Until fairly recently, black magazines were treated by publishers and advertisers as a Cinderella medium. There was little or no investment in the titles “as brands” or in the editorial.
Even the paper the magazines were printed on was inferior to that used for white magazines. An argument countering this was that black magazines ran at losses, hence justifying publishing inferior products.
In 1988, the circulation of black magazines stood at 767 998, but this dropped dramatically to 557 860 (total category) in 1993 (-29%). This may have led to a re- assessment in the market which allowed for improved investment in black products through the publishing of better quality magazines, thus engendering a culture of reading.
One of the investments which took place was the relaunch of Drum, based on the same editorial formula as its sister publications – Huisgenoot and You. Suffice to say it has been a success with Drum’s circulation increasing from a low of 80 210 in 1993 to +220 000 as a monthly. Now that it is a weekly, the circulation is averaging 140 000 per week (which, if we translate into a monthly figure, equals 560 000). All this, and despite Republican Press’s feeble attempt to counter Drum going weekly by launching Next, which is achieving weekly sales of +52 000.
Current projections are that Drum will overtake Huisgenoot as the biggest circulation magazine in the future. However, how many of You’s 508 000 black readers have shifted allegiance to Drum?
Another investment was the re-launch of True Love with Khanyi Dlomo-Mkhize at the helm. True Love has increased circulation from a low of 51 646 to more than 80 000 a month. The appointment of a high-profile editor has enabled True Love to transcend the polarisation of sophistication levels in the black market. True Love and Tribute have a good combination of both sophisticated and less sophisticated readers unlike most of the other black publications.
Ebony, with its strong American editorial, was launched in 1995 and has a circulation of 51 732 despite promising the industry circulation of 100 000. However, the American editorial slant has been dramatically toned down to accommodate a more South African flavour. It will be interesting to see if this editorial shift increases circulation.
With growth in magazines clearly coming from the black market, according to the latest All Media and Product Survey it should only be a matter of time before we see other publishers follow suit by investing in their titles.
The market penetration of “read any magazine” increased to 25,8% from 21,4%. The July to December 1995 total category circulation has increased to 730 270 (based on the assumption that Pace sold 100 000), showing that this category of magazines has growth potential if the product is right.
Lyndall Campher, Hunt Lascaris group media director, will give a fortnightly analysis of print media circulation, alternating with M&G media editor Jacquie Golding- Duffy’s look at television ratings