More cat out the bag

Well, there goes my plan to offer you more of a glimpse of the daily on this blog. Why would you want to read my propaganda when you can read a good independent assessment of our dummy by Anton Harber, journ prof at Wits? He is (I think?) quite complimentary:

The dummy confirms my belief that this paper, if they get the content just half-right, can provide a formidable challenge to existing dailies. Just think: all Sunday Times subscribers will face the decision of whether they need to pay for another daily when they are getting one for free.

But he also wonders:

But it will be expensive to produce, testing owner Johncom’s commitment to the idea. Printing and distributing 127 000 copies without the benefit of a cover price, and with little advertising for at least the first few months (which is usually the case) will require deep pockets. And they will have to ensure that the mother paper (or the mother-of-all-papers), their Sunday edition, does not suffer in the process..

My answer is that (and I can’t speak for the board, but …) this is a serious investment which Johncom has made after taking into account the short to medium term costs. There is confidence that advertising will come to the party. The Sunday Times will not suffer as we have not reassinged senior managers other than myself. A few reporting staff and photographers are moving over, but this will not cause any sort of crisis. In fact this product will build the ST subs base …
Finally, The Harbinger notes that this product is in the dummy phase and this is nothing like real publishing. Spot on, and we can’t wait to hit the road with the real thing. Our start up period has been lightning fast precisely because we don’t want the suffer ‘dummy fatigue’.