The successful launch of the Sunday Sun, the phenomenal circulation surge of the Sowetan Sunday World, and the continued dominance of the Sunday Times comes on the back of declining sales of the traditional daily papers. It heralds a new battle between the major media players in the country: Naspers, Johnnic Communications, New Africa Investments Limited (NAIL) and Independent Newspaper Holdings Ltd. A battle to hold old readers and win the new.
The weekend newspaper market boasts more than 30 papers, of which 11 are specifically Sunday papers, as opposed to the 19 dailies. Overall, daily and weekly newspaper circulation has gone from an all-time low of 1,15 million in 1992 to a healthy 3,6 million today.
In November 2000, Naspers formed Media24, merging the media giant’s interests in newspapers, magazines, printing works, distribution and related Internet businesses. Last year, Media24 Newspapers, who also publish City Press and Rapport, launched the Sunday Sun. Its first Audited Bureau of Circulation (ABC) figures for the period January to June 2002 show that it’s selling more than 121 000 copies per week. In the same period, City Press came in at 190 000 dropping from 219 000 for the same period last year.
NAIL, through New Africa Publications Ltd and Thengisa Media, publishes the Sowetan and co-owns, with Johnnic, the Sowetan Sunday World. Chief executive officer Saki Macozoma (who replaced Dikgang Moseneke in July 2001 after a major shake out) recently came under fire for losing sight of the black empowerment ideals of NAIL, because some of its major shareholders which include Investec, Allan Gray and Hollard are predominantly white. In the ongoing debate about media and nation building, this could count against him.
Chairman of Johnnic Holdings, Cyril Ramaphosa, has overseen the company’s rapid expansion into the media world from the days when the National Empowerment Consortium (NEC) began acquiring Johnnic from Anglo American in 1996. In April 2001 (just five months after the Naspers restructuring) Johnnic Communications formed Johnnic Publishing to handle its newspaper and magazine interests Sunday Times, Business Day, Financial Mail and book and map entity, New Holland Struik. (Business Day and Financial Mail are part of BDFM, which is 50% owned by UK media company, Pearson.) The former media advisor to the Office of the President, Connie Molusi, was appointed as chief executive officer.
Sir Anthony O’Reilly’s Independent Newspaper Holdings remains a player with the Sunday Tribune, the Sunday Argus and the Sunday Independent, though circulation on all three remains static.
It’s a competitive market and, as a rule of thumb, the ‘Sundays’ invariably pick up sales when the dailies drop. This may be because people are cutting back on the expense of a daily, or due to the cash that the Lotto and casinos are sucking up. However, editor of Sowetan Sunday World, Thabo Leshilo, says: “The dailies always like to blame the Lotto and such like, but maybe they should look at what they’re giving the people.”
Sunday World, which launched as a broadsheet in 1999, was quickly repositioned as the Sowetan Sunday World and moved to a tabloid format. Within a year it had recorded a 138 percent increase in circulation, jumping from 27 456 copies a week in 1999 to 65 391 in 2000 and 131 000 in 2002. Leshilo is quick to point out that he can’t take the praise for the Sowetan Sunday World’s tremendous growth as he only took over from former editor Charles Mohale in August this year. (Mohale has moved on to Drum).
But Leshilo is certain that he can continue to grow the circulation and make it the number two Sunday paper because the market is there, it’s just “not being catered for”.
“People want to read newspapers, but what was on offer was dull and boring,” he says. “The paper [Sowetan Sunday World] gives its readers what they want and we don’t dictate. We’re big on celebrities and personalities. It’s informative and entertaining and its vibey, gutsy and very cheeky.”
What we are looking at is possibly the country’s first successful attempt at tabloid journalism. The immediate success of the Sunday Sun seems to support this. Head of Media24 Newspapers, Jan Malherbe, told reporters before the Sunday Sun was launched that there was a market for another Sunday tabloid. “It’s a big country [and] newspaper penetration is still relatively low.” It seems he was right.
While some dismiss the Sun outright as ‘trash’ the paper boasts of “bold and fearless journalists dedicated to giving readers personality-based journalism of the highest order” there’s no escaping the fact it sold more than 100 000 copies within five months of launching.
The more upmarket City Press currently at number three behind Rapport and the Sunday Times may be losing its readers to the celebrity-driven tabloids. Editor Vusi Mona acknowledges that, but says: “I look at it in a positive manner. We have a loyal readership middle to upper income and these papers [the World and the Sun] are at the lower end. We’ll leave it to them.”
Mona thinks the Sundays are increasing market share because the dailies are pre-occupied with just giving the facts, which limits their role. “People want more than that,” he says. “They want interpretation and [City Press] plays that role. There is a need today for quality journalism, we don’t need to dumb down.”
Someone whose newspaper has seen its market share decimated is Tim du Plessis, editor of Rapport, the only Afrikaans language Sunday in the country. “At one stage, in around 1975, for about six months, Rapport was selling more than 500 000 copies, outselling the Sunday Times,” says Du Plessis. “Our circulation is dropping, but we’ve seen our biggest loss over the last 10 years.”
Du Plessis is optimistic that the figures will stabilise. “Sixty percent of our readers only read Rapport,” he says. “Our constituency the community of mother tongue Afrikaans speakers is vast, and a substantial number of them are in the ‘big dorpies’. They go to church on Sunday, buy the paper and go home.”
This also provides a challenge in terms of content. “We have to be careful with politics, but we can’t be bland,” he says. “We do a lot of that ‘seks en skandaal’ as well, and despite the complaints, it does help sales.” Du Plessis even has a pecking order of what sells. First: skandaal about “our own people” (meaning Afrikaners). Next: international celebrities. Bottom of the pile: the antics of local cabinet ministers.
Editorially, his readership is ageing, and he needs to pull in the younger readers. He also feels that the Afrikaner is in a phase of vigorous introspection and that the paper addresses this directly through its columnists and its willingness to engage the young Afrikaans speaker.
“Arthur Miller said that a good newspaper is a nation talking to itself,” quotes Du Plessis, “and that is what we are doing. Many Afrikaners left, but they have returned because there is only one place you can be an Afrikaner, and that is South Africa.”
Du Plessis, who took over editorship 15 months ago, is watching the advertising spend closely. “It’s tough at the moment for all of us. There is a gradual gravitation of ad spend towards the black market, and initially that must come from somewhere us.”
Advertising spend on Rapport, however, seems to be holding its own, and for the period January-June 2002 came in at R72 million an increase of more than 30 percent over the same period last year. But this must be compared with the Sunday Times, which over the same period has jumped from R90 million to a whopping R126 million.
So the Sunday Times remains the Big Daddy of African newspapers. The recent appointment of seasoned journalist Mathatha Tsedu as editor means Johnnic Publishing intends to keep it that way. “Papers like the Sun and the World, which are at the bottom end of the market, are growing,” says Tsedu. “If you look at that as a threat, then you’d have to dumb down. We’re not going to do that.”
Tsedu says the strength of the Sunday Times over the dailies is that it is able to produce powerful stories that set the agenda for the week ahead.
“Our strength is our capacity to do thorough investigative reporting,” he says. He dispels any fears about newsroom shakedowns by pointing out that the existing set-up is such that skills can be shared and better managed to “utilise the experience base”. The tradition of quality investigative reporting will therefore remain.
Tsedu well understands the line between the Fourth Estate and government: under the apartheid regime he was banned from practising as a journalist from 1981 to 1986. Today, as chairman of the South African National Editors’ Forum, he continues to confront the present government over issues of press freedom.
A newspaper that champions quality journalism but is struggling to balance the ‘entertainment’ element is the Sunday Independent, published by Independent Newspapers. As deputy editor Andrew Walker puts it: “Upmarket people are not necessarily boring people and lightening up the paper doesn’t mean dumbing down.”
Given that the Sunday Independent only employs one reporter plus a culture and a book editor, and that the editor Jovial Rantao is part time (he still edits the Star), it’s difficult to see how the paper can survive. Walker points out that pooling the groups resources means it does have other reporters to draw on. However, the advertisers don’t seem convinced: ad revenue has dropped more than 50 percent since 1998 and circulation remains static.
The other Sunday in the Independent stable is the Sunday Tribune, published in Durban. The paper has maintained its circulation and, according to editor Peter Davis, has increased readership and advertising revenue.
“Make no mistake, it’s a tough market,” says Davis. “The market is changing and we’ve gone the route of producing localised wrap-arounds, whether its for Umlozi or Umhlanga. Local is good.”
The group also recently launched a Zulu-language daily, Isolezwe (Eye of the Nation), that’s already selling more than 27 000 copies per day. Will this pave the way for a Zulu-language Sunday? Davis is non-committal. “Keep in mind,” he says, “the population of KwaZulu-Natal is about 8-million, of which only 28 percent are functionally literate i.e. can read a newspaper.”
The immediate battle for circulation, advertising rands and readership will, it seems, be fought among the tabloids.
“We’re a long way away from true tabloid journalism,” says Sowetan Sunday World editor Leshilo. “People still see it as intrusive, and our celebrities are used to being in the spotlight only when it suits them.” He also recognises that the country has a shortage of celebrities, but that the paper must, in a sense, create them. The paper’s arts and entertainment magazine – Hola has been nominated for the 2002 Arts & Culture Trust Media In Support Of The Arts (Electronic & Print) Award.
“We used to focus very narrowly on what we thought was a celebrity,” he says. “So now we need to expand this, to include business people, politicians, radio jocks.” The paper’s ‘Up Close & Personal’ section does just that.
It also means taking more risks and asking the hard questions. “If we had to settle all the outstanding law suits right now, with no contest, we’d probably have to pay out about R9 million,” he says. “Then there’s the pressure from interested [and powerful] parties.”
At the recent World Summit on Sustainable Development, Leshilo ran a front page story on the Landless People’s Movement march on Sandton, and how they booed the ANC officials of the stage who turned up to address them. The headline read, in bold true-tabloid style: VOETSAK!
“I had a sleepless night over it,” says Leshilo. “But that edition sold out.” And it is those sales that ring the bells for the future.