In the ever-changing landscape of the motoring industry, product life-cycle enhancements are a frequent practice. Tiso Blackstar Group has done similarly to its flagship automotive title, Sunday Times Motoring, which undergoes a minor facelift and a more prominent position as of September 2017.
With a circulation of 262 715 copies* the Sunday Times remains the weekly newsprint title with the greatest clout. With the Motoring supplement gearing-up to move into the Sunday Times Lifestyle magazine section of the title, it is poised to become the automotive supplement with the biggest reach in the country – the paper for the people in the fast lane.
In its previous format, Sunday Times Motoring was a standalone supplement aimed towards the subscriber base of the newspaper. The decision to insert the title into the total print run, within the platform of Sunday Times Lifestyle, is primarily underpinned by reader demand, in addition to further enhancing its attractiveness to advertisers. With the move comes a change in moniker. Enter Lifestyle Motoring.
Despite the tweaks, existing readers will be assured to find the virtues of the former supplement are still in tact. And new readers can enjoy its unique brand of incisiveness, irreverence and entertainment in delivering engaging content on all the aspects that keep South Africans on the move.
“As the Sunday Times we have been focusing and making huge investments in content in a way we have never done before,” says Bongani Siqoko, editor-in-chief of the Sunday Times.
“Our decision to extend the reach of this supplement to the entire run of the Sunday Times is further proof of that. We also realise that there is a lifestyle element to motoring that we have not yet explored. This change will allow us to make motoring exciting for all our readers,”
Lifestyle Motoring will be edited by motoring journalist Brenwin Naidu, who was appointed editor of the supplement’s predecessor when it was first launched in September 2015. “There remains a strong appetite for credible, quality motoring content in our car-crazy country – and we are raring to keep it satiated with this exciting new move towards a larger audience.”
Naidu continues in his duty as the editor of the weekly motoring sections in The Times and Sowetan newspapers, in addition to his role as a contributing presenter on the IGNITION television channel, also owned by Tiso Blackstar Group.
The first edition of Lifestyle Motoring will feature on 24 September 2017. It will be published in the last edition of each month.