WINDHOEK – The Board of New Era Publication Corporation (NEPC) is impressed with the SOE’s performance for the period July to September 2014.
On the other hand the NEPC board of directors chaired by Tarah Shaanika says even though it is satisfied with NEPC’s performance it wants to see more effort made in achieving better results.
“When we meet next time, I hope we would have raised the bar in performance,” said Shaanika when speaking at the NEPC’s quarterly performance presentation held last Friday.
NEPC Chief Executive Officer Dr Audrin Mathe said that among plans for the quarter was to reduce costs by 5 percent, implement a performance management system, carry out a human resource audit, develop a brand and communication plan, increase market share, increase readership and develop a bankable business plan.
According to NEPC financial manager Immanuel Awene the corporation has outperformed its targets by spending 24 percent less and was 56 percent over target in debt collection.
“Our expenditure is intact,” he said, however, when it comes to profit, the corporation was operating on a break-even scenario where much of the revenue was being gobbled up by printing costs.
He said if NEPC had its own printing press, there would be considerable reduction in printing costs.
Awene placed the corporation’s success rate at 85 percent for the quarter in the areas of financial management, people management as well as image and brand management.
NEPC human resources manager Olivia Uushona-Kangandjela said there was a 6 percent staff turnover mainly due to voluntary resignations and added that the biggest challenge was gender balance, with no woman on executive management level.
NEPC commercial manager Roy Klaassen said sales revenue for both the New Era and Kundana newspapers had increased when compared to the same period last year.
NEPC managing editor Toivo Ndjebela said the English daily continues to realign its content aggressively and has seen significant growth in readership, especially on social network sites.