The biggest circulating weekly newspaper in the country, Soccer Laduma, celebrates its 20th birthday this week, another achievement after the newspaper published its 1000th edition late last year.
“We continue to build our brand despite the market, while also establishing a massive digital readership. Success in business is simple – talk to your customers, or in our case, our readers. By giving our readers a voice, we enable our advertisers to speak directly to their market,” said CEO and Founder, Peter du Toit.
Soccer Laduma newspaper has grown to become the biggest soccer publication in Africa and one of the top soccer publications in the world, with a digital footprint of 1 312 504 unique browsers on web and mobile. These numbers are also supported by over 2 million Facebook fans and 370 000 Twitter followers.
Clint Roper, Head of Content Marketing, has worked at the publication for 18 years. “We have always put the reader first and made sure that our content reflects their views. We diversified our media offering into digital at a time when conventional wisdom told us that our readers did not access the internet. This is what has led to our phenomenal success, and why we are stronger than we ever have been, 20 years on,” said Roper.
One of these digital offerings is SL Radio, launched in October last year. Within three months they have seen 1,5 million podcast downloads, and are set to rival the biggest digital radio players.
“Within a week of posting, our interview with Quinton Fortune was downloaded 200 000 times. We have been overwhelmed with the response and look forward to serving our readers as listeners as well,” said Jason Acar, editor at SL Radio.
The newspaper’s current editor, Vuyani Joni, says he is looking forward to being part of what comes next for the publication. “I achieved a lifelong goal by becoming editor of a newspaper that I am passionate about, and it is passion that drives the team here at Soccer Laduma. We can only keep growing.”
