ZIMPAPERS group gears up for growth

Zimpapers (1980) Ltd is pursuing new strategies to grow its business while exploring ways of reducing costs in view of the deteriorating liquidity challenge the country is experiencing, group chief executive officer Mr Justin Mutasa has said.

In a statement yesterday, Mr Mutasa said Zimpapers was on course to becoming a fully-fledged integrated media house with diversified corporate units that create synergies and are competitive on the market.

Zimpapers is confident that the full implementation of Zim Asset would result in economic turnaround and that liquidity challenges would soon be overcome.

The group is positioning itself to fully exploit opportunities created by migration of readers to digital platforms and the forthcoming movement from analogue to digital broadcasting, which is expected to open space for greater participation in radio and television broadcasting.

Mr Mutasa said Zimpapers was vigorously implementing strategies to consolidate its dominance of the newspaper and commercial printing markets.

He said Zimpapers had fully embraced the Digital Age and had a vibrant online news platform that attracted millions of readers to its websites monthly. It had also taken an aggressive social media approach with active participation of its journalists on Twitter and Facebook.

Mr Mutasa expressed satisfaction with the support the digital platform was getting from advertisers, despite the challenging economic conditions. Its new digital business publication, BH24, is among the most trusted sources of business news in Zimbabwe.

The broadcasting division is led by Star FM and Zimpapers is planning on bidding for a television licence.

The newspaper division remains strong, following major recapitalisation of operations which saw it invest in a new printing press and production system for more than US$4 million.

Zimpapers is also investing in training of journalists to write across all platforms to keep abreast of technological changes in the media.

Mindful of the tightening liquidity challenges, the group has introduced a raft of cost-cutting measures, which will see it producing and distributing its products more cost effectively, taking advantage of the investments made in machinery.

Zimpapers employs more than 1 000 people.

Zimpapers publishes the daily papers, The Herald, The Chronicle and H Metro; weekly English titles The Sunday Mail, The Sunday News, The Manica Post and B-Metro; two national languages newspapers Kwayedza and Umthunywa; and a monthly magazine ZimTravel.

It also publishes a regional newspaper, The Southern Times in a joint venture with New Era of Namibia, and its radio station, Star FM, is now in its third year of broadcasting; whilst the commercial printing arm, Natprint, is a market leader.