Makeover for Business Report

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The aim is to distinguish the newspaper from the growing range of news sources available to readers by offering articles that deliver more value-add and analysis. This is based on the belief that simply telling the news is no longer enough. What's required is providing context and analysis that gives readers a better and more in-depth understanding of events.

"Business Report has to have authority, give context and explain to readers what events mean and why they matter," says Jabulani Sikhakhane, editor of Business Report. "It makes no sense for Business Report to come out 24 hours after an event or announcement with the same basic information that was run on online news websites,"

In the quest to provide analytical and in-depth content, Business Report will not have more than three full stories on a page. Each complete article will be accompanied by a summarising paragraph at the top, info graphics, photographs, captions and other layout devices to help the reader around the story. At the same time, these new features will enable a reader who has little time to get the story's gist to return to it at a later stage.

The newspaper will still continue its traditional function as a paper of record. This means that Business Report will still publish content that appeals to those readers who have five minutes to 'scan' the paper. In addition to in-depth coverage, the newspaper will run compact stories, the idea being to enable readers to quickly and easily know what is going on in and around their world.

"The main advantage of the shift in focus is that it will put Business Report in a position of strength," says Sikhakhane, "It will increase reasons why people should read the newspaper and also increase its shelf life beyond the morning."