by Gill Moodie (@GrubstreetSA) That SA newspaper circulation is in decline is common cause these days but the latest set of figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations of SA (ABC) figures – for the first quarter of 2013 – really rubs it in.
Consider that we had the biggest, most compelling news event to hit SA in many years – the arrest of Paralympian superstar Oscar Pistorius for the murder of his girlfriend model Reeva Steenkamp in that quarter – and it had little effect on the circulation figures!
While SA web traffic was off the charts in February, our newspapers could not capitalise in terms of sales.
Even Beeld, which is more of a Pretoria newspaper than a Jo’burg one, did not make merry on sales in this quarter despite it serving up the best consistent coverage of the story that happened in its backyard (the murder occurred in Pistorius’ home in Pretoria) with many excellent breaks and exclusives.
Beeld was at 65 645 total circulation in the first quarter of this year compared with 72 599 in the corresponding period a year earlier. Q1 in 2013 was also down on previous quarter – Q4 2012 – which was 66 132.
Maybe the editorial, marketing and distribution departments at Beeld did not co-ordinate on Pistorius – and it would be interesting to know what their returns were in Q1 2013 – and, if so, this is really a publishing failure rather than an editorial one.
When you’ve got big breaks on a big story, you’ve got to make a lot of noise about it – increase the postering and the print run, get the trucks out there early and also get your social-media manager (and you should have one by now: its 2013) piqueing interest. And then you have to keep the exclusive offline for a few hours while you push the papers on the streets.
The fact that the Pretoria News never mustered a break on the Pistorius murder beggars belief – and their Q1 2013 figures continue to show circulation bleed: down to 18 775 total circulation from 21 406 the previous year (but up slightly from the previous quarter, which was 17 576).
The other SA paper that had a special connection to the Pistorius story was The Herald in Port Elizabeth, where Steenkamp’s family lived.
During the height of the story the paper kept its eye on the ball – and got a lot of excellent human-interest stories covering the Steenkamps. It reflects in their figures, which are stable: 23 372 total circulation in Q1 2013 compared with 23 568 the previous year (and 22 079 in Q4 2012).
Looking back at last year’s figures for The Herald, it does seem that the paper has stabilised – this is a laudable feat in newspaper publishing today – so very well done to the editorial team under Heather Robertson and the TMG Eastern Cape publishing team.
The other notable trend in the latest ABC figures is the downturn of all the big daily tabloids except the Sowetan, which was stable at 98 258 (98 128 in 2012) . The Daily Sun and Son are down again while Isolezwe showed a drop for the first time:
Daily Sun: at 296 439 total circulation in Q1 2013 (375 185 in Q1 2012)
Son: 92 213 total (104 696)
Isolezwe: 116 186 (117 266)
Courtesy of ABC Q1 2013 presentation. Click to enlarge
Is the heyday of the tabloids coming to an end in this country, I must ask. Has the novelty worn off?
The tabloids had a decade of robust growth and it’s possible that part of the market they created are getting more sophisticated and moving to other media and other newspapers. Also, the downturn in the economy has meant less disposable income for the tabloid readers (although all have stable Amps figures as pass-on rates increase) but we don’t see an end to this state of affairs anytime soon in the economic outlook.
The other notable trend – and we saw this through most of last year too – is the unavoidable fact that City Press is bleeding circulation. The latest figures are bad: down to 118 547 total circulation from 163 705 in the same period in 2012. It was, in fact, the biggest loser of all the weekend papers.
Courtesy of ABC Q1 2013 presentation. Click to enlarge
It has really been paining to see this downwards movement as it is a great paper. Lovely to look at, full of pep and intelligence, breaking big stories… all the right ingredients but there’s no way to spin it: the paper does not seem to be finding a market.
Did it kiss away their old proudly Africanist identity too quickly when they revamped? Has it lost the old readers before it could find new ones?
The figures of their arch rival, the Sunday Times – which is a massive, entrenched brand with a long history in South Africa – are not reflecting that it has lost readers to City Press. In Q1 2013, the Sunday Times was at 442 018 total circulation compared with 455 129 the previous year.
The fierce competition between the revamped City Press and Sunday Times has brought us some really great journalism in the past two to three years but I feel the time has come for City Press to think very carefully about its positioning in the market.
More ABC analysis: Newspapers, Magazines
– SA’s leading media commentator, Gill Moodie, offers intelligence on media – old and new. Reprinted from her site Grubstreet.