Business maverick launches

Bate Felix

First published on the Journlaism.co.za website

Branko Brkic’s desk is cluttered. Magazines, pictures, papers are strewn around. He works simultaneously on a laptop and desktop PC, with a packet of roast peanuts close at hand. A phone rings. He scrambles for it, finally retrieving it from under the mess on his table.

“As you can see we are on deadline,” he says apologetically. As the editor, he is frantically putting finishing touches to the first issue of Maverick, a new business magazine that is due to hit the stands on November 3.
Our conversation is constantly interrupted by members of his staff who want him to have a last-minute look at some details, as he try to describe what Maverick is all about.

“Essentially, people want to read magazines that they enjoy. What is the point if you don’t read through and enjoy a business magazine? It does not have to be boring!”

At the moment, he says, you rarely find a business magazine that leaves you yearning for more because it’s a compelling read.

“When was the last time you got a South African business magazine in your hands and you said – I can’t wait for the next issue, a magazine that you want to take home with you and not leave in the office or just thumb through it – you see what I am saying?”

Brkic says his responsibility is to the readers. The former editor of Brainstorm, an IT magazine, says: “I want to say to people, ‘for Christ’s sake let’s read the business magazines. Business is the most enjoyable thing, we spend so much time on it every day, so why the hell must we address it as the most boring subject?”

“I look at Fortune magazine and I see people love it. In South Africa, they have 14000 subscribers, and I think - they are doing something differently”

It is that style that he wants to emulate. “How do we position ourselves to be enjoyed?” he asks.

And he thinks he has the answer with Maverick - “a good business read, must be interesting and fun”.

“Maverick is a business magazine for business people who don’t see the upside of being bored, it is informative but engrossing and good looking – it is a business magazine for people with brains and money,” says the marketing leaflet.

It also says that the “world of business is filled with intrigue, bloodletting, backstabbing and more fascinating stories than you could shake a stick at,” and that these are the stories Maverick is dedicated at telling.

Brkic says he noticed that people don’t particularly read outside their competence, - miners rarely read what is happening in finance, bankers rarely read what is happening in engineering - he wants to change that he says, “by marrying these different elements and making them interesting”.

The problem, concedes Brkic, is that “you have to know how to do it, and the ultimate judge of that will be the readers”. He thinks Maverick might just be able to pull it off because he refuses to see any competition.

“My opinion is that we are coming into a market that nobody is in, in South Africa”. He refuses to comment on existing business publications.

Brkic says the magazine will be for Mavericks and not about Mavericks. It is a mindset, regardless of gender or colour, he says. Though targeting the higher LSMs, Brkic says they will be looking at the huge 25 – 35 age group, who are just entering the business world, and who do not feature on any radar screens.

With an initial print run of 30 000 copies, four-weekly publication and a cover price of R 27.50, he says he aims to serve the market with something new.

In a recent article on financial journalism in The Media Online, columnist David Bullard said “the presentation of financial news has become so dreary that only those with a high threshold of boredom can cope with reading a business paper these days”.

He went on to advise that “If the financial papers lightened up a little they might stand a better chance of attracting new readers”.

It seems to be this irreverent advice that Brkic wants to take with Maverick.




Wednesday, 26 October, 2005