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Daily Maverick 168 pilot edition well-received

7 Sep 2020

Daily Maverick's 168 pilot edition was successfully launched, with 8,800 copies in the hands of South African readers. Copies were distributed across 20 Pick n Pay stores, in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The newspaper is free to customers who swiped their Pick n Pay Smart Shopper cards, with a cover price of R20 per copy.

Daily Maverick CEO, Styli Charalambous.

Previously a digital-only publisher, Daily Maverick raised eyebrows with its announcement about the venture into print when media titles around the globe face enormous pressure after a decade of disruption and the impact of Covid-19.

BREAKING: Daily Maverick launches weekly print newspaper, exclusive interview with Styli Charalambous

Jessica Tennant 6 Aug 2020

The pilot edition was overwhelmingly well-received by readers. Over 6,200 copies, or 70%, were taken up in the 20 stores with 96% of readers swiping their Smart Shopper cards to access the benefit of a free copy.

The pilot was designed to test the production, printing, distribution, marketing and content mix ahead of the official launch, and to establish reader demand levels. The results will also help determine volumes, and launch stores across the country, using the more than 17,000 votes submitted by Daily Maverick readers for their preferred Pick n Pay store.

Challenging conventional wisdom

“It’s fantastic to see Daily Maverick 168 challenging conventional wisdom and customers responding with so much enthusiasm. We had as many as 1 in 8 customers collecting the newspaper in some pilot stores, which is extraordinary. We were excited to give our Smart Shoppers another programme benefit, and to see how this develops into a key part of their weekend routines,” John Bradshaw, retail executive: marketing at Pick n Pay.

Interrupting weekend #tweetox to congratulate @dailymaverick on #DM168 & getting me back into a @PicknPay store to collect it!

Nostalgic experience reading long-form #qualityjournalism in #print #sophiebuys not impressed that a good ol’ weekend #newspaper is all consuming �� pic.twitter.com/6ogLfzVIL8
— Josephine (@jozib_sa) August 29, 2020

Daily Maverick CEO, Styli Charalambous, reflected on a hugely successful pilot weekend. “We had a few important things we needed to test, but foremost was the question of whether we could successfully leverage our highly regarded online publication into a special weekend print edition, and whether readers still wanted a tangible news product in their hands. The answer was a resounding yes!

Democracy grows and thrives with more media, not less of it.

Well done @dailymaverick. We’re all rooting for you. https://t.co/NjWWBfG0X7
— Lee-Roy Chetty (@LeeRoy_Chetty) August 29, 2020

"We had reports of readers waiting for stores to open to get a copy, and we received hugely supportive feedback on social media and through our own direct channels. 95% of survey respondents said they intended to become regular readers and gave the content mix the high rating scores. We’re excited for the official launch of our print edition on 26 September across 100 Pick n Pay stores nationwide, and already seeing how demand could grow to multiples of our 25,000 launch circulation quite quickly.”