Emmanuel Mwamba happy with Times of Zambia innovative efforts

Mr Mwamba said during a tour of the Times offices and plant in Ndola that the company should continue moving along with new developments in the industry and carry along its traditional audience.

“Already you have started with your Sunday Times edition going tabloid and we are encouraging you that even the Saturday edition should be a brand on its own,” he said.

He said the Times had a long history in the media industry but that the company should live up to its billing by working to satisfy its audience through innovations like increasing its presence on the online platform.

The Permanent Secretary said the company was endowed with resources such as the printing press which, if well harnessed, could generate more income and chart a useful solution for the financial woes the Times has been facing.

Mr Mwamba was happy that the company was able to print school text and exercise books at its plant in Ndola.

He was also impressed that management had embarked on a plan to redevelop into a modern structure, the offices on Freedom Way in Lusaka in partnership with an investor yet to be identified.

He said his ministry was ready to recapitalise the public media and that he would ensure there was no preferential treatment attached to any of the public media institutions namely, Times, Zambia Daily Mail, ZANIS and Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC).

Times Managing Director Godfrey Malama admitted that the company had to do more to live to the tag of being the oldest daily newspaper in the country, as well as the Sunday Times being the longest weekly.

Mr Malama said the core business of the company was newspaper production and printing of exercise and text books.

He said the company operates a courier service which, with more innovation, could deliver a better product.

Meanwhile, Mr Mwamba said during a stakeholders’ sensitisation meeting in Kitwe that the Government had raised more than K143, 000 through the sale of holograms.

The Permanent Secretary, who also toured ZNBC Kitwe Studios, said the Government attaches great importance to the creative industry and the use of intellectual property as a whole.

Mr Mwamba also announced that the Government would soon approve the opening of Radio Liberty in Mporokoso District in Northern Province.

He said this after Chief Mporokoso presented an application for a radio station at Cabinet office in Ndola.