Extracts from the Q1 2014 ABC presentation released today, Wednesday, 14 May 2014, show a continued decline in weekly and weekend newspaper sales. As a counter trend, the circulation of free papers continues to rise.
Tag archives: newspaper
ABC Analysis Q4 2013: The biggest circulating newspapers in South Africa
by Herman Manson (@marklives) The ABC has released circulation statistics for the period October 2013 — December 2013. Here are several figures that stand out in terms of newspaper circulations.
Analysis of 2012 Amps readership figures: what lurks beneath for SA newspapers?
by Gill Moodie (@GrubstreetSA) The ABC circulation figures tell us that South African newspaper sales with the exception of the vernacular press are in a sustained decline but the Amps readership numbers – the full-year 2012 Amps were released last week – say that most newspaper titles have maintained their readership.
What gives here?
As we puzzle over the numbers, we know that newspapers have been hammered in developed markets – particularly in the US – and as online and cellphone usage spreads and deepens in SA, we all wonder if the downward move of print circulation will accelerate to match the trends overseas.
On the other hand, there is also the view that because we are an emerging market, print still has legs in this country – particularly in the vernacular press led by the fantastic success story of the isiZulu-language Isolezwe.
What actually is the state of the health of our newspapers?
I suspect that the truth lies somewhere in between the ABC and Amps pictures but, first, let’s look at the main trends in the recently released 2012 Amps figures from the South African Audience Research Foundation.
With BDLive Business Day hopes to save its bacon
by Herman Manson (@marklives) Business Day recently shifted gear to relaunch as a ‘digital first’ news product rather than just the printed newspaper it’s been bargaining on to keep the brand afloat. It’s a strategy that’s long overdue and hopes to mimic some of the digital success achieved by the Financial Times (Pearson, owner of FT, also has a stake in BDFM which publishes Business Day).
The print product really had no choice but to reinvent itself as it and other business publications face the loss of revenue from financial notices by JSE listed companies – these notices, described by critics as a forced ‘subsidy’ for print business media, is set to fall away after changes to regulations by the JSE. The industry is expected to lose a significant percentage of the estimated R200m currently spent on these notices annually.
Advertising revenue has also started shifting towards digital environments in line with developments in other economies.
Bronwen Auret, GM: BDFM Digital, agrees that those in the business of business news face challenges but she is also excited about the opportunities the new digital centric model will afford the company.
Newspapers are the least sexy media right now, say Aurent, and where to from (for now still) profitable print have been a predicament for most newspaper proprietors given the high cost of bandwidth and slower Internet uptake by the South African market.
With the uptick in usage of online and mobile thanks to more competitive pricing and competition by mobile data providers the market is shifting and the introduction of apps has made South Africans more familiar and comfortable with ecommerce.
Why iMaverick is changing frequency
iMaverick, the ambitious daily tablet newspaper from the publishers of the popular website The Daily Maverick, is scaling back its frequency from daily to weekly. The news was announced to subscribers in an email earlier today.
City Press takes i magazine national
The glossy Sunday read launched by City Press in October 2011, i, will be distributed nationally from this Sunday (June 3). The magazine was previously only distributed in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal – two key growth markets for the paper.
Powerful 9/11 magazine covers and newspaper front pages
Powerful 9/11 magazine covers and newspaper front pages
From print to mobile, this conversation screams Laduuuuuuma!
Soccer Laduma is the biggest-selling sports publication in the country, as well as the biggest-selling male interest publication. It’s also the second biggest-selling weekly paper and the third biggest-selling newspaper in South Africa (after the Daily Sun and the Sunday Times). Not too shabby for a publication as niche in its content as Soccer Laduma.
Publishing’s maverick strikes again
Branko Brkic is South Africa’s best-known maverick publisher. He puts out the content every editor (and reader but not necessary advertiser) dreams of getting past the bean counters and corporate lawyers upstairs. He also loves throwing the publishing dice. It often brings him fame, less often fortune, but always sees him pushing the boundaries of modern publishing (and at least from a distance, sometimes, fiscal sense).
Is Branko bonkers or brilliant? By Andrew Trench
I was fascinated to read earlier this week about Daily Maverick’s irrepressable entrepeneur Branko Brkic’s plan to launch SA’s first iPad daily “newspaper” under the Maverick brand. It’s a concept that I’ve been keen on ever since laying my hands on an iPad and I too have spent many hours doing sums on the back of knapkins wondering if they can be made to work.