Jacquie Golding-Duffy
THE Daily Dispatch’s circulation has grown in leaps and bounds, thrusting this small East London-based player into the ring with some of the big boys of print media.
Gavin Stewart (54), who took over the newspaper’s helm three years ago, has stealthily changed its format and content into an explosive formula which has put the newspaper’s circulation in the same league as financial daily Business Day and mainstream broadsheet the Sunday Independent. In three years it has boosted its sales by 4 000 copies a day.
Unlike the overnight change which took place at the Cape Argus, the Daily Dispatch’s revamp was a gradual process resulting in record sales for every month of 1996 and new records for January and February this year, when it reached an average of 40 200 sales a day.
In the past year alone, the Daily Dispatch had a circulation increase of 7,3%: from 37 458 between July and December 1995 to 38 546 in the same period of 1996.
The Cape Argus, however, has lost more than a quarter of its readers since June 1993 – its daily circulation dropped from a 110 777 in 1993 to 82 142 in 1996.
There was mixed reaction to the new-look Cape Argus with some critics arguing that the changes were superficial, while others welcomed the look as a breath of fresh air.
Stewart argues that change in a newspaper’s format is telling “intelligent readers that they have been reading rubbish.
“It is important not to shock the reader.Your first duty is to do no harm; you have to make sure you do not lose any of your loyal readers,” he says.
Formerly an independent publication owned by Dispatch Media, the Daily Dispatch – which will celebrate its 125th anniversary this year – was bought by Times Media Limited (TML) in December 1995 and has proved to be a profitable asset.
Despite its burgeoning sales, the Daily Dispatch has made the unusual choice not to sell copies in the Port Elizabeth region, the domain of its rival, the Eastern Province Herald, also part of the TML stable. It is “not cost effective”, says Stewart. “We do not cater for the locals and we could never beat them on retail and employment advertising.”
Half of the Dispatch’s sales are in areas outside its urban centre, East London, such as Grahamstown, Kokstad, Umzimkulu and inland to Aliwal North and the Lesotho border.
Formerly the head of Rhodes University’s journalism department, Stewart says news has become more provincial. “Provincial and local government are the pipelines of delivery and people want to know what they are doing.”
Concentrating on provincial news has paid off for the Daily Dispatch, but some other provincial publications such as the Natal Mercury (-32,6%) and Natal Witness (-31,7%) have suffered heavy losses over the past three years.
Daily Dispatch news editor Lew Elias is more critical of the print media. He challenges the apathy of national mainstream newspapers who fail to pick up on important provincial stories because “they are too absorbed in national stories, failing to realise the impact that regional stories can have on readers.
“Radio and the wire services regularly run our local news but somehow the print media do not see it as hard enough news,” he says.
With a readership of 60% black (mostly Xhosa-speakers) and 40% white, the Daily Dispatch has done remarkably well in capturing the imagination of its readership.
It also has a newsroom which is predominantly black: “These reporters are not affirmative action recruits but are the right people to get the job done,” says Elias, adding that the improved circulation is “either due to us doing something right in the newsroom or the Education Department making huge strides in its adult literacy programmes.”