Chief Operating Officer Gavin O'Reilly and South Africa chief Tony Howard said the country was Independent News's fastest-growing market thanks to a consumer spending boom and perky advertising revenues.

Independent News is best known in Britain and Ireland for its loss-making daily The Independent, but it makes 13 per cent of its revenues in Africa's richest country, where it is the leading newspaper publisher, and operates in five other countries.

Howard told Reuters the company expects to boost sales in South Africa by 16 per cent and notch up "pretty strong double-digit" growth in operating profit in 2005.

"We are going after new readers.

That is where much of the top line growth is going to come from" said Howard.

"There is a strong possibility we will launch more African language titles and we want to expand our tabloid, Daily Voice."

South African newspapers traditionally targeted the white minority, but 11 years after the end of apartheid publishers have started launching tabloids aimed at the huge black market, where improved literacy and higher living standards has created a new market of newspaper readers.

The Daily Sun, published by Naspers, has become South Africa's top-selling newspaper thanks to its populist stories with an African bent like 'Witchdoctor stole my husband' and 'Evil water cursed my family'.

FIRST-TIME READERS Independent News said it will probably launch more newspapers in African languages to corner more of the mass market after the success of its Durban-based Zulu newspaper, Isolezwe, one of the country's only African language newspapers.

The company also plans to expand its recently launched tabloid Daily Voice, which is aimed at the dominant "coloured", or mixed-race, population in the Cape Town area, by launching a country edition with some sections in Afrikaans and a township version aimed at the black population.

It then hopes to launch in Johannesburg, South Africa's commercial capital, which would take it head to head with the Daily Sun.

Independent News declined to say when this might happen.

Independent News also wants to fill out its fledgling South African magazine business, which publishes local versions of men's title GQ, women's magazine Glamour and Home & Garden, with a celebrity title like OK or Hello, and is considering pushing into Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation.

"We have started looking at magazines in Nigeria," said Howard.

"I think we chose Nigeria because it is obviously a huge market and because we are also looking at outdoor advertising there."

South Africa's two biggest homegrown media firms Naspers and Johnnic Communications have both joined legions of other South African companies hoping for fat returns in high-risk Africa and are testing the water with magazine titles in Nigeria.

Independent News said it would also consider other countries in southern Africa and hoped to launch its outdoor advertising business - which already operates in 12 African countries - in Nigeria.

-Nampa-Reuters

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