by Gill Moodie (@grubstreetSA) How the mighty have fallen. That is the striking impression when you look at the most recent ABC circulation figures for South Africa’s newspapers and magazines – for the fourth quarter of 2014 – and compare them with the numbers from 10 years ago.
The latest release from the Audit Bureau of Circulations of SA (ABC) is the same story as the last set of figures: one of general decline across the board with a handful of publication managing to hold steadily or grow slightly.
Also across the board, there is a rise in sales below 50% (of cover price) – especially for daily newspapers – while it is also worth noting that the postal strike of last year knocked the magazine sector sideways because it slowed and interrupted the delivery of subscriptions.
As circulations fall, media inflation rises so it is not surprising that most publishers are glumly watching print advertising going through the floor. Of course, some titles such as the Mail & Guardian are migrating their print readers to tablet and Kindle editions but, sadly, the advertisers are slow in this country to catch the trend.
To show how devastating circulation decline has been to SA’s print industry, Grubstreet asked the ABC for figures from 10 years ago.
The Afrikaans papers Rapport (the highest at 51.5% decline), Beeld and Die Burger top our table of biggest losers over 10 years followed by The Star and City Press. When it comes to magazines, Finweek (at 69.7%), Men’s Health, Cosmopolitan, Fairlady and True Love show the biggest sales decreases.
Are the Afrikaans papers perhaps victims of their own transformation here, I wonder, from National party mouthpieces to liberal, outward-looking titles? Is it possible that their readers have also become outward-looking and, in moving fast to digital (because it is a monied audience), they have also moved on from being loyal readers of the Afrikaans print titles. It is worth noting that Netwerk24, the Afrikaans news website for all the Media24 Afrikaans papers, is a profitable paywall operation.
The only title among all the newspapers and magazines to rise over 10 years is Drum – from 67 000 circulation 10 years ago to 113000 today – an increase of 68%
PLEASE NOTE: In 2004, the ABCs were released at six-month intervals so the 2004 figures are for the LAST six months of that year) and we have compared them with the latest, from the fourth quarter of last year. See the table below, which is interactive so that you can order the columns how you wish.
We have chosen a range of prominent newspapers and magazines and arranged them from the biggest percentage drop to the lowest.
Some things to note:
- Die Burger’s numbers are for both its Western and Eastern Cape editions.
- Ten years ago, Finweek was called Finansies & Tegniek/Finance Week
- The Daily Sun was still new in 2004 and in a growth phase. It reached its zenith – a record 500 000 (for the SA newspaper industry) in 2007.
| Title | 2004 Q3-4 | 2014 Q4 | Difference | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beeld | 102070 | 52276 | -49794 | -48.78 |
| Burger* | 104102 | 56474 | -47628 | -45.75 |
| Business Day | 40541 | 30883 | -9958 | -23.82 |
| Cape Times | 49526 | 31930 | -17596 | -35.53 |
| City Press | 173992 | 108927 | -65065 | -37.40 |
| Cosmopolitan | 117582 | 60272 | -57310 | -48.74 |
| Daily Dispatch | 33338 | 25894 | -7444 | -22.33 |
| Daily Sun | 364359 | 273746 | -90613 | -24.87 |
| Drum | 67012 | 113018 | 46006 | 68.65 |
| FairLady | 88123 | 47079 | -41044 | -46.58 |
| Financial Mail | 26612 | 19901 | -6711 | -25.22 |
| Finweek* | 38581 | 11678 | -26903 | -69.73 |
| Huisgenoot | 340570 | 259031 | -81539 | -23.94 |
| Mail&Guardian | 40162 | 33060 | -7102 | -17.68 |
| Men’s Health | 89562 | 42522 | -47040 | -52.52 |
| Mercury | 39343 | 26916 | -12427 | -31.59 |
| Rapport | 322731 | 156383 | -166348 | -51.54 |
| Rooi Rose | 119994 | 85575 | -34419 | -28.68 |
| Sarie | 137970 | 84408 | -53562 | -38.82 |
| Sowetan | 122825 | 99723 | -23102 | -18.81 |
| Sunday Times | 505402 | 385080 | -120322 | -23.81 |
| The Star | 166461 | 93014 | -73447 | -44.12 |
| True Love | 114793 | 63224 | -51569 | -44.92 |
| You | 222845 | 142981 | -79864 | -35.84 |
South Africa’s leading media commentator, Gill Moodie (@grubstreetSA) offers intelligence on media, old and new. Reprinted from her site Grubstreet with Biznews.
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