A South African version of global magazine brand, Time Out, launched on Saturday. While Time Out Cape Town is already a presence, and the Time Out Market Cape Town opening a year ago, the new title expands on an existing brand.
Interestingly, the brand has a new franchise partner: Kagiso Media Radio.
Anthea Carstens, Kagiso Media Radio’s general manager for publishing, says the company’s publishing team has run South African iterations of international digital publishing brands before, “and we also have publishing teams taking care of our radio station websites, which have consistently placed in the top radio website rankings for years. This franchise partnership with Time Out allows us to grow our publishing division and provide even more inspiring content to our current audiences and clients”.
Time Out used to be a mainly print title, but, says Carstens, but it now distributes its content through multiple digital channels where the audience takes inspiration and makes decisions: on web, mobile, social, videos, podcasts and newsletters.
“The audience is now bigger than ever with a global monthly brand audience of 150 million. This is complemented by ‘real life’ experiences via live events and Time Out Markets of which there are currently nine around the world (one great Market opened last year in Cape Town),” she said.
Digital content
“As part of our franchise partnership for Time Out South Africa, we will be focusing on digital content: We’ll be creating online content relevant to the season, so expect to see amazing and fun holiday season content throughout the summer to help our audiences make the most of this time and to promote all the wonderful cultural and magical offerings available.”
While Time Out South Africa will run as a separate business unit, Kagiso Media Radio will explore synergies editorially and commercially with all its great radio and digital platforms. Mediamark will be representing the brand in the advertising market, Carstens said.
“Time Out Cape Town is already live and the presence has been built since the launch of Time Out Market Cape Town last year which brings the best of the city together under one roof. We kick off our involvement on the 1st December. We’ll continue to grow the Cape Town site with the best the city has to offer locals and visitors, while building our other major cities – Johannesburg, Durban and Pretoria as well as the National Parks, the wine regions and many other tourist destinations over the coming months. Audiences can expect to see this go live in 2025,” Carstens explained.
Advertising opportunities
Time Out South Africa entered the advertising market on Monday, with multimedia sales house partner Mediamark representing the brand in the market. “Time Out already has established global brand partnerships and also some existing local relationships with advertisers and tourism bodies and we look forward to building these further,” she added.
In a press release, Kagiso Media Radio said the mission is to make timeout.com/southafrica the go-to destination for the best cultural, culinary and travel experiences for both locals and tourists alike.
“Our aim is to amplify those special, local stories and show off our unique experiences. We are committed to curate and create authentic, locally-driven content that will inspire travellers and tourism in general, and to help grow this dynamic sector,” said Carstens.
The advertising proposition is a combination of trusted, authentic content and multiple platforms – plus an experience-hungry, active audience – form a differentiated proposition for advertisers for which Time Out’s team is developing bespoke 360-degree campaigns – these can be local, national or global. The campaigns span across digital platforms, often complemented by experiential elements and always rooted in engaging, immersive story-telling capabilities for clients across a variety of sectors from beverage, travel and transport to entertainment, retail, food and more.
Understanding local environment
Nick Grubb, Kagiso Media Radio CEO, said: “Through our incredible radio brands Jacaranda FM and East Coast Radio, and our other investments in radio and digital platforms nationally, we have a proud legacy of connecting with audiences and understanding their local environments. We see Time Out as an opportunity to extend these relationships and build new ones, rooted in adding value to their lives with quality curated content. Building out these sites in South Africa will delight the consumer, highlight our vibrant leisure and entertainment sector, and help stimulate and enable national and international tourism.”
Time Out first launched in London in 1968 and today is a global digital brand with a network of local expert journalists around the world creating and curating content about 333 cities in 59 countries to inspire and enable people to experience the best of the city and beyond.
Stacy Bettman, Time Out Media CEO added: “Time Out is a global brand with a strong national presence and a local voice, trusted by consumers and advertisers worldwide. We are delighted to partner with Kagiso Media Radio to bring truly local, expert content and bespoke advertising solutions to Time Out South Africa.
“Kagiso’s portfolio of leading entertainment brands and their expertise in this market will help our audience and brand partners experience ‘the best of the city’ across mobile, web, social, live events – all complemented by our Time Out Market Cape Town which opened last year.”
