Does the success of Zulu-language newspaper Isolezwe and the launch of the bilingual Gagasi FM signal the emergence of a new kind of thinking in KwaZulu-Natal? Are media providers starting to seriously address an audience that is black, middle class and looking for a medium that speaks its own language?
Arthur Konigkramer , managing director of Ilanga – the oldest Zulu-language newspaper in the country, says the media in KwaZulu-Natal are waking up to a reality that they’ve always known.
“Ilanga has been around for over a hundred years. As the standard bearer for Zulu-language newspapers in the country, we’ve always known that an overwhelming majority of readers in KwaZulu-Natal prefer isiZulu.”
When Kagiso Media took over the English-speaking P4 Radio and renamed it Gagasi, they also decided to add Zulu to the mix. “The bottom line is we are a black radio station and the majority of black people in KwaZulu-Natal are Zulus, who are proud of their language and enjoy hearing it on radio,” Gagasi station manager Pearl Sokhulu says.
The station is targeted at black, urban listeners aged between 20 and 34 in the LSM bracket of 5 and upwards. While P4 had a listenership of about 600,000 targeting strictly jazz lovers at the time of its demise, Sokhulu says they are aiming for a million listeners by the end of 2006.
The station has the fourth highest listenership in the region, at 9.7% (RAMS 2005). Leading the pack is Zulu language radio station Ukhozi with 66.4% of the listenership in KwaZulu-Natal. It is followed by the multiracial East Coast Radio (also owned by Kagiso Media) at 29.3%, then Metro FM.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) is also planning to introduce vernacular licences in the region.
This year Icasa held public hearings in Eshowe and Richards Bay on the North Coast and in KwaMashu near Durban and last December in Inanda.
The new radio stations are expected to fuel competition in the region as they will also target the highly contested black audience. Radio giant Ukhozi fm is likely to the most seriously affected by new entrants. Ukhozi has remained at the helm for nearly six years because of its close relationship with its listeners – an element community radio stations also offer.
Ukhozi station manager Welcome Nzimande says he is aware of this. “But we are not afraid. In 1994 when Metro fm beat us with 5.5-million listeners and we had 5.4-million, people said it was the end of Ukhozi. Then in June 2000, we made history with 6.7-million listeners and no other station has been able to do that.”
Nzimande says, however, that does not mean they will remain complacent. “It’s still early for us to say how Gagasi, for example, or the proposed new community radio stations will affect us. But we are not just relaxing. We are working hard.”
Nzimande attributes the dip in Ukhozi’s youth listenership to the station’s tendency to speak pure Zulu. “The thing with the youth is that they have their street lingo which they like being spoken to in. I’ve been criticised for letting some of our DJs slip it in from time to time but the bottom line is, we can’t be purist at the expense of our listeners.”
It’s not only radio stations racing to grab as big a slice as possible of the province’s emerging, wealthy black market. The Zulu reading market has grown too. According to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulation figures, Ilanga is still the biggest selling Zulu newspaper having sold an average of 110,845 copies of each issue between July and December 2005, but newcomer Isolezwe is making waves.
Research released by Independent Newspapers in KwaZulu-Natal, shows Zulu-language daily Isolezwe has a readership of over million people in the province alone.
The paper has shown a steady year on year growth with the most readers in KwaZulu-Natal – 126,000 – in the LSM 6 bracket. Between July and December 2005, the newspaper’s circulation was an average 83,874.
The weekly UmAfrika sells over 20,000 copies.
John Conyngham, editor of the Pietermartizburg-based newspaper The Witness, says the paper’s content has evolved to reflect the social realities of the emerging black middle-class. “To some extent, the people in power are the ones who make the news, and this is mirrored in the news pages and opinion pieces,” says Conyngham.
Black readers now make up 23% of The Witness‘s readership. The majority of its readers, however, are still white (40%), followed by Indians (30%).
The signs of healthy economic activity are everywhere – the extension of the Durban International Airport, the Liberty Midlands Mall in Pietermartizburg and the planned mega-city shopping centre in Umlazi township.
And another race is on. It’s the race for a share of the advertising cake that comes with this growth.
“Our publications, and The Witness in particular, have enjoyed significant growth in advertising as a result of developments in the region and as a result particularly of Pietermaritzburg regaining its capital status,” says Dave Erasmus, general manager of The Witness.
“The relocation of government departments to the city has exerted upward pressure on residential property prices and resulted in a housing backlog. At the same time, we’ve seen a host of big-name chains opening in the city for the first time, and the general business confidence that has come with these developments is palpable in the city.
“Much of the new consumer spending power sits with what researchers are now terming the ‘Black Diamonds’ – the burgeoning new middle class that is coming through, and this is where we believe future circulation growth lies,” he says. “They’re literate, upwardly mobile, and have a keen interest in what is going on around them.”
East Coast Radio’s (ECR) managing director Trish Taylor says they have seen 25% year on year growth in advertising. “East Coast Radio is certainly benefiting greatly from the economic optimism in the market, but you can only ride this wave if you have a powerful medium that delivers results to advertisers. The boom countrywide is also attracting more domestic tourism to KwaZulu-Natal, which enjoys the biggest influx of local holiday-makers country wide. As a station, we want to capitalise on this tourism boom by developing innovative, multi-media platforms for marketers to reach this cash-flush holiday market,” she says.
ECR has about 2.13-million listeners of which 1.2-million are black – a figure, Taylor says, they aim to increase.
In a recent survey conducted by the station, Taylor says the results showed that 83% of the listeners viewed East Coast Radio to be “for people of all racial backgrounds”. The station’s core market is urban listeners, aged 25 to 49, from all races in the LSM 6 – 10 bracket.
Asked whether there was any space in the KwaZulu-Natal media market for new entrants, Gagazi’s Sokhulu says there is.
“There’s always space for ingenuity. As long as you are doing something different or better, you can create a market.”