The most exciting thing to have happened in the weekend newspapers sector is, arguably, the launch of The Weekender. After all, it is the second title after Die Wêreld (which failed dismally) to enter the market since 2002.
However, it is barely fair to mention the two newspapers in the same sentence. The Weekender‘s position in the market is light years away from Die Wêreld which was aimed at the conservative, maybe even rightwing, Afrikaner. Also, The Weekender is produced by an experienced team of journalists and editors with solid reputations in the industry, a far cry from Die Wêreld‘s inexperienced editorial team.
Nine-month-old The Weekender, aimed at high income business people, has secured a three-year investment on a projected circulation of 25,000 and currently has a circulation of 5,076 (ABC April – July 2006).
“That was our first ABC. In the next one, you’ll see that our circulation is certainly higher,” says Karen Bonsall, general manager of The Weekender and BDFM Sales.
“This shows that we are penetrating the weekend market and generally stimulating interest as a new player in the field.”
The weekend market is relatively stable in terms of readership, and the newcomer has caught on to the latest trend of launching supplements to attract more readers and advertisers. In July, The Weekender introduced Travel & Food Journal.
Four other weeklies have launched new supplements in the past year.
While supplements are nothing new and have been a popular strategy over the past few years for newspapers, Robert Brand, Pearson chair of financial journalism at Rhodes University’s School of Journalism and Media Studies, says many supplements are purely advertising driven.
“Some supplements, such as The New York Times in the Sunday Times, are added purely as a value-added content service for readers. While others, such as (Die Burger‘s) Naweek Joernaal, are meant both as added value for readers and a vehicle to attract advertising,” says Brand.
“Many supplements are conceived purely as vehicles designed to attract additional advertising, similar to so-called ‘advertorials’ or ‘surveys’ carried by many newspapers.”
Leading the pack is the Sunday Times with four new supplements this year – It’s My Business, Travel & Food, The New York Times and Bounce, a magazine for teenagers.
“Research conducted in Canada shows that if you do not target young people between the ages of 14 and 24 and get them to read newspapers, they are less likely to get into the habit afterwards,” says Patti McDonald, marketing manager at Johncom Media’s Learning Channel, on the strategy which led to the launch of Bounce.
She says the paper has never before catered for the teenage market, although The Sunday Times has ReadRight for younger children.
“All of this forms part of making Sunday Times a family newspaper,” says McDonald.
Johncom owns 71 percent of the Learning Channel which distributes about 1.8-million education supplements nationally on a weekly basis in school terms.
Peter Delmar, editor of It’s My Business, says the extra was born out of a need to cater for small and medium enterprises in South Africa.
Sponsored by BidVest, the supplement was launched in July this year.
“We are getting brilliant support from advertisers, which is very gratifying. But I think it has a lot to do with the changing mindset of the country where people are beginning to realise that the culture of entrepreneurship is now growing in South Africa,” says Delmar.
It’s My Business forms part of the Sunday Time’s business section which has an estimated annual ad revenue of R65-million (Nielsen Media Research August ’05 – July ’06). The New York Times supplement attracted about R2.8-million in adspend and the Travel & Food some R27-million.
The introduction of the supplements is also seen as an attempt by newspapers to reach readers across a broad range of preferences.
Circulation figures show the Sunday Sun, Sunday World, City Press, and the Mail and Guardian had the biggest gains this year, with the Independent on Saturday, the Saturday Star, Sunday Tribune, the Weekend Argus and the Weekend Witness remaining stable.
The property guide continues to be one of the Saturday Star‘s major attributes. It has undoubtedly contributed significantly to the publication’s stable circulation of about 141,000.
The Sunday Times‘ circulation dropped by about 15,000 from 519,444 to 504,301 (ABC April – June 2006).
The paper has also been overtaken by the Daily Sun as the most read newspaper in the country, according to the All Media and Products Survey (AMPS) 2006 Rolling Average data.
The daily tabloid has a readership of 3.679-million, nearly 400,000 more than the Sunday Times‘ 3.292-million.
AMPS also shows that the Daily Sun’s readership has increased by more than two percent in the past year, making inroads into the LSM 5 and 6 groups.
Rapport and weekly Son suffered some losses with circulation decreasing to 25,969 and 184,179 from 28,056 and 204,384 (ABC April – June 2006) respectively.
The Port Elizabeth-based Weekend Post newspaper has also brought out a supplement, Weekend Life. The newspaper’s circulation has dropped from 34,122 to 29,519 (ABC April – June 2006).
Managing editor Charmain Naidoo says Weekend Life forms part of the strategy to attract more readers while also boosting advertising revenue which is estimated at around R10-million (Nielsen Media Research April ’05 – March ’06).
She says the introduction of the supplement is in line with the market’s changing reading patterns.
“Readers have become very discerning as to what it is that they want,” Naidoo points out. “As newspapers we have to redefine our function. Newspapers have become more than just information providers. We now have to enhance it so that it is different from what is available out there such as information from the internet.”
Gavin Rheeder, marketing and communications manager at Beeld, says they have identified the younger market as a potential growth area for Naweek Beeld.
“Naweek Beeld‘s growth has deliberately been in the younger segment – a 58.6 percent increase in the 25-39 year old market. This is where we see more gaps,” says Rheeder.
“This is the market that is more inclined to read a weekly than a daily. We are getting content that is more geared at this market such as entertainment, travel and lifestyle.”
Rheeder says plans are underway to bring about more “radical” changes to the content of Naweek Beeld, which recently reported a 23 percent rise in readership.
“We did intensive research into this market to find out what their interests are and what makes them tick, and came up with a game plan which we are slowly implementing,” he says, adding that this includes the introduction of new supplements.
“Supplements make money and it is important for them to do so because then you can afford the content that goes with them. Everybody, at the end of the day, would like to see an increase in advertising revenue and circulation. And yes, having a supplement does make a big difference to your bottom line.
“This, however, should be done without compromising the quality of the newspaper. And also, it does not mean the more supplements there are, the more money you can make,” adds Rheeder.
The Mail and Guardian, the Independent on Saturday and Sunday World have abandoned some of their supplements – the M&G Leisure, Sports and Racing, and Hola.
Prior to its closure, M&G Leisure made about R3.4-million between August 2004 and July 2005 while Sunday World‘s supplements attracted about R12.5-million in the same period.
“Hola never attracted enough advertising to sustain itself, hence it was reduced to eight pages, and finally incorporated into the main body,” explains Sunday World editor Abdul Milazi.
“We now have World on Wheels which was introduced to attract advertising from the automobile industry, which we were not getting due to the fact that we didn’t have an environment that attracted car adverts.
“But advertising in World of Wheels is improving weekly. We are currently putting together a special projects team that will look at new supplements and surveys.”
The newspaper now also has Get It, a four-page lifestyle supplement.
The newspaper’s overall adspend from supplements stands at an estimated R16.6-million (Nielsen Media Research August ’05 – July ’06).
The Independent on Saturday and the weekend Die Burger have introduced the Independent Punter and Naweek Joernaal in the Eastern Cape.
Supplements may attract more readers to the weeklies, but is there a danger they may draw readers away from the main body? Rheeder and Naidoo say it is unlikely.
“Supplements will always be just that, supplements,” Rheeder emphasises.
Not only do supplements not impact on the main body, they are unlikely to affect readership.
Naidoo says: “In 1960, the London Sunday Times had 74 pages and two sections. In 2006, it had 470 pages and 12 sections. But that has done nothing for its readership. It has only increased slightly from 1.27-million to 1.3-million.”
Clearly supplements are raking in the money but appear to have little impact on readership. It makes one wonder if it is not just another form of information overload for readers.