A huge, detailed map of Africa hangs prominently on Douw Steyn’s 21st floor office wall. Adjacent to the map is a small writing board, with detailed entries of country projects –pending editorial appointments in Kenya, deadlines for magazine content from Nigeria, tentative dates for a country study of Angola.
A thought comes to mind: if there’s a difference between these Naspers guys and Cecil John Rhodes, it’s perhaps just the timing of their grand African projects.
In the aftermath of apartheid’s demise, the integration of South Africa into the rest of the continent became inevitable. The decision by groups like Naspers/Media24 and Johncom to expand into the continent simply brings a media dimension to a northward trek that has in the past decade been a key strategy of big players in finance, mining and services.
But media is not just another business. The African press in particular has proven to be both a potential goldmine and a dangerous political and economic quagmire. You probably need a punter’s instinct to launch an investment offensive into this market.
So first to define our terms: what exactly constitutes the “African press”? Evidently, it is many things. From the thin, highly polemical cyclostyled news sheets that were part of anti-colonial struggles in West Africa in the ’50s, to the well edited quality broadsheets that circulate in most African metropoles today.
From the missionary-oriented and sedate church magazines to the market-driven glossy mags targeting raunchy youths and circulating beyond one national border.
Almost half a century since the decolonisation process began, the press in sub-Saharan Africa has expanded, albeit by fits and starts.
Increased literacy levels and broadened economic participation of previously sidelined black populations have in principle assured the press of a wider audience and market, while declining living standards and some failing African economies have had the effect of creating difficult operating conditions.
A whirlwind “tour” of the press in some parts of the continent could perhaps give a more-or-less global picture.
Nigeria, the West African giant, seems a good place to start. With a population of 137-million the country is Africa’s most dense. It is also one of the continent’s economic powerhouses. The press here has a long history, predated only by South Africa, Egypt and Sierra Leone.
Because colonial administrators in the country were generally content with controlling broadcasting services for propaganda purposes, Nigerian nationalist politicians operated several polemical, irregular publications that served as mobilising agents in the pre-independence era.
Some of the famed titles include the West African Pilot, the Eastern Mandate, and Northern Advocate. (Maybe the rest of the continent should take a crash course in newspaper branding from Nigeria?)
But then newspapers are not just political entities. The challenge for Nigeria’s press, four decades after independence, is just how to remain commercially afloat in a turbulent economy.
The temptation to go tabloid is almost irresistible, as some in South African media circles know only too well. The country’s top selling national daily is the Daily Sun, which prides itself as being “Nigeria’s king of tabloids”. With a circulation of just over 70 000, the paper, like all the country’s major papers, is in private hands.
Quality reads on the Nigerian market include ThisDay, Champion and Guardian, each with an average circulation of around 40 000.
Rose Moses, Saturday Champion‘s deputy editor, has this to say about the relatively low circulation figures for national papers: “It all has to do with the fact that the economy generally is not doing too well. Most people would rather buy food than newspapers, more so when the radio and TV, as well as the internet, are quite handy.”
According to Moses, the government’s attempts to operate viable publications have generally flopped “due to mismanagement”. The Daily Times, in which the Federal government held a majority stake, closed shop and was sold out in July this year.
It hopes to make a comeback as a private daily. The government’s other newspaper holding, the New Nigerian, is weak and pared. Reports are that it’s destined for private hands, along with most major state enterprises in the now fashionable “privatisation” frenzy.
In East Africa the picture is slightly different. With a combined population of 94-million and an average literacy rate of 77%, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have a well-established press both nationally and regionally. Unlike Nigeria and Southern Africa, where the major national newspapers are in English, East Africa boasts Swahili publications circulating at a national level.
In Kenya, the East Africa Standard and Daily Nation are the major dailies. The former is privately owned by the Standard Group, and the latter by the Aga Khan’s Nation Media Group (NMG). Kenya’s English dailies gobble up almost 80 percent of the local newspaper market, leaving a litany of small publications with little room for expansion.
The Kenyan government does not operate any major newspapers, but the Tanzanian government owns one of its country’s biggest titles, the Daily News. This is partly a residue of the postcolonial state’s socialist programme, which began to ease in the early 1990s.
Privately owned Tanzanian publications with a “national” character in circulation include Swahili titles Mtanzania, Nipashe, Mwananchi and the English-language The Guardian.
Besides local publications, Tanzania also receives the East African, a regional daily owned by the Aga Khan, which circulates in all three of the mentioned East African countries. And NMG’s octopus-like tentacles extend even further into Uganda, where it owns the daily Monitor, one of the country’s top two publications.
Uganda’s second major newspapers, New Vision, is fully owned by the government, and publishes in both English and local languages. Both papers have a low average circulation of about 30 000.
Outside South Africa, the press in Southern Africa generally covers small, mostly urban sections of the population. In Botswana, the top newspapers include the government owned Daily News (which is distributed for free) and privately owned Mmegi and Botswana Guardian.
Notwithstanding its place as one of the region’s most competitive economies, Botswana’s press system remains generally under-developed and urban-oriented.
Zambia deals with a similar challenge: that of low media density. The top dailies, Times of Zambia (government-owned) and privately owned Post and Daily Mail are urban-based publications with an average circulation of about 40 000.
In Zimbabwe, the government is the major player in the media “industry”, with a complete monopoly of the airwaves and a near monopoly of the press.
The state is the major shareholder in Zimbabwe Newspapers Ltd., which publishes the country’s top dailies Herald and Chronicle, as well as the weeklies Sunday Mail and Sunday News. The Herald has an average daily circulation of 100 000, while Sunday Mail goes up to 140 000.
Although state publications — which have become propaganda vehicles for President Mugabe’s beleagured regime — gobble up about 75 % of the newspaper market, there is still a vibrant, although thin, private press in the country.
Included in the latter camp are the weeklies Sunday Mirror, Zimbabwe Independent, Financial Gazette, and the Standard. As is the case elsewhere in the region, these papers have limited circulation.
Given this cursory look at the press in English-speaking Africa (and it largely applies to French-speaking regions as well) an interesting question is whether, in light of the limited reach, the African press qualifies as “mass” media.
Ten years ago respected Ghanaian media scholar Kwame Karikari wrote that the African press “remains an elite institution, even as it struggles to emerge from the shackles of state authoritarianism that preceded the 1990s.”
He added: “Both state owned and independent publications continue to represent different and sometimes contending sections of the political and economic elite.” Several other analysts have reached similar conclusions.
It’s limited pervasiveness as a medium notwithstanding — certainly it fares rather badly when compared to radio — the press in Africa remains a critical terrain for public participation and mobilisation. In most countries there are no laws regulating the press, making it a less cumbersome media business to operate. The African press’s perennial problem, however, is funding and financing.
Beginning in the 1990s private ownership started to expand, albeit from a weak commercial base. The global economic downturn, the harsh effects of the IMF and World Bank-inspired structural adjustment programmes on citizens’ incomes, as well as generally declining adspend, have all conspired to limit the capacity and potential of the medium.
And for investors, the absence of clear research statistics on circulation and growth potential isn’t good news either. In some countries, laws restricting foreign ownership are also a critical deterrent.
So do South Africa’s so-called “media imperialists” really have much to be bullish about? Well, the huge Africa map hanging in Steyn’s office has small stickers in blue, red and green. He tells me they delineate distribution routes for Media24’s products into the continent’s interior.
Eighteen months ago, the South African behemoth launched a Nigerian edition of Kick Off magazine. With a circulation of around 15 000, the reception has been very good. But the company has had to cough up big bucks for distribution. “Magazine distribution on the continent is haphazard,” says Steyn. “It’s street vendor-driven in most of the cases.”
And in Kenya, Media24 went into a joint venture with NMG to establish East African Magazines Ltd. This has enabled the launch of East African versions of True Love and Drum magazines. Similarly, Johncom has in the past few years expanded into Nigeria and East Africa, mainly in the niche publishing and cinema businesses.
In July, Johncom announced its intention to buy into Nigeria’s film and entertainment industry, with an initial investment portfolio of around US$2-million. The reception was mixed: from cautious welcome to outright cynicism.
On a discussion forum hosted by ThisDay Nigeria’s online version, one reader, identified only as Mcallstar, was particularly unimpressed. “There is nothing to be happy about here,” he said. “They are taking over and soon, to do anything, we will have to go to them. Believe me, you guys don’t want the [South Africans] and Americans buying up the emerging industry. They will own us!”
How prevalent the resentment towards South African media imperliasts is across the continent is anybody’s guess. But then investors have this paradoxical thing: they are both sensitive and insensitive to local feelings.
Robin Phillips of African Extension, a South African-based media agency focused on Africa, has advice for would-be investors up north: “For many South African media people who harbour the perception that anywhere in Africa is not as good as back home, some surprises are to be had, and some valuable insights gained on how to achieve a profitable publication using methods and procedures other than those thought to be the only way to do things.”
Steyn agrees, and adds: “We see our strategy for Africa as long term. We perhaps won’t make a profit for the next five years, but then we understand we’re in this thing for the long haul.”
Wallace Chuma is formerly editor of the Zimbabwe Mirror and Deputy Chairperson of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) (Zimbabwe). He is currently completing his PhD in Media Studies at UCT.