A MastheadOf Your Own.
Cabanga Africa Group produces magazines, newspapers, 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.
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.
Your Magazine.
Our Newsroom.
You own the publication outright. The title, the masthead, the design system created for it and every piece of content produced under the agreement belong to you, and the rights in commissioned writing and photography pass to you on payment for the issue they appear in.
We are the publisher behind it and we stay behind it. We do not brand your title, we do not claim your audience, and we make no use of your content in our own titles without your written agreement.
If you ever move the title elsewhere, it leaves with everything it needs: the design files, the fonts licensed to it, the flatplans and the contributor contracts. Nothing leaves you dependent on us to keep what you have paid for.
- What you ownThe masthead and the name, the editorial direction and the final word on it, the subscriber list, the archive, and the commercial rights including advertising sold into your own pages.
- What we carryEditorial planning and commissioning, writing, editing and fact-checking, design and the house grid, print management, the digital build, distribution and the deadline itself.
- What you leave withEverything. Design files, licensed fonts, flatplans and contributor contracts travel with the title if it ever moves.
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
Six 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.
MagazineThe flagship - 32 to 64 pages, monthly or quarterly
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.
- Typical extent
- 32 to 64 pages
- Typical frequency
- Monthly or quarterly
- Lead format
- Print and digital
- What it is for
- Building standing with people who do not have to read you
NewspaperThe local voice - 8 to 24 pages, weekly or monthly
A business newspaper in your name for a named town, suburb or trading area. Built to put local enterprise on the front page and keep your brand in the hands of the people who trade there, issue after issue.
- Typical extent
- 8 to 24 pages
- Typical frequency
- Weekly or monthly
- Lead format
- Print-led
- What it is for
- Owning the business conversation in a named town or trading area
NewsletterThe relationship - 4 to 12 pages, weekly or monthly
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.
- Typical extent
- 4 to 12 pages
- Typical frequency
- Weekly or monthly
- Lead format
- Digital-first
- What it is for
- Keeping a named audience in contact between larger moments
JournalThe authority - 48 to 96 pages, quarterly or twice a year
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.
- Typical extent
- 48 to 96 pages
- Typical frequency
- Quarterly or twice a year
- Lead format
- Print and digital
- What it is for
- Establishing the client as the reference in its field
ReportThe record - 24 to 120 pages, one-off or annual
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.
- Typical extent
- 24 to 120 pages
- Typical frequency
- One-off or annual
- Lead format
- Print and digital
- What it is for
- Settling a record in a form built to be cited
AnnualThe reference - 64 to 160 pages, annual
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.
- Typical extent
- 64 to 160 pages
- Typical frequency
- Annual
- Lead format
- Print-led
- What it is for
- Earning shelf life, the rarest commodity in print
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 for most institutional titles. 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
Nine choices 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?
Tap your answers. The specification on the right builds itself as you go.
What are you publishing?
Pick the instrument. If you are unsure, pick the job it has to do and we will confirm the fit.
Digital, print, or both?
How often does it come out?
How many pages per issue?
How many copies per issue?
Freight and delivery are specified separately once the destinations are known.
How much do you want to hand over?
Which markets should the voices come from?
Roughly three in ten pieces carry your own thought leadership. The rest come from contributors in the markets you choose here.
Who does it go to?
In what language?
Still needed: organisation, your name, email address, country.
This specification is a starting point, not a contract. We come back with a written proposal, a production schedule and a fixed price against exactly what you have specified.
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.
One Fee. One Contract.
A title that runs across an editorial department, a design studio, a photographic capability and a print operation usually means four suppliers and four invoices. Here it means one.
You Deal With One Person. Seven Are Working.
Your title is run by a named account director, your single point of contact, who chairs the direction session at the start of every cycle. Behind that one name sits the full team that makes the issue.
One fee per issue carries editorial, photography, design, print management and delivery. One contract governs it. One person answers for it.
You Direct. We Deliver.
A publication stays on schedule when the client's voice comes in at the right moments and not at every moment. Each cycle opens with direction and closes on two dated approvals.
Every cycle opens with your account director sitting down with your team to take the brief for the issue: the theme, the voices, the cover direction. A written direction note comes back to you the same week.
You see the whole issue as a shape before a word is commissioned: the flatplan, the commission list, the cover direction and the markets the voices will come from.
You see every page as it will print. Approval at this point releases the title to press. One consolidated response from one nominated approver keeps the issue out of committee.
We carry the cost of any delay that starts with us. If the title is late because we are late, we correct it at our expense and you pay nothing further. Where an approval runs past its dated deadline, the print and delivery dates move by the same number of working days and we confirm the revised dates in writing.
What We Have Produced
Most agencies offering to publish for you have never carried a title of their own. These are titles we built, wrote, designed and put out. Magazines, newspapers and newsletters - whichever your business needs, we have made it before.
Monthly business magazines, each one written inside the market it serves. See all twelve editions.
Market IntelligenceAfrica market comparative analysis - 1 title
CabangaSouth Africa and Eswatini - 6 titles
MoakanyiBotswana and Lesotho - 6 titles
GanizoZambia and Malawi - 6 titles
Business newspapers with a masthead for every town they serve, and a sector paper built for one industry.
The PromoterLocal business newspapers, one masthead per trading area - 10 titles
Great Dyke ReportA sector paper on mining, environment and social governance, Zimbabwe - 1 title
A weekly newsletter that held the same shape, the same day, every week.
The Brazita RoastA weekly business newsletter - 18 titles
Everything we will do for your publication - the commissioning, the grid, the deadline discipline, the distribution - is what we already do every cycle. You are not buying a proposal. You are buying access to a machine that is already running.
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, newspapers, 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 design system, the editorial content, the subscriber list, the archive and the commercial rights are all yours, including any advertising revenue sold into your own pages. If the title ever moves elsewhere it leaves with its design files, licensed fonts, flatplans and contributor contracts. Cabanga produces the publication; it does not own it.
What can Cabanga publish for us?
Magazines, newspapers, newsletters, journals, reports and annuals or yearbooks. Each does a different job: a magazine builds standing, a newspaper owns a local business conversation, 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: 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. One fee per issue covers editorial, photography, design, print management and delivery. Use the publication builder on this page to specify the instrument, format, frequency, extent, print run, engagement and markets, 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 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.
What happens if an issue is late?
If the delay starts with Cabanga, Cabanga carries the cost of correcting it and the client pays nothing further. Where a client approval runs past its dated deadline, the print and delivery dates move by the same number of working days and the revised dates are confirmed in writing.
How long does the first issue take?
A quarterly issue is produced over a twelve-week cycle, from the direction session to delivery, and a monthly issue closes inside four weeks. The first cycle absorbs the design of the masthead, grid and cover architecture inside that same cycle. Newsletters and newspapers run on shorter cycles. The publication builder shows the cycle for whatever you specify.
Published by Cabanga Africa Group. Reviewed by Oscar Manduku-Habeenzu, MBA, Founder and Expansion Architect. Last reviewed .