Your Own
Title.
Cabanga Africa Group produces magazines, newsletters, journals and reports on behalf of institutions - published under your name, carrying your authority, run on the engine that already produces twelve titles of our own. You own the publication. We build it and we keep it coming out.
This is contract publishing: we produce a publication that belongs to you, under your masthead, to a standard we already hold ourselves to twelve times over.
- Magazine, newsletter, journal, report or annual - whichever instrument fits the job.
- Digital, print, or both. The same editorial spine serves all three.
- You choose how much you hand over: turnkey, editorial and design, or production only.
- Twelve titles built from zero since 2017, circulating in 24 countries. That is the proof.
- Specify your publication in the builder below and send us the brief. We quote against it.
Contract Publishing
Most institutions that need a publication do not need a publishing house. They need the output of one. Contract publishing is the arrangement that solves it: the title is yours, the audience is yours, the authority accrues to you, and the machinery behind it is ours.
Everything that carries value. The masthead and the name. The editorial direction and the final word on it. The subscriber list and every record in it. The archive of everything published. The commercial rights, including any advertising sold into your own pages.
Everything that costs you time. Editorial planning and commissioning. Writing, editing and fact-checking. Design, layout and the house grid. Print specification, proofing and production management. Digital build, distribution and the deadline itself - which is the part that defeats most in-house attempts.
A publication is not a document. A document is finished once. A publication has to arrive again, on time, at the same standard, indefinitely. That difference is the whole service.
What We Will Publish For You
Five instruments, each doing a different job. Most institutions need one. A few need two working together - a monthly newsletter that keeps the relationship warm, and an annual that settles the record.
| Instrument | Typical extent | Typical frequency | Lead format | What it is for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magazine | 32 to 64 pages | Monthly or quarterly | Print and digital | Building standing with people who do not have to read you |
| Newsletter | 4 to 12 pages | Weekly or monthly | Digital-first | Keeping a named audience in contact between larger moments |
| Journal | 48 to 96 pages | Quarterly or twice a year | Print and digital | Establishing the client as the reference in its field |
| Report | 24 to 120 pages | One-off or annual | Print and digital | Settling a record in a form built to be cited |
| Annual | 64 to 160 pages | Annual | Print-led | Earning shelf life, the rarest commodity in print |
A feature-led title in your name, published to your market on a fixed cycle. The instrument of choice when the objective is standing rather than announcement - when you want to be read by people who do not have to read you.
Short, frequent and direct. It keeps a named audience in contact with you between the larger moments. The discipline is brevity and reliability: the same day, the same shape, every time, so that it becomes expected.
Technical, sectoral or professional. Where a magazine persuades, a journal establishes. Built for institutions, associations and firms whose credibility rests on being the reference rather than the commentary.
Annual reports, research reports, market studies, white papers and impact reviews. A single, self-contained argument built to be cited. Produced to the editorial and design standard of a publication rather than the standard of a slide deck.
A yearbook, directory, awards book or sector review that appears once and is kept all year. It earns shelf life, which is the rarest commodity in print. Frequently the most commercially productive title an institution owns.
Tell us what the publication has to achieve rather than what it should look like. The instrument follows from the objective, and choosing it correctly is the single decision that most affects whether the thing works.
Digital, Print, Or Both
One editorial spine, three possible outputs. The decision is not aesthetic. It is a decision about how your audience actually receives things, and in most African markets the honest answer is both.
Fast, measurable and cheap to scale. Best where the audience is dispersed across borders and the cycle is frequent.
- Page-turning edition and downloadable PDF
- Direct-to-inbox distribution to your list
- Read-through and download reporting
- No print cost, no freight, no border
The standard we recommend and the one our own twelve editions run on. Print carries weight where it matters; digital carries distance.
- A limited print run for the rooms that count
- Full digital edition for everyone else
- One production cycle, two outputs
- Print for authority, digital for reach
Physical, kept, and handed over. Best where the audience is concentrated, senior, and in one place - and where shelf life is the point.
- Specified, proofed and print-managed by us
- Any extent, any stock, saddle or perfect bound
- Delivered to your offices or your events
- The instrument for boardrooms and ministries
Specify Your Title
Six questions and you have described your publication precisely enough for us to quote it. Nothing here commits you to anything - it produces a written specification you can send to us, or keep and think about.
What Do You Want To Publish?
Answer as you go. The specification on the right builds itself.
Print run is per issue. Freight and delivery are specified separately once the destinations are known.
Every contract publishing engagement is quoted against its own specification. There is no rate card, because no two titles carry the same editorial load.
This specification is a starting point, not a contract. We will come back to you with a written proposal, a production schedule and a fixed price against exactly what you have specified here.
How Much You Hand Over
Three levels. The right one depends entirely on whether you already have people who can write and hold a deadline. Most institutions think they do, and most discover on issue two that they do not.
You approve, we do everything else. Editorial strategy, commissioning, writing, editing, photography direction, design, print management, digital build and distribution. You receive a proof and you sign it off.
You hold the editorial direction and supply the institutional knowledge. We convert it into a publication - writing it up, structuring the issue, designing it and producing the files. Your voice, our craft.
You deliver finished copy and images to an agreed schedule. We sub-edit, design, lay out, proof, produce print-ready files and output the digital edition. The cheapest route, and the one that depends most on you.
Whichever level you take, the house standard does not move. A publication that goes out under our production carries our name in the colophon, and we are not willing to be embarrassed by it.
We Did Not Learn This On Clients
Most agencies offering to publish for you have never carried a title of their own. We started with one magazine in South Africa in 2017 and now produce twelve regional editions and two specialist journals, on schedule, across 24 countries, with an audience we built from nothing.
Everything we will do for your publication - the commissioning, the grid, the deadline discipline, the distribution - is what we already do twelve times over every cycle. You are not buying a proposal. You are buying access to a machine that is already running.
From Brief To First Issue
Six stages. The first three happen once and set the publication up for life. The last three repeat every cycle, which is the point.
- Stage 01The Brief
You tell us what the publication has to achieve and who has to read it. We interrogate that, because the objective decides the instrument.
- Stage 02Mandate and Concept
We write the editorial mandate, name and position the title, design the masthead and set the house grid. This is what makes issue twelve look like issue one.
- Stage 03The Schedule
A production calendar with every deadline named and owned - commissioning, copy, proofs, print, release. Signed by both sides before anything is written.
- Stage 04Production
Commissioning, writing, editing, fact-checking, design and layout. You see the issue at plan stage and again at proof, and nowhere in between unless you want to.
- Stage 05Sign-Off
One named person on your side approves the proof. Their word is final, which is what keeps a publication out of committee and on schedule.
- Stage 06Publication
Print delivered where you asked, digital edition released to your list, and the archive updated. Then the calendar rolls and stage four begins again.
START YOUR TITLE.
Specify the publication in the builder and send us the brief, or talk it through with an editor first.
Briefs and enquiries: info@cabanga.africa
Here.
Contract Publishing Questions
What is contract publishing?
Contract publishing, also called custom or brand publishing, is where a publishing house produces a publication on behalf of an institution. The title belongs to the institution and carries its name; the editorial, design, production and distribution machinery belongs to the publisher. Cabanga Africa Group produces magazines, newsletters, journals, reports and annuals for commercial, institutional and public sector clients on this basis.
Who owns the publication?
You do. The masthead, the name, the editorial direction, the subscriber list, the archive and the commercial rights are all yours, including any advertising revenue sold into your own pages. Cabanga produces the publication; it does not own it.
What can Cabanga publish for us?
Magazines, newsletters, journals, reports and annuals or yearbooks. Each does a different job: a magazine builds standing, a newsletter maintains a relationship, a journal establishes authority, a report settles a record, and an annual earns shelf life. If you are not sure which fits, tell us what the publication has to achieve and we will recommend the instrument.
Can we publish digitally only, or do we have to print?
Either, or both. Digital only is faster, cheaper and fully measurable, and works best for dispersed cross-border audiences. Print carries weight and shelf life. Cabanga recommends both for most institutional titles, which is the model our own twelve editions run on: a limited print run for the rooms that matter and a full digital edition for reach.
How much of the work do we have to do ourselves?
As much or as little as you want. There are three levels. Turnkey means Cabanga runs the entire publication and you approve proofs. Editorial and design means you hold the direction and supply the institutional knowledge and Cabanga converts it into pages. Production only means you supply finished copy and images and Cabanga sub-edits, designs, produces and outputs.
What does it cost?
Contract publishing is quoted against a specification rather than a rate card, because no two titles carry the same editorial load. Use the publication builder on this page to specify the type, format, frequency, extent, print run and level of engagement, then send us the brief. We reply with a written proposal, a production schedule and a fixed price.
Why Cabanga rather than an agency?
Because we publish our own titles. Cabanga Africa Group has built twelve regional business magazines and two specialist journals from zero since 2017, circulating in 24 countries with more than 15,000 direct subscribers. The editorial discipline, the production grid and the deadline machinery applied to your publication are the ones already running our own.
Can you distribute the publication for us?
Yes. We can distribute to your existing list, distribute and actively grow that list, or place the publication into the Cabanga network across 24 African countries. You can also take the finished files and distribute the publication entirely yourself.
How long does the first issue take?
It depends on the instrument and the level of engagement. A digital newsletter under a production-only arrangement can be live in weeks. A turnkey print magazine, where the masthead, mandate and grid all have to be created first, takes longer because the set-up work is done once and then serves every issue after it. Your indicative lead time is shown in the publication builder.
Published by Cabanga Africa Group. Reviewed by Oscar Manduku-Habeenzu, MBA, Founder and Expansion Architect. Last reviewed .