With newspaper sales dropping even further, publications will have to become more innovative, reports Jacquie Golding-Duffy
The downward trend in newspaper circulation has once again been reflected in the Audit Bureau Circulation (ABC) sales figures for the last six months of 1996.
The freefall seen during January to June 1996 among most mass targeted urban and weekly newspapers has been repeated in the sales figures for July to December 1996, with some print media groups faring only marginally better than others.
Only four newspapers have made a significant percentage increase in sales. Times Media Limited’s Evening Post in the Eastern Cape has seen a 6,5% gain in sales, with figures shifting from 16 978 for January to June 1996 to 18 074 for July to December 1996. The group’s financial daily, Business Day, also increased its circulation by 2,2%, moving from 38 146 for January to June 1996 to 38 989 for July to December 1996.
Nasionale Pers’s Die Burger increased by 5,2% in the last six months of 1996, shifting from 97 630 to 102 691. Sales of the Mail & Guardian also increased by 5,7% from 30 7445 for January to June 1996 to 32 510 in the following six months.
Some media analysts argue that niche publications — such as Business Day and the Mail & Guardian — have illustrated that fragmentation and specialist reporting are what readers really want.
Deutsche Morgan Grenfell media analyst Peter Armitage says the real loss suffered among newspapers saw The Star, as a daily, hardest hit. The Star’s sales are down by 8% in the July to December sales figures. “Overall the circulation trend has been downwards for quite a while, but there is always a base level of people that will always, no matter what, buy the newspaper. Most newspapers have reached this base level,” he said.
Armitage also argued that newspapers have become more innovative, adding more value with their specialist financial sections or supplements inserted into the main carrier newspapers. “There is more for the reader to indulge in,” he said. Price increases which dominated the last six months of ABC figures, he said, could also not be blamed for the fall in sales.
“All in all, there is definitely space in the market for a tabloid because we have nothing like that in the South African market,” said Armitage, hinting at the Independent group’s plans to launch a tabloid. But he was unsure of the impact of a national broadsheet entering the market as is being planned by a Malaysian newspaper group. “With respect to broadsheets, I think the market is already overtraded,” he said.
Sales of most of the newspapers in the Independent group have fallen except for marginal, some may say insignificant, increases in The Cape Times (it gained 0,9% for the last six months, shifting from 50 894 to 51 334) and The Sunday Independent, whose average circulation for July to December 1996 was a mere 0,6% up on the previous six months.
The group’s flagship, The Star, recorded a drop in sales figures from 169 994 to 156 358 (-8,0%) in six months and the recently relaunched The Cape Argus also dropped by 0,3%, shifting from 82 370 to 82 142.
Rapport, jointly owned by Naspers and Perskor, gained 0,5% (shifting from 390 052 to 392 085) for July to December 1996; while Times Media’s Sunday Times dropped 3,8% (shifting from 477 204 to 458 964).
Perskor’s The Citizen also dropped by 2,8%, moving from 138 071 for January to June 1996 to 134 261 for July to December 1996.
When compared to the circulation figures of three years ago, most local newspapers have seen a significant drop in sales. Sunday Times has lost almost 20% in sales over the past three years; while The Star is down by nearly 30%. The Citizen is down by 0,4% and so is Rapport, by nearly 2%.
Die Burger, compared to three years ago, gained nearly 22%, and Business Day also increased its sales by about 20%; while the Mail & Guardian increased its sales by close to 10%.
The Sowetan, when comparing its sales figures to three years ago, has lost about 10%; while New Nation’s sales dropped close to 70%.