be intriguing.

Date: Wednesday 27 August 2003
Venue: Chukkas, Inanda Club, Forest Road, Inanda
Time: 12h30 – 14h00
Cost: AMASA Members - Free; Non-Members - R50.00.