Business Day flies into afternoon market

This will be the first time any airline anywhere in the world will carry its own daily newspaper.

"Our idea is to provide passengers, initially in first class and business class, with a late business news update that would not otherwise have been available at the end of a working day in Johannesburg," said Editor of Business Day, Mr Peter Bruce.

"Business Day PM will carry completely fresh content and it will in no way be a 'version' of the main morning newspaper. We have been very fortunate to have won support from both SAA and Sanlam for this world-class initiative.

We have been producing editions of the new newspaper for the past three weeks, fine tuning deadlines and content, in order to give SAA passengers something quite unique to settle down with on their flights," he said.

Content will be primarily business driven, but the new daily will also include general news, a page of late breaking sport, science & technology and business travel news.

A unique facet of the new newspaper is its format. Aimed at capturing the business market in transit, the new daily will be just A4 sized on newsprint.

There are only a handful of mini-sized newspapers in the world. Business Day PM is a first in SA. The format lends itself to easy page scanning in a confined reading environment, while at the same time offering advertisers space, which equates to magazine size formats.