HARARE - Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) — publishers of the Daily News and Daily News on Sunday — has appointed Pilate Machadu group sales and marketing manager to consolidate the papers’ growing market share.
The renowned marketer, who is also past-chairperson of the Advertising Media Association and current deputy chair of the Zimbabwe Advertising Research Foundation, has 13 years’ experience in the newspaper advertising industry.
Apart from driving the group’s sales, marketing and advertising initiatives, he will also be responsible for ANZ’s business development portfolio.
“My vision is to make the Daily News, among other titles, the brand of choice.
“The papers must be Zimbabwe’s preferred advertising platforms,” Machadu said.
“I’m joining ANZ at a most opportune time.
“The Daily News has reclaimed its leading news and readership position in the market and what’s left is to make the paper the leading marketing channel in the country.
“There really is only one way for the popular paper —up!” he added.
Until his recent appointment at ANZ, Machadu was head of the Financial Gazette’s advertising and marketing department.
A member of the Marketers Association of Zimbabwe, Machadu holds a Bachelor of Commerce Marketing degree from the National University of Science and Technology, and a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Zimbabwe.
His appointment comes as the Daily News has been declared the only national daily newspaper to have grown its readership in Zimbabwe over the past year, according to the Zimbabwe All Media Products Survey (Zamps) released in September.
Its competitors, meanwhile, have significantly lost readers in the same period just as the paper continues to deliver remarkable results since its re-launch 18 months ago — after nearly a decade of forced closure by President Robert Mugabe’s government.
While the group’s flagship Daily News has gained impressive market share since the previous quarterly Zamps report in December 2011, ANZ’s journalists also dominated this year’s national journalism and media awards (Njama).