So what are we talking about here? Newspapers. A medium that in pre-television days in South Africa dominated the advertising industry, were all-powerful, and gave considered thought as to whether they really wanted to carry your ad the next day.
Picture this. Mid 1970’s, one would have to “book” the Sunday Times or Rapport centrespread for any major consumer product launch. Months and months in advance. And that was for any product – car, durable or non-durable, retail sale, corporate campaign. One begged and cajoled. Once secured they were gold – and clients would organise the entire launch around media space availability! (Still, these were the days when one listened to Next Stop Macauvlei on the “wireless” or “radiogram”, followed by Pick-a-Box!)
And the demand continued, even after the launch of television, where advertisers were guaranteed 12 spots a year. This despite often limited colour availability – many a campaign was perforce relegated to “black & white” – and questionable repro. No discs or ISDN, just huge blocks of wood and metal called “blocks” and “stereos”. The black papers suffered bannings (like The World and Post) and their successors received little support. The Rand Daily Mail, supported by northern suburbs Jo’burg on the one hand and greater Soweto on the other, perished, being neither fish nor fowl. And talking foul, the Citizen, then owned by Perskor, found the easiest way of growing circulation was to print up a storm, and then burn them!
Okay, let’s jump ahead some thirty years. Perhaps the most in your face fact is that in this span of time so little has really changed. There are a few new names, like Daily Sun, Kaapse Son, City Press, Business Day and Isolezwe, to mention a few, but then there are also lost and forgotten old ones – Oosterlig, Friend, Vaderland and Transvaler are all casualties. The Sundays generally sell no more than they used to, despite the population exploding over the last quarter of a century. And the dailies individually sell a whack less than they used to – in many cases a deliberate move to concentrate circulation and reduce distribution costs. Nonetheless, the advertiser has never been compensated for the reduced exposure.
But what has changed is the role of newspapers in the ad mix. Today we find that the press has to exist on a diet consisting almost solely of retail advertising. And without Shoprite/Checkers, Pick ‘n Pay, and Spar on the one hand, and the 3 cellular operators on the other, all but a couple of the major papers would never survive.
The one sector of the press that has held up amazingly well over the years is the rural and freesheet sector. Today they jointly attract around 22% of all press money, with over R100-million in loose inserts – factor in the printing costs that go hand in hand with the inserts, and one can see why it’s such a hugely competitive area.
An interesting way of looking at the adspend breakdown is if one examines the revenue generated and the number of issues needed to do so. You find:
Rural/Freesheets — printed once a week — Attract R782-m annually
Dailies Printed — 5 times a week — Attract R1,836-m annually (only 2,5 times above)
Weeklies — Printed once a week — Attract R961-m annually (with their single printing, half of what dailies generate)
So quo vadis newspapers? Ad share has constantly been eroded on a little-by-little basis, year on year. I don’t see much reason for this to change in the near future, though the successful launch of Daily Sun and Kaapse Son surely took the market by surprise. Good for them – brave, innovative publishing moves, and sure to reap ever-increasing financial rewards.
And where are newspapers on the spectrum of media, then? Well, not No. 1, ‘cos as Bill Bernbach said, “word of mouth is the best medium of all”.
Harry Herber is group managing director of The MediaShop