EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Sunrise Newspaper is a private daily tabloid newspaper whose mission is changing Zambian mindsets by providing relevant information that is practical, considering the perilous times we are living in. Our business management is headed by the managing editor and other supporting staff who will provide necessary expertise for the viability of the organisation.

Our product, which is news, will comprise of home, sectoral, provincial, political, and social and life style, obituaries, sports and African and other international news, but with a lot of emphasis on business news. Our target market is Zambians of different status and age groups, whom we will strive to reach with news relevant to their lives. The paper will have a national distribution to ensure all Zambians to have access to it.Our conducted audience research has identified elements that have been missing in the media industry for some time and we have come up with ways of bringing those missing elements on board for the satisfaction of our audience. Thus, the paper will concentrate more on business related stories because this is the area which has been neglected by the mainstream media despite it being of great relevance to people’s lives.In our financial projections, we expect to expand our financial base through massive advertising and providing courier services to customers who want to ferry their goods from one area to the other. We further ensure that our stories have great relevance to the well being of our audience to improve on sales for the paper to realize more income injections.One of our plans is to double our circulations from 10,000 to 20,000 copies per day in three years time. This is in view of reaching more readers country wide and enable us generate enough income to pay back the loan within the shortest time frame.

The Republic of ZambiaBarclays Bank Zambia PLC

Mutaba House, Plot No. 11987, Cairo Road

Application for a K3 billion Kwacha loan

The Managing Director

Tel: +260-211-228858

Barclays Bank Zambia PLC

Fax: +260-211-222150

P.O Box 32379

Email: info@barclays.com

Lusaka, Zambia

Website: http://www.barclays.com/

PROJECT DETAILSv Full name of enterprise: Sunrise Newspaper Limitedv Plot No: Plot 7404 Street/Road: Joseph Mwila Roadv Address: P.O. Box 33711, Lusaka 10101, Zambiav Province: Lusaka District: Lusakav Telephone No: +260-211-221519 Fax No: +260-211-223379v Email Address: sunrise@coppernet.zm2.0

THE BUSINESS PROFILE

Description of the BusinessWe intend to start a private national daily newspaper which will be called The Sunrise. The newspaper will be situated in Lusaka and later new branches will be opened in other parts of the country especially along the line of rail. The newspaper will cover home, business, regional, international, and sectoral news. However, special emphasis will be given to business news which will dominate all news types.Mission StatementOur mission statement is changing Zambian mindsets by providing relevant information that is practical, considering the tough socio-economic times we are living in.Objectives· To revolutionalise the country economically, socially and politically· To empower Zambians with business information so that they can become self reliant· To educate people on lifestyle, economic prospects and cost of living· To inform people on international news, with more focus on African news· To present news in the most appealing mannerEditorial PolicyTo be a voice of the voiceless, giving a platform for people with objective, fair and accurate newsworthy informationSloganReporting to change ZambiaTarget AudienceOur target audience will be the whole nation with special focus on potential entrepreneurs, local and foreign investors, working class, middle class and common people who can afford to buy the newspaper.3.0 NEWSPAPER

TYPE OR FORMAT

Sunrise Newspaper will be a tabloid with 24 pages

LAYOUTFirst three pages

– Home newsSecond two pages

–Political newsThird six pages

–Business newsFourth three pages

– ClassifiedFifth two pages

– Regional news and provincial newsSixth three pages

– Sectoral newsSeventh two pages

– Social and lifestyleEighth one page

– ObituariesNinth two pages

– Sports (Local & International).

ALLOCATION OF PAGES

a) Business news will have six pages.The first four pages of the business section will contain local business with two pages of international business and stock market news. Business advertisements will be spread over the pages.

b) Regional and provincial news will be given two pages.

c) Sectoral news will have three pages.

d) Political news of both local and international or African politics will be allocated

e) Sports news will have two pages.

f) Classified will have three pages.

g) Obituary will be given one page.

h) Social and lifestyle will be allocated two pages

Figure 1. Allocation of Pages4.0

CONTENT

Home News Section

The Home news section of the paper will comprise of hard news in politics and business. A greater emphasis will be put on business and as earlier noted it will have more pages allocated for it. This section will feature everyday of the week. This will be subject to exceptions when there is a prominent international story that has to be on the front page.Political NewsPolitical news is always a hot cake and usually sells very well. People always want to know what their governments are doing and what is generally happening in their country. A special focus will be on local politics as well as African politics and bits of international politics as well.

Business NewsThis will have special focus on Zambian business and the business stories will aim at propagating ideas on how to become entrepreneurs so that our local people can become self reliant considering the hard socio-economic times we are living in. Special focus will also be on African business initiatives and enterprises. Special testimonial feature stories will also feature giving special highlight on how some people have made it big in business, how they began and what they did to get to where they are.Stock market news will be given special attention everyday. This will include information from all the world stock markets.

Classified Section This section will be called Mixed Cut because it will have a mixture of items in it including small adverts, personals such as congratulatory, birthday and events or functions messages. Real estate and employment opportunity messages or adverts will also appear here. These will appear everyday.

Regional and Provincial News SectionThis section will encompass a special focus on news of activities in the different regional bodies of Africa such as COMESA, SADC, ECOWAS and this will also include news from member states. This section will not appear everyday, but will feature every Thursday.Additionally, news focusing on individual provinces each week on Tuesday will be featured in this section as well. Provinces with similar social economic or cultural similarities will be featured together. For example, North Western and Western, Lusaka and Central Provinces, Northern and Luapula provinces will be featured together respectively. Other provinces will be covered individually.

Sectoral NewsThis section will include news items from various social economic sectors of the country such as health, agriculture, education, environment, gender and tourism. The news will be inclined to developmental issues in these sectors such as projects and programmes currently running. Besides this, this section will have well researched articles with special attributions to professional experts from whatever field is being covered that week. For example, the health sector will have articles from doctors or medical personnel or these will simply be quoted explaining a particular issue. This section will appear as a special supplement every Friday with the different sectors alternating accordingly.

Social and Lifestyle NewsThis section will cover in-depth stories or features of real life situations. These will have great appeal to readers as they will be of human interest in nature. The articles featured in this section will also stimulate active responses from concerned authorities to address the various issues raised.The lifestyle and social section will also include entertainment news of various forms including coverage of celebrities and other interesting issues in the entertainment world like film reviews, book reviews as well as music reviews. This section will also have a special focus on ordinary people and the way they entertain themselves e.g. story telling, traditional games such as nsolo, chiyenga will also be featured. . It will further comprise a segment called Know Your…roads, rivers, towns, and the like, to educate the public on the meaning or history of their major rivers or towns.This section will also call for creative writing from members of the public who will be submitting different entertainment stories on different issues. This will be one way of interacting with our audiences and building capacity in them. This section will feature everyday.

ObituariesThis section will be one of our main revenue sources because people are ready to part away with almost anything in order to honour their deceased beloved ones. This section will feature everyday.Sports NewsThis section will feature both local and international conventional sports. Coverage of such news will attract advertisers from sports industry as they want their advertisements to appear next to sports stories or on sports news pages. Such advertisers will include manufacturers of sport attire, equipment and sports associations who would want to announce meetings or events. This section will feature everyday.AdvertisingAdvertisements will run throughout the paper pages and will be placed appropriately according to who is advertising and what kind of advertisement it is so that they are placed in right news segment pages. Advertising will be our core source of revenue and we have a vibrant marketing and advertising department that will attract potential advertisers from big corporate companies.

5.0 FINANCIAL ANALYSIS OF COMPETITORS

Our major competitor is The Post Newspaper because it holds the biggest market share in the media industry. According to the MISA Zambia State of the Media Report for 2007, The Post has 0.39% readership share. Being privately owned, The Post, experiences financial challenges such as high cost of production, which we are also likely to face.Despite this, The Post Newspaper is doing fine in the print media industry. According to Steadmans 2006 Survey, the newspaper has a 56% share of advertisement as compared to other newspapers. The newspaper is breaking even in the market and continues to do so. As a result, it has managed to open up bureaus in Cuba and Zimbabwe. Also it has offices in provincial capitals such as Chipata, Ndola, Kitwe and Livingstone. The Post newspaper has a circulation of 45, 000 copies daily and this is because of the high demand by its readership.The newspaper has also invested in the Post Internet Service Provider (ISP) and the Courier Service in order to increases on its sources of revenue.

5.0 VISION

We have a long-term plan to be in business and to utilise efficient skills of our employees to expand our company and be established in the media industry as one of the leading newspapers in the country.

6.0 EMPLOYEES

The newspaper will establish a recruitment policy which will meet the three requirements of a good human resource policy. These are to attain, retain and motivate.For the paper to succeed, we will hire people with right qualifications. As such, our recruitment policy will among other things ensure that:-The best qualified persons for each job are employedThe best and most promising of those hired are retainedIt motivates it’s employees to the fullest, one of the ways being promotionProvides programmes and facilities for personal growth on the jobWe will offer opportunities for individual career development and growth because these lead to increased job satisfaction and better performance. This will be done through giving promotions and further academic training.Our paper will also ensure that all our employees understand all our organisational objectives. In addition, we will ensure that the people we will hire have the qualities of self motivation, innovativeness and experience in media operations. This will be met in the way that we structure our interviews, for example giving them a task that will exhibit these qualities.We will use the indirect method of recruitment where job vacancies are advertised in the broadcast and print media. A brief profile of the organisation will be highlighted in the adverts.Our organisation will provide an environment in which our employees will be free to offer ideas, criticise and contribute to the continuous improvement of the paper. We will give a chance to employees to give feedback.Our training department will orient the newly recruited employees to the paper’s house style. Reporters will also be given an opportunity to work on different desks. For instance a reporter working on business news can work on the sports desk. We will also conduct workshops which will give individual employees an opportunity to build their skills in areas of communication, creative problem solving, goal setting and action planning in their specific job competencies.To further motivate the employees in our organisation, the best stories will be displayed on the notice board at the end of each week. The best story writers will be awarded on Labour Day. Such an initiative will make employees put in their best, become more involved and feel more valued.Figure 2.

Human Resource Department BudgetAccountantTotal Number of EmployeesTotal Salary (Kwacha)Managing Editor18,000,000Accountant14,000,000Sub Editors918,000,000Technical Director11,500,000Legal Director15,000,000Human Resource Director14,000,000Training Director12,000,000News Editors on all desks512,500,000Chief Reporters23,500,000Full time Reporters2237,400,000Marketing Manager14,000,000Traffic Director13,000,000Circulations Director13,500,000TOTAL47106,400,000Other ExpendituresCorrespondents5,000,000Talk Time allowance760,000Lunch allowance16,000,000*Housing allowance27,500,000Training12,000,000Contingence Funds37,340,000Total87,600,000Grand Total200,000,000*Lunch allowance will be used for out of office duties like in another town out of Lusaka.

7.0 ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

Figure 3.

Organisation structureManaging EditorAccountantSub EditorsFinancialManagerCirculationsDirectorSenior ReporterNews Editors on all the desksChief ReporterTrafficDirectorMarketing ManagerReportersHuman Resource ManagerTraining DirectorTechnical DirectorLegal DirectorThe responsibilities of the personnel and departments in the structure above are tabulated below;Managing EditorThe managing editor is the overall boss of Sunrise newspaper. His duties are to ensure that the editors on the respective desks are coordinating their teams so that they produce the paper on time, 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 editor also ensures that everything is order for the newspaper to run successfully on a day to day basis.Human Resource ManagerThe Human Resource Manager reports directly to the managing director. The main task of the manager is to look at issues of recruiting staff and work out ways of improving staff development. She receives reports about which departments are understaffed so that they can work out the modalities of recruiting new personnel.Moreover, when need be, she also considers issues of dismissing workers for different reasons according to the newspaper’s work guidelines.Under the Human Resource Manager, is the Training Director who is in charge of designing programmes for in- house training and conducts in house sessions.The Finance DepartmentThe Finance department is responsible for the financial functions and activities of the newspaper for its fiscal policy. It is also responsible for the financial activities of the paper such as budget administration, cost allocation, general accounting and debt administration.Marketing/Advertising DepartmentThis department is headed by the Marketing/ Advertising Director. He reports to the managing director of the institution. The department is responsible for business and economic issues. The Director communicates to the staff on what adverts are getting published in every edition.Legal CounselThe responsibilities of the legal counsel are to ensure that all the legal matters 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 ensure that they do not write stories that would result in legal cases against the newspaper.News Editors on all desksThese desks are news, sports, features and business. The editors receive the stories from the reporters and edit them for any grammatical and spelling errors and unethical 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. This way, sub-editors have enough time to lay out the pages that will be handed over to the printing department.Circulation DirectorThe circulation director is responsible for planning and implementing sales and service strategies to maximise the circulation revenue potential for the newspaper and serves as an integral member of the newspaper’s operating committee. He is the top circulation executive, in the circulation department. He delegates to the circulation staff to plan, direct and coordinate circulation marketing efforts.He is directly responsible for budgeting and analyses of single-copy sales and all subscription programs, list rentals and database planning and maintenance. The director further distributes, carries recruitment, monitors sales, promotions and circulation systems.· Traffic DirectorThis director is in control of the revenue generated for the company from adverts and other avenues of income for the company. The staff ensures that all adverts are paid for and they appear as per schedule and there are no conflicts with the clients on their appearance dates.

8.0 PROFESSIONAL CONSULTANTS (referees)

We feel it is important that our team of professional advisors be in place before we start the newspaper. Here is a list of these professionals:Attorney: Central Chambers LusakaAccountant: PriceWaterHouse Coopers Accounting firmInsurance Agent: Zambia State Insurance Corporation (ZSIC)Banker: Barclays Bank Plc.

9.0 INSURANCE

We plan to use the services of ZSIC, as our insurance agent. Our insurance policies and limits of coverage are as follows: ZSIC will provide us with a comprehensive insurance policy that will cover all our risks.

10.0 CASH FLOW PLANNING

Attached is an exhibit of our one-year cash flow analysis including estimated sales, costs and capital requirements. We have included a checklist of all expense items for input into our cash flow projections.Sales and circulationIn the first month we plan to start with 10, 000 copies per publication. These copies will cost us K100 million (The current costs for printing a 24 page tabloid newspaper per thousand copies stands at 10million Kwacha).These copies shall be distributed as follows:Lusaka province 2, 000 copiesCopperbelt province 1, 500 copiesSouthern province 1, 000 copiesCentral province 1, 200 copiesWestern province 800 copiesNorth Western province 700 copiesNorthern Province 1100 copiesLuapula province 800 copiesEastern province 900 copiesFigure 4.Distribution of newspaper copies in first month.We have strategically given more copies to the provinces that are along the line of rail because of having more population due to the businesses and industries that are located there.And because our newspaper will be very attractive due to the best stories that it will carry and because of good layout since the paper will be managed by competent journalists, we approximate total sales of 7, 000 copies per edition and as an average in the first month.In uniform with other newspapers, our newspaper will be sold at K3000 per copy. Therefore, our expected daily returns will be K21, 000, 000.7, 000 x 3, 000 = K21, 000, 000.Hence, our projected total returns in the first month from copy sales will be K630, 000, 000K21, 000, 000 x 30 = K630, 000, 000.Projected number of copies per edition after the first month is 20, 000. The distribution per province will be as follows:Lusaka province 4, 000 copiesCopperbelt province 3, 000 copiesSouthern province 2, 200 copiesCentral province 2, 400 copiesWestern province 1, 800 copiesNorth Western province 1, 800 copiesNorthern Province 2, 000 copiesLuapula province 1, 000 copiesEastern province 1, 800 copiesFigure 5. Distribution of newspaper copies after first month.The projected copy sales after the first month is 16, 000 copies per edition16, 000 x K3, 000 = K48, 000, 000 per dayK48, 000, 000 x 30 = K1, 440, 000, 000 per monthOther sources of income will be from advertisements, small classified, courier services, on line and hard copy subscription.Summary of projected returns for six months starting from April 2009MonthCopy salesPage advertisement and small classifiedCourier servicesOn line subscriptionTOTALAprilK630, 000,000.K300,000,000K300,000,000K5,000,000K1,235,000,000MayK1,440,000,000K500,000,000K350,000,000K10,000,000K2,300,000,000JuneK1,440,000,000K600,000,000K400,000,000K10,000,000K2,450,000,000JulyK1,440,000,000K650,000,000K400,000,000K15,000,000K2,505,000,000AugustK1,440,000,000K800,000,000K400,000,000K20,000,000K2,660,000,000SeptemberK1,440,000,000K1,000,000,000K450,000,000K20,000,000K2,910,000,00011.0 MARKETING STRATEGYIt is a well known fact that the survival of a newspaper, especially the privately owned, depends on advertising. Therefore, the advertising department will go out to look for potential advertisers and enlighten them on the contents of our paper and the advantages of advertising with us. This will enable the paper to have a few advert placements in our first month of publication.Therefore, we approximate that at least 20 percent of our income shall come from advertisements in the first publication and a few editions of the first week as we shall be building steadily and fast in the market share with other newspapers.As another marketing strategy we will use promotions where we are going to have low advertising rates in the first few editions of the first month in order to attract more advertisers. This will especially be enhanced in the classified section which will draw a lot of retailers.Some of the advertisers that we shall approach include MTN, Zain, Cell-Z, Zambian Breweries and Lending institutions such as Barclays Bank and Finance Bank.The Sales and Marketing department will go out to convince government department ministries and the general public to subscribe to our paper payable monthly.Therefore, in the second month and those that follow, we expect to have at least 70 percent of our income coming from adverts. After one year, we shall be producing as many copies per edition as possible to meet the demand of the public.Budget BreakdownItemDescription/QuantityUnit CostTotal CostInfrastructure (rent)6 monthsK40 millionK240 millionCourier Vans9K40 millionK360 millionVehicles2K40 millionK80 millionComputers10K4 millionK40 millionPrinters3K2 millionK6 millionFurnitureK100 millionPhone; Faxes/InternetK160 millionTV set2K5 millionK10 millionRadio1K0.2 millionK0.2 millionDigital Cameras5K10 millionK50 millionFuelK300 millionRepair/ Maintenance/ InsuranceK132 millionContingencyOne monthK320 millionHuman resourceone monthK200 millionPrintingOne monthK1 billionDSTV Connection6 monthsK1.8 millionTotal K2,250,000,000

12.0 GROWTH PROGRAMMES

ExpansionOnce our newspaper has been established we plan to implement the following growth strategy. We anticipate it will take approximately one year six months to gain sufficient experience and level of profits before any expansion plans are implemented. Our growth strategy will be guided by the following:· We will not set an inflexible timetable for expansion but will wait until a sound basis of experience, earnings and cash flow is achieved.· Accounting and cash flow controls will be in place with profit and loss statements prepared for individual expansion units on a monthly basis. Internal controls for accounting, money handling and inventory will be in place.· Our attorney will review all documentation regarding expansion. This will include leases, employment and incentive agreements.· Hiring and training policies will be in place. Fringe benefit plans will be in place. · We intend to maintain an ongoing study of our competitors especially The Post Newspaper. Their successes and failures will help us form guidelines on what to do and not to do.

13.0 HANDLING MAJOR PROBLEMS

Our policy in handling problems will be to identify and acknowledge problems promptly and honestly. We plan to put the following policies into effect promptly if the following adverse scenarios emerge during our growth program:· The risk of running out of cash: we plan to maintain very frequent monthly cash flow projections. Forecasts for income, expenses and unanticipated contingencies will be stated conservatively. Any periods of cash deficits will be remedied promptly by cutting costs to maintain a positive cash flow and profitability. · A drop in sales or insufficient sales:1. We will be prepared to take prompt remedial steps by cutting costs.2. We will improve every aspect of news value, performance and image of the newspaper.3. We will seek out new ways to expand sales and advertising by September, 2009.4. We plan to stick with this specialised business that we know best unless fatally defective.· Dishonesty, theft, and shrinkage: We intend to implement the same policies that have been proven by The Post Newspaper, one of our biggest competitors.· Business recessions: we are prepared to promptly cut costs to maintain liquidity. We will also be on the lookout for good business opportunities during periods of adversity.