SA online publishing records readership boom

The South African online publishing industry has grown its readership by about 25% to attract a monthly combined local and overseas readership of 4,38-million readers or unique browsers and 111,6-million page impressions, the Online Publishers Association (OPA) said this week.

The latest independently audited readership figures represent activity for April this year. The figures show an increase of about 900 000 readers on those released by the OPA in August last year.

According to the OPA’s statistics, the Mail & Guardian Online is South Africa’s third-biggest online news site and the country’s seventh-biggest online publisher.

It was also revealed that out of a sample group of 8 677 people, most users accessed the internet from work (55%), while about 33% of readers accessed the net from home. Johannesburg is the biggest internet city, followed by Cape Town, Pretoria and Durban.

According to the statistics, South Africa’s online publishers attract a highly educated and big-earning audience, with the largest group of internet users (about 25%) holding postgraduate degrees and about 19% of users holding bachelor’s degrees.

About 20% of users — by far the largest group in the household-income category — are in the top-earning bracket (total combined annual household income of R400 000 a year or more).

OPA chairperson Russell Hanly said the online publishing industry has good reason to be upbeat about these new readership figures.

“Last year saw online advertising emerging as one of South Africa’s fastest-growing mediums. It augurs well for the industry that this growth is clearly matched by extremely strong growth in the number of visitors to OPA member sites.

“The increased volume of page views reflects higher levels of activity and more frequent visits. No doubt the quality of OPA member sites has a lot to do with these audience statistics,” said Hanly.

The statistics also reveal that 57,3% of web users are male and 42,6% are female, most of them aged between 18 and 34.

The OPA represents South Africa’s major online publishing businesses. Its aim is to promote the growth and profitability of the online publishing industry, by setting the highest standards and meeting the needs of marketing and advertising professionals.

Online readership in South Africa

Source: Nielsen//Netratings

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