Independent publishers of community newspapers have a name for the onslaught by the big media players: The Borg race, named after the race to conquer aliens in the television series Star Trek.
“The threat has been named after the Borg race— their conquests are always prefaced by the ultimatum: ‘Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.’,” writes the Association of Independent Publishers (AIP) in a report on challenges facing grassroots publishers of community newspapers.
“Opponents who refuse assimiliation are annihiliated, regardless of the cost,” the AIP continues in the preliminary findings of its Census 2006 report that counted some 238 independent community newspapers countrywide – about half of the vernacular press in South Africa.
The “borg race” metaphor is not an exaggeration. The explosion of community newspapers and, more recently, community magazines, is staggering. Data from the Audit Burea of Circulations (ABC), in its quarterly figures from January to March this year, showed a more than 30 percent increase in the circulation of community newspapers, and the birth of 28 new titles in the past year.
And the ABC figures represent only 118 community newspapers – a fraction of the estimated 500 out there.
According to AC Nielsen, conglomerate community media earned more than R600-million from above-the-line advertising revenue in 2004 and that excludes inserts and other revenue streams.
“Community print is the only print advertising sector to show dramatic year-on-year growth over the past five years. In 2004, conglomerate community media posted a 51 percent increase,” notes the AIP report.
When Caxton became the first to enter the community press market in the late 1970s, few realised how profitable this would become. Caxton and its subsidiary companies currently own more than 155 community titles, including some 18 Get It community magazines (and more are being launched) and 11 Urban Newspapers, while Media 24 comes a slow second with some 40 community titles. Independent Newspapers and Johncom both own fewer than 20 titles each, according to the AIP census data.
“Media24 was slow out of the starting block and now they are shedding tears,” says professor Johannes Froneman, journalism lecturer at North West University and former adjudicator of the Cronwright and Hultzer competitions for community newspapers.
“If you combine the readership figures of all the community newspapers, I am sure it will be higher than that of daily newspapers,” he adds.
Caxton inherited many local newspapers from the old Perskor media group. The dominance of conglomerates on the community press front has always been geographically based – with Caxton enjoying control in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, Johncom being dominant in the Eastern Cape and Media24 and Independent Newspapers in the Western Cape.
But the old gentlemen’s agreements between the conglomerates and their community press territories seem to be breaking down. Caxton is breaking into the Western Cape market in September with its hugely successful Get It magazine while Media24 is launching a similar title in Gauteng.
“In general, the community newspapers do not compete with each other but there are a few hotspot areas. There are the odd areas where you try to fight for your slice,” says John Bowles, joint managing director of the Newspaper Advertising Bureau (NAB), a Caxton division for national sales and marketing.
Caxton has in the past year launched 10 new community newspapers in Soweto and should it plan to launch even more newspapers, it would again focus on areas with major new developments such as Soweto, he says.
“We don’t like our circulations to get higher than 40,000 because then it just gets too expensive for the local butchery to advertise – then we’d rather launch a new publication for the newly developed area, like we did with the Northside Chronicle on the West Rand in Gauteng.”
About 70 percent of advertising revenue in community publications come from local businesses and retailers, he adds.
Caxton has since last September launched no fewer than 18 community magazines with a total print run of 300,000. The Get It magazine differs in content and adverts from area to area, and has been launched in Pretoria, Johannesburg, KwaZulu-Natal, Nelspruit and now Cape Town.
“The community newspapers in Cape Town are quite strong. I don’t think there is space for doubling up but I do think there is room for Get It,” says Bowles, explaining that the magazines attract a different type of local advertising.
“We are targeting advertisers more interested in lifestyle content such as fashion, food and décor. These advertisers haven’t really liked the newspaper environment.”
Close on Caxton’s heels is Media24 with My Week which has been launched in the northern Johannesburg suburbs of Randburg and Northcliff, the media house’s first “free lifestyle magazine in a zoned area” – in other words, a community magazine – in the Caxton-dominated Gauteng. My Week is already available in Bloemfontein and the Cape.
Lucille van Niekerk, general manager for My Week North, of which 20,000 copies will be distributed every two weeks, says research showed a need for a publication designed “to keep communities informed of all interesting events in their neighbourhoods”.
Print Media South Africa (PMSA) says the secret of the community press’ success is exactly that.
“Community newspapers have a closer and more intimate relationship with their respective communities because they carry local news and specials within their own communities. The format, frequency and delivery method all add to it being a popular medium for today’s modern society,” says Cathy Pestana, manager of PMSA industry affairs.
Johncom seems to have come to the same conclusion. It is snapping up titles in the Eastern Cape and has recently acquired the Wild Coast Herald in Port St Johns, the Talk of the Town in Port Alfred and the Grahamstowm Shoppa. It is also launching agricultural titles for each province, taking on Independent Newspapers in some of its Cape strongholds. Johncon has also bought community magazines including the Garden Route Living and Sunshine Coast Living.
But according to the AIP, perhaps even more significant is Johncom’s strategy to launch provincial and regional editions of national titles like the Sowetan.
“The new strategy is more than just regional slip-pages. Sowetan is instead establishing fully-fledged regional bureaux and ad sales teams, beginning in Mpumalanga, and is aggressively raiding grassroots media for the most skilled journalists, editors and ad reps to do so. The expansion is decimating venerable grassroots and rural media,” says the AIP report.
Johncom seems to be planning to also launch a network of provincial Dispatch newspapers in a similar fashion to the Sowetan regional bureaux.
In KwaZulu-Natal, Caxton has bought the Rising Sun Group of six newspapers and the North Coast Courier in Ballito, not to even mention the smaller independents such as the Lydenburg News and the White River Post it is buying out in Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces. Back in KZN, Media 24 has in the meantime acquired the South Coast Fever and Herald Group of newspapers.
The aggressive movement in this market is costing the smaller independent newspapers, many of them family businesses, who are unable to cope with the onslaught, causing two community papers – the Gauteng-based Free People’s Press and Limpopo-based Zoutpansberger – to turn to the Competition Commission for help. But the cost burden on the complainants to take such action is huge.
“The stellar ad performance, coupled with the imperative to grow new markets and the rise of vernacular media have all sparked a feeding frenzy that includes hostile takeovers and buy-outs, new titles, realignments of ad procurement companies, the installation of new printing presses in rural hubs, aggressive headhunting of successful entrepreneurial publishers and skilled production staff,” states the AIP report.
Additionally, the creation of the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) has contributed to the establishment of a number of new and diverse titles in areas where communities never had an opportunity to access news.
MDDA CEO Lumko Mtimde says it has so far supported 21 community print projects countrywide – 13 of them included production costs, in six the MDDA assisted in developing business plans and in two of the projects the organization did feasibility studies.
“The Agency, before supporting a community newspaper project, does double-check that there is no duplication, that it is in the interest of media development and diversity, then based on the information we gather and the analysis thereof, we always try to support media project in areas where the community does not have access to any form of media,” Mtimde says.
He also points out that the agency asked the AIP to assist them in identifying grassroots media and that their exercise reflected 238 titles of which to date only 82 had been verified.
The AIP report nevertheless paints a sad picture for the smaller papers.
“Grassroots publishers are invariably caught in the cross-fire, or are being squeezed out of existence because they are unable to compete with the resulting heavily discounted ad rates, saturation distribution, and increasing use of entities such as NAB, Ads24, and INC (Independent Newspaper’s sales house) as expansionist weapons.
“Many of the larger grassroots publishers report being presented with ultimatums: sell or face direct and targeted competition from the conglomerates,” the report concludes.