Times of Mgt; does it take youths interests on board?

History of the Times of Zambia

The Times of Zambia started as a newspaper called the Northern News which was established in 1943 and was owned by the Argus Company. The establishment of the Northern News was aimed at rationalizing the company’s activities in the country by making the newspaper play its full role as the country’s national daily newspaper. The Argus Company however, did not continue running the Northern Newspaper because in 1964 they sold it to the London Rhodesian Mining and Land Company (LONRHO). After the Kitwe Branch of Northern News was closed by its new owners, the Ndola Branch was not closed and all production continued from here.

LONRHO under its managing director, Roland Rowland renamed the Northern News to the Times of Zambia. The Times of Zambia first appeared on 30th June 1965. Apparently as part of the strategy to revamp the poor public image of the former Northern News, LONRHO also appointed as editor in chief Richard Hall, founder of the Pro-African and Pro-UNIP Central African Mail. Hall, whose appointment was welcomed by then President Kaunda, immediately set out to improve the newspaper’s public image by “Zambianising” it both in staff and content. He hired some black Zambian reporters and only recruited sub-editors with politically progressive views. The main thrust of the Times of Zambia under Hall was to vehemently oppose Ian Smith’s UDI in Southern Rhodesia, repeatedly calling on Harold Wilson’s Labour Government in Britain to bring it down by force.

At this time almost every other editorial in the newspaper was a diatribe against either Smith or Wilson or both. The stand of the Times of Zambia was sometimes the same as that of the Zambian government. For example President Kaunda once complimented the newspaper for its reporting of the Rhodesian UDI crisis. He told a rally he had publicly castigated the newspaper in the past, but on the Rhodesian situation it had done wonderfully well. Even though the government and the Times of Zambia seemed to be in good books, this was not entirely so because in 1965, the newspaper had declared that the government was acting foolishly to repeal the law that forbade demand of party cards. And when the law was repealed, the newspaper constantly opposed UNIP’s card checking campaigns in which people were asked to produce their UNIP cards before using public facilities like buses and markets.

In still another instance, the newspaper disagreed with UNIP national council that the big fire in Kitwe in 1966, in which fuel storage tanks were gutted, was caused by sabotage. By this year Hall had become so alienated to some members of the government that public attacks on the newspaper by the officials were becoming routine. To make matters worse, the newspaper generally published more editorials critical of the government of the ruling UNIP than it did in support of it. Finally the fact that the newspaper was foreign owned tended to magnify its criticisms of the government and UNIP. Thus the overall impression created was that the Times of Zambia was an anti government newspaper. Therefore, the government resented the Times of Zambia, especially its editor Hall and fearing that the newspaper might be banned, Hall resigned saying he was going on six months leave to write a book.

Dustan Kamana, the black Zambian who succeeded Hall proved even more outspoken. In the first six months of 1968, Kamana wrote far more editorials critical of the government than in support of it. Kamana was, indeed a ruthless and often sarcastic editorial writer. He regarded his role as that of an opposition to the government, since the African National Congress (ANC) was now so weak that it had even ceased to be the official opposition in parliament. Throughout 1969 the outspoken Kamana was, however, more favourable of the government than he was to UNIP as a party, in line with LONRHO policy for the newspaper to be in good books with the government. The following year he drastically reduced his criticism of the ruling party as well.

In early 1968, President Kaunda had nationalised several of the nation’s key industries in line with his philosophy of Humanism. In his Mulungushi Economic Reforms, President Kaunda announced that the state was going to purchase 51 percent controlling shares in the companies. He also invited LONRHO through Zambia Newspapers to sell 51 percent shares to the government. President Kaunda gave the following reason for wanting to buy the Times Zambia from LONRHO, he claimed that it was not right that the major means of informing the public should be under foreign control. He stated that he would be happier if at least 51 percent of Zambia Newspapers Ltd were in state ownership. President Kaunda, however, said that he did not intend that newspapers should be operated by Information Departments nor did he wish them to be run by state company. The president revealed that he was anxious under democracy and humanism to create some national body of truly Zambian organization which would operate these newspapers.

But LONRHO did not respond to his request until eight years later, in June 1975. In the meantime, the Times of Zambia and its weekend version the Sunday Times of Zambia continued to be outspoken independent newspapers under the editorship of Kamana. In 1971, after consultations with LONRHO, President Kaunda removed Kamana from the editorship of the Times of Zambia and replaced him with Vernon Mwaanga. Mwaanga was a career diplomat who had been Zambia’s permanent representative to the United Nations. Kamana later succeeded Mwaanga at the UN.

Since the buying of the 51 percent shares by the government, the Times of Zambia has been state owned and that is why it is called a parastatal company. The other 49 percent of shares are owned by the Times of Zambia itself through shareholding. This means that apart from the company itself, there are other members of the public who have bought and own some shares in the Times of Zambia.

The fact that the newspaper is government owned puts it in a tight corner when it comes to reporting politics, especially those that have to do with government interests. Whatever situation the newspaper finds itself in, it must ensure that its allegiance is always to the ruling party of the government or country at any given time. All this allegiance is as a result of the majority shareholding of the government.

Despite being a government owned newspaper, the Times of Zambia is not exempted from paying any tax as it has to make sure that it meets all the deadlines for paying taxes to avoid any unliked consequences.

Objectives and readership
The following are the objectives set by the Times of Zambia:


· To inform, entertain, and educate the public.
This is achieved by striving to report factual articles of the happenings in and outside the country
· To deliver news by attempting to reach as many parts of the country as possible
· Reach all the remotest parts of the country by trying to send the newspaper in the shortest possible time
· Make the newspaper simpler to read so that even people not very educated can manage to read and be informed

Even if the newspaper has put these objectives in place to ensure that operations continue going up, the sales have however shown that things are not as they would loved to be. The sales have drastically dropped from over 85 000 copies per day to just over 25, 000 copies per day. This has been attributed mainly to the hard economic times that many of the Zambians are going through.

This drop in sales has been recorded in the last ten years. Another reason said to cause this has been the proliferation of newspapers on the market. There are a good number of newspapers on the market nowadays unlike in the past when there were just a few papers competing for readership. The increased number of these newspapers has resulted in the people having a wide choice on which newspapers to buy.

Ownership

As already alluded to in the history of the Times of Zambia, it is a government owned newspaper. This is because of the 51 percent ownership of the shares that the government has in the newspaper.

Unlike its two counter part dailies, the Daily Mail and the Post newspapers which are printed in Lusaka, the Times of Zambia is printed in Ndola where it printing department has not been moved since its early days. But even though it is like this, the newspaper’s bigger market is in Lusaka where the larger part of the Zambian population is.

Format, Mood and Motto

The Times of Zambia is a broadsheet newspaper whose motto is “Forward With the Nation”.

The Times of Zambia like many other company’s that are interested in promoting the welfare of their employees has put in place a number of policies that dictate how certain things should be done at the work place. These policies are discussed below:




· Editorial Policy

The newspaper’s editorial policy is one that encourages that information, entertainment and education of its readers. In trying to uphold this policy the newspaper makes a must that it should carry articles that are always factual and well balanced.

Management at the Times of Zambia has also made it a policy to try and dispel the misconception among a lot of Zambians that they get instructions from the government about which stories to carry for each particular day. This is despite the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) being appointed by the republican president. This therefore means that the editorial team is a bit free of government control but there is practicing of self censorship because they are trying to protect their jobs.

The newspaper has however not been completely free of government control because according to the Sunday Times Editor, during the rule of former republican president, Dr. Frederick Chiluba, Richard Sakala who was then the presidential aid used to call once in a while to ask about certain stories that were supposed to be included in the following day’s edition.

· HIV and AIDS Policy

Apart from the editorial policy, the Times of Zambia has also put in place the HIV and AIDS policy. This policy aims sensitizing employees on the dangers of HIV and AIDS and also coordinate issues relating to the pandemic. One other thong worthy noting is that the newspaper is the second company in Zambia to have introduced this policy. The policy was made some three years ago but only got to be used on a regular in the year 2007. the Times of Zambia has employed full time coordinators who organize and arrange outreach programmes to assist employees who are both infected or affected in one way or the other by HIV and AIDS.

· Gender Policy

The Times of Zambia has also put in place a gender policy and this was introduced in 1997. There is one employee based in Ndola who is a gender activist but monitors the company’s activities in connection with these issues. The Times of Zambia applies this policy in the way it employees people to adhere to the Southern African Development community (SADC) recommendations to have at least 30 percent women in decision making positions in companies.

The newspaper has used this policy in the following manner: the chief sub-editor, the deputy chief editor, the assistant circulations manager and the deputy human resource manager are all women. These women are all in second positions with the hope that they will some time in the future take over these various positions after their men superiors are no longer in the positions.

It should however be noted that following the recommendations of the policy on the recruitment of more women in decision making positions does not however end her because there are plans to increase the number of women in the near future.

· Other Policies

It was however not discovered whether the Times of Zambia has other policies in place apart from those mentioned above.





























Structure


Managing Editor
Clerks
Deputy Managing Editor
Accounts Clerks
News Editors on all the desks
Financial Manager
Legal Counsel
Chief Reporter
Senior Reporter
Deputy Editor
Chief Reporter
Senior Reporter
Deputy Editor
Sunday Times
Secretary
Reporters
Support Staff
Human Resource Manager
Training Manager
Reporters

















Ratings
















The functions of each of the above departments are as follows:

· Managing Editor
The managing Editor is the overall boss at the Times of Zambia. His duty is to ensure that the editors on the respective desks are coordinating their teams so that they produce the paper on time, and also to ensure stories are not containing anything that would spell trouble for the media house. He also attends to other important matters outside the office that concern the newspaper’s well being. The managing also ensures that everything is order for the newspaper to run successfully on a day to day basis.

· Deputy Managing Editor
The deputy managing editor is the second in command at the newspaper and assists the managing editor. He also acts as the boss the managing director is not around. This one also works on things that ensures smooth running of the paper and does things delegated to him. The deputy managing editor is also the one who reads through the stories usually to make sure only those that are good for the newspaper are used and is consulted on regular basis by the editors on all the respective desks of the Times of Zambia.

· News Editors
News editors receive the stories from the reporters and go through them to edit them for any grammatical errors and ethical issues. They also ensure that the articles are handed in before the deadline so that they following day’s edition is ready in good time so that sub-editors have enough time to lay out the pages that will be handed in to the printing department. The editors also make sure they assign responsibilities to the reporters according to their abilities and experience.

· Deputy Editors

Deputy Editors assist the editors on the different desks of the Times of Zambia. These people also coordinate the reporters on behalf of their editors. The deputy editors are the ones who go through the news stories brought in by the reporters for that day so that they lessen the work of the editors.

· Chief Reporters
The chief reporters are the one who presides over the diary meetings for the different desks at the Times of Zambia. These ones also assist the Deputy Editors give assignments to the reporters according to their ability and experience.

· Senior Reporters
The senior reporters help coordinate the other reporters, especially news ones who still do not understand the way the news room is run. They also assist the new reporter with how to write god articles that are of the required standard.

· Reporters

Reporters have the duty of presenting workable news ideas and going out into the field to get stories that are needed for the following day’s edition of the newspaper. They are also required to do stories that will be able to attract readers and be better than those carried by their competitors.

· Human Resource Manager

The Human Resource’s main task is to look a issues of recruiting staff and work ways of improving staff development. They receive reports about which departments are understaffed so that they can work out the modalities of recruiting new personnel. And when need be they also consider issues of dismissing workers for different reasons according to the newspaper’s work guidelines.

· Support Staffs

Support staffs are people like the office orderlies, sweepers and other general workers. Their main duty is to ensure that the surrounding and the inside of the Times of Zambia are conducive and appealing.

· Financial Manager

The financial manager deals with the funds that are at the Times of Zambia. Their main deputy is to ensure that all funds are used appropriately where they are needed and people’s salaries and their monies are available whenever they are needed.




· Clerks

The clerks assist the financial manager in organising the accounts books and giving out the money. They also make sure that whoever gets money from the accounts department has signed for it so that there are no irregularities when the time for auditing the newspaper accounts arrives.

· Legal Counsel

The job of the legal counsel is to ensure that all the legal maters of the newspaper are taken care of and all the workers are educated on the need of observing legally implicating issues. This is particularly important for the reporters to make sure that they do not write stories that would result in legal cases against the Times of Zambia.
· Secretaries

The secretaries in the different departments serve as the link between the officials and members of the public. These also sit in during important meetings to take down meetings and document them for future reference. The secretaries also work as personal assistants to some of the officials.

· Sunday Times Editor

The Sunday Times Editor receives stories from the reporters on his desk and goes through them to edit them for any grammatical errors and ethical issues. He also ensures that the articles are handed in before the deadline so that the following Sunday’s edition is ready in good time so that sub-editors have enough time to lay out the pages that will be handed in to the printing department. The editors also make sure they assign responsibilities to the reporters according to their abilities and experience.
Ratings
The ratings for the Times of Zambia in terms of sales have in the recent past been declining from selling over 85, 000 copies of the newspaper per day to selling just over 25, 000 copies per day. This figure was reached at not through guess work but through actual research conducted by the parastatal. Every five years, the Times of Zambia carries out a market survey to determine its sales are increasing, remaining static or decreasing, and this was what was done to discover that newspaper sales were reducing and what was causing it.

This same survey, which is carried out by the Marketing Department at the newspaper also shows many copies have been sold from the print order for each particular day. These figures are based on demand from people who sell the newspaper who also depend on the demand for the newspaper made by the readers. What the surveys have also revealed is that the Times of Zambia also has a bigger share of the advertisers because of the reputation it has developed for itself over the years as a newspaper that reports news that is of interest and also that it reaches nearly the whole of the country.

Main Advertiser

The Times of Zambia has a number of advertisers and some of the main advertisers are cellular network providers, Cell Z, MTN and Celtel. Others are satellite TV providers like GTV and DSTV, while commercial banks also have their own share of advertising space in the newspaper. These big companies advertise in the Times of Zambia almost on a daily basis, with some of them even paying for full page adverts. An interesting thing about the newspaper is that even if it is government owned, the government advertises in it on a regular basis, but not for free because all the government’s adverts are paid for. The government does this in a bid to encourage the Times of Zambia to raise its own finances and not to depend on the government for donations.

· Which Audience

All these adverts that are carried in the Times of Zambia are intended for different audiences. It can not be said that they are meant for specific audiences because for example, the satellite TV providers are targeting an audience that is not similar to that being targeted by commercial banks, even if they might be found in the same communities. The adverts are also sometimes aimed at members of the readership of different ages. What also determines which day some of these adverts are carried greatly depends on the projected class of readers for that particular day. For example, adverts that have matters concerning family life would most likely be carried on weekends because this is the time when it is projected that the whole family is at home at the same time and they might get the chance to read the paper together.

· Breaking Through or Drowning

The fact that the Times of Zambia is state owned does not mean that it depends on handouts from the government. On the contrary, no amount of money is allocated to it in the national budget. This is unlike during the years when Dr. Kaunda was still the president. During these years the Times of Zambia was entitled to an amount of money from the government to assist in its operations. This is however no longer the case because, the government has withdrawn this funding and the newspaper now has to survive on its own. The withdrawal of this funding is due to the profit the newspaper makes from sales and advertising.

The Times of Zambia is a newspaper that is managing to break even, and this means that it is surviving and not drowning in any way. The newspaper manages to raise about K3 billion from advertising alone without including that funds raised from subscriptions.

Kind of Technology

The technology being used at the Times of Zambia is computerized. With the use of this computerized technology, the Ndola and Lusaka branches with all the bureau offices across the country are connected on a direct network. This therefore makes it easy to send news articles from one office to the other immediately instead of relying on the slowness of email services.

This fully fledged computerized system did however appear as a feature of the way the newspaper is run only in the recent past. The newspaper was until some time in 1999 still using type writers and some other old equipment. The only people at this time who were using computers were the sub-editors because of the need to have the newspaper pages layed out on computer using the necessary computer software. The machinery in the printing department in Ndola is however very old and semi computerized and this makers printing quite difficult to do especially colour printing.

A good thing however is that by the time the information for this paper was being collected, the Managing Editor at the Times of Zambia was in China making consultations on the type of printing press that is of good quality for a big newspaper like this one. The machinery being sought in China was supposed to be fully computerized so that the newspaper could also start printing in colour like its two counterpart dailies, the Daily Mail and the Post. The Times of Zambia has managed to raise part of the cost for the printing press and with the assistance of the government the machinery could be acquired by March this year.

Expansion

The newspaper has plans of expanding its services across the country. For example, once this colour printing press is brought into the country, the newspaper plans on increasing its circulation and also on the number of advertisements it carries in each edition. The newspaper also intends on enlarging its courier services so that many people can be sending different things from one part of the country to the next in the shortest period of time.

Other Special Features

Other special features found at the Times of Zambia were the clean environment in which operations are done at their Lusaka offices. The outside of the Times of Zambia building on Freedom Way is some kind of eye sore but the picture is a different one once one enters the premises. The newspaper has some of the latest office equipment being used with a floor that is nicely carpeted. Even the air conditioners at the newspaper are the latest with all the old and ugly heavy ones having been removed some time back.

Recommendations

For the Times of Zambia to achieve more from its set objectives there is need to for more effort to be invested in the application of the already existing objectives and goals on the one hand while on the other hand, there is need for adjustments to be made and if possible new ones all together.

The following suggestions if followed and adhered to can obviously bring about more to the results and success that the newspaper is already enjoying. This concept of a business plan could be pursued as the Times of Zambia tries to acquire the largest share of the readers in the country as compared to its two daily competitors, the Zambia Daily Mail and The Post newspapers.

Business concept

The management at the Times of Zambia should explicitly re-examine what the purpose of the newspaper is on the local information communication and entertainment scene. This purpose should be clearly identified to make it easier for would be clients. The newspaper’s mission statement and values are also an integral determinant of its success or failure and these should also be identified with ease without having to labour. This is important because in the world of today, customers will not be willing to waste time looking for obvious things which they can not easily see instead of going to a competitor whose mission and values are clear from the first impression they create.

The product that is produced by the Times of Zambia and the customer should be compatible. There is no need of the Times of Zambia coming up with products that do not even fall in any category of its audience classification. This therefore, means that the newspaper should design conditions for opportunities that would be readily received by its target audience and accepted as the norm of doing business with the Times of Zambia and thereby creating a unique identity for it.

Management team

All those who are vying to be given responsibilities at the managerial level should be people who are adequately qualified to do the job and ensure that the results are seen and consequently effecting change for the newspaper. Another cardinal fact that has to be remembered is that members of the management team as individuals have their strengths and weaknesses. This could be used to the newspaper’s advantage through the combining of all the strengths to come up with a strong leading pack. This point should however ensure that the weaknesses are not ignored because they might come up in one way or another, so the important thing is to lay them out on the table so that needed remedial action can be taken to assist individuals.

Members of the management team should also be clearly told about their tasks, duties and responsibilities so that they avoid encroaching in other people’s fields or operation to prevent unnecessary confrontations and thereby impeding any progress made on the achievement of the objectives of the Times of zambia. Another topic that is usually of interest and concern to any member of an organization is the salary and compensation structure. People should be informed about the amount of money that is due to them before they commence their tasks to avoid any disputes in the future. A good salary and compensation structure will result in a very highly motivated workforce that will be looking forward to the next day of doing business for the newspaper.

Market Research and Analysis

The Times off Zambia’s market size needs to be measured again to determine whether it is growing, reducing or remaining static. Market conditions and characteristics should be carefully examined so that the right time of undertaking an activity or putting a new product on the market can be established so that misfiring is avoided. This should also take into account the market trends and changes, target specific so specific products and services and expected market. Demand for goods or services being provided by the Times of zambia should be accurately measured so that the right amount can be sent out at the right time, keeping in mind to avoid too little to keep the audience frustrated and not too much to keep them bored with the same things all the time.

Industry Research and Analysis

The industry life cycle stage should be critically analysed so that the management and other departments and sections operating at the Times of Zambia can spearhead progress and achieve their desired goals and objectives. Key industry characteristics have to be studied and also keep a keen eye on other competing businesses operating within the industry and their key success factors. After looking at their key success factors, which are usually kept away from their competitors, the Times of Zambia management should the try to adopt some of them and modify them to produce more and better results.

Forces, trends and changes shaping the industry, competitive forces shaping the industry and competition shaping the industry are all elements that require critical scrutiny and analysis to make a bigger and better plan to counter act these for positive results to be seen and achieved.

Products or Service

Competitive advantage is a must for any organization to successfully fend off any existing competitors and remain the number one priority of the audience and this is a fact that the Times of Zambia needs to acknowledge and exploit to the maximum. Customer benefits and value should be made known to all the customers so that it is easy for them to invest their in reading the paper and resources knowing that their efforts are not going to waste.

This requires that product or life cycle stage is explained after research and development activities have been successfully done and completed. All this should however take into consideration the legal issues behind any activity and likely consequences and long court cases that follow thereafter.

Operation and Production Plan

The operation plan should include the following elements, technical description of the product or service that the newspaper is offering to its audience and readership, development stage and costs, distribution and logistics, product requirements and quality control measures.

Marketing Plan

The marketing department should ensure that they adhere strictly to the ethics of marketing to see their labour produce fruits, and the goals and objectives aimed. They should come up with a proper and concrete pricing strategy, promotion strategy, distribution networks which will enable them distribute all the needed information about the Times of Zambia and why they need to be regular readers of the newspaper and also why they need to invest their hard earned K3, 000 in buying the paper. That is why they to employ a very good and strategic marketing stance. Finally, the sales and marketing team should be adequately and appropriately trained to know what their job description is so that they bring the business that will raise revenue needed to run the newspaper. In this area, like many other specialised areas, there is simply no room for trail and error.

Organisational Structure

Organisational structure should also follow the philosophy of upper management, which requires management to observe key positions while at the same time delegating individual and group responsibilities. In this structure strategy there should also concern taken to remember that upholding the compensation plan and incentives to keep all players at all levels of the organistaion structure are content with their tasks and looking forward to the following day when they would have to report for work to engage in their tasks once more.

Another cardinal point not to be brushed aside is the reporting methods and interpersonal communication at the different levels in the organizational structure. All the employees should clearly know who their respective superiors are and whom they report to. Those at the top of the rank should keep in mind that they need to keep the doors of communication with their juniors open at all times and also be willing to receive correction when it is due and suggestions where appropriate.

Growth Plan

Management at the Times of Zambia and all stakeholders should take a keen interest in seeing whether the newspaper is growing, remaining static or diminishing in its influence and popularity. An internal analysis of its strengths and weaknesses must be done and the likely results critically analysed and better recommendations made, which should be willingly accepted by those in positions of responsibility and implementation.

External analysis should also be done. This one will look at opportunities that are already available and new ones that can be explored to expand the Times of Zambia. Threat from other competing newspapers should also be taken seriously with new ideas being forwarded to counter these competitors’ moves. Contingency plan(s) should also be formulated to prevent unnecessary stoppages of work or poor product and service delivery.

Management has to ensure that these contingency plans are on stand by all times to avoid things like claiming that they do not have the latest printing machinery that have not been producing a newspaper that is of good quality. If they have effective contingency plans, they can easily do everything that the public wants to prevent them from appearing like they are a government mouthpiece which just favours those in the ruling party. The Times of Zambia management should also look for more keen stakeholders aside from those that are already present to invest in the newspaper to see some of their goals and objectives a reality.

For better selling of the newspaper, the Times of Zambia should consider re-introducing the door to door delivery system that was proposed in the 1980s. This system involved readers of the newspaper subscribing to the newspaper and having editions delivered to their door steps for free by a Times of Zambia vehicle. This system will allow more people to subscribe because they would not have to go to the streets where vendors are found.