The back-up newsroom of South Africa is at a crossroad. Problem is, many media players only vaguely understand the role of the South African Press Association (Sapa), the main news agenda setter of the country. Even worse, they do not have the slightest idea that the low-profile, high-performance organisation is labouring against heavy odds.
An independent and non-governmental news agency, Sapa is controlled by an exclusive and closed association of competing newspaper publishers in South Africa. Sapa is a hard news wholesaler that provides international and local news to most newsrooms in the country, including radio stations, television, newspapers and websites. It produces some 750 news items in about 300,000 words every day.
It is essential to radio and online sites which mainly rely on Sapa and international news agencies such as Reuters, Associated Press (AP) and Agence France-Presse (AFP), to provide breaking news on a 24-hour basis, at a fraction of what it would cost them to generate the same news themselves.
Sapa’s general manager, William Davis, is concerned about its operational future. He says it has been running on the same budget since 2000, when it made a hard won turn-around after a business deal with Network Radio Service (NRS) went sour, causing major losses to Sapa.
“Since our financial recovery we have been battling to move forward,” concedes Davis, pointing out that Sapa’s staff complement has decreased from 82 in 2000 to 50 in 2006.
Yet, it still provides the same service.
Who controls Sapa?
Its board members, who represent the main newspaper publishing houses in South Africa.
Sapa is a Section 21 non-profit company that has members rather than owners, being Independent Newspapers, Media24, Johnnic Communications and Caxton. And this structure, Davis believes, is a weakness.
“When the NRS venture, which sought to exploit emerging community radio’s news needs, went pear-shaped, that caused Sapa to become technically insolvent in 2000. It was then that the board took a hard view on Sapa’s costs.”
“Financially Sapa is now stronger, but operationally weaker. As a ‘not for gain’ company, controlled exclusively by competing newspaper owners, consensus and decision making is not easy. Personally I believe it’s an ineffective structure,” says Davis. “But ultimately, it’s this structure that will decide if Sapa has meaning or not.”
On top of budget restraints, the arrival of online technology has made content cheap and the ability to hold value in the news game is extremely difficult, adds Davis.
“Today content is a cheap commodity relative to its input costs, mainly salaries. This is Sapa’s greatest threat, not having enough skilled staff to keep up editorial standards.”
The acting chairman of the Sapa board, Nazeem Howa, says the time has come to decide on the news agency’s role in the changing media landscape of online and tabloids.
“From the board’s point of view, Sapa was in the red to the tune of nine million rand. We now have a positive bank balance which puts the board in the position to take stock of where Sapa is going,” says Howa, who is the executive director of operations, news and media at Independent Newspapers.
“I certainly hope that Sapa will become more relevant as we set the budget for 2007. We are not looking at closure or downscaling— We want to look at how we can make it a champion service. Sapa has a lot going for it,” he says.v
What does Sapa do exactly?
Sapa is the only newsroom in the country that is open 24 hours and 365 days in the year, enabling it to alert the rest of the country to breaking news in the dark hours of the night, such as business tycoon Brett Kebble’s assassination or beleaguered cricket captain Hansie Cronjé’s plane crash.
Its head office is in Johannesburg and it has smaller offices in Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Bloemfontein and parliament.
It immediately posts a breaking news story on its wires and constantly updates the story with more information as it develops. It also has an arrangement with international news agencies to make a phone call to their stand-by journalist if an important story breaks during the night, making it the only after-hours source for breaking news from South Africa to the rest of the world.
It sells its news to subscribers at a monthly fee, offering newsrooms access to all its stories all at the same time. In turn, each newsroom decides which stories to use and which stories are relevant to their audiences.
Many radio bulletin writers would slightly tweak the angle to make it relevant to its specific listeners, while newspapers mainly use Sapa’s international news on their world news pages, although the agency also alerts newspaper journalists to local breaking news stories which they would then follow up themselves.
Many a daily also carries local news stories generated by Sapa every day, which is much cheaper than to sustain a bulky newsroom with a large number of journalists.
Often, television news readers would read a Sapa story as an introduction to a visual news insert, while online sites mainly update their news with Sapa and foreign news agency copy. E.tv provides a news strip running at the bottom of the television screen during its bulletins and most of that copy is Sapa-generated.
“If you look from the inside at Sapa content, with all its flaws, you see how much it is reflected in news phrases and news selections,” says Sapa editor Mark van der Velden.
“It is being used a lot but it is unseen and unrecognised, even within the industry. But our role definitely is to be in the background as a wholesaler provider of news,” adds Van der Velden.
Sapa sells its news to subscribers as a package, offering different categories including news diaries, photos, domestic news (including court reporting), international news, parliamentary news, sports reports, sports results, horse racing results and finance news.
Sapa distributes a news diary three times per day containing a list of news events of the day, an important service for news editors across the country.
Sapa buys its international news from foreign press agencies such as the US-based AP, the French-based AFP and the German-based Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA). These are international agencies with offices all over the world, covering global news. Sapa then distributes the foreign stories that are relevant to a South African audience to its subscribers. This cuts costs for a newspaper which then does not need to spend additional money to subscribe to AFP or AP directly.
How much does the Sapa service cost?
The cost to subscribe to Sapa is calculated using a formula. The higher the frequency and circulation of a publication, or the listenership of a radio station, the more costly the service.
Davis says an average daily newspaper, with a circulation of around 30,000, will pay about R25,000 per month for the whole Sapa package, which includes diaries, photos, domestic news, international news, sports reports and results, finance, parliamentary news and horse racing results.
“If you ask me, that is value for money,” says Davis. “There is absolutely no way that anybody can get the equivalent of that service for less.”
Newspaper publishers pay the same rates and do not get discount because they are members.
Sapa’s history
Sapa was established out of Reuters South Africa in 1938. It became an association between the English and Afrikaans newspaper publishers of the day. Its role was to be a “co-operative news gathering and distribution agency”.
Sapa’s future
“Personally, I feel Sapa has potential to be a world class news agency, all that is needed is the will. I could see Sapa becoming a bigger player in Africa, firstly by growing into a SADC (Southern African Development Community) news agency,” says Davis.
“(But) for Sapa to survive, something fundamental needs to change. At this stage there is no compelling reason to change the status quo, maybe fresh input is needed.”
Johnnic Online editor Juliette Saunders believes it is of the utmost importance to maintain an independent local news agency.
“If you look at the media internationally, it really is an important cornerstone, a pillar of society, to have an independent news agency. It should be a very strong priority and we should push to keep it strong. There is an obligation to support an independent news agency,” she says.
Howa says the Sapa board will meet in February to review the business plan and budget for 2007.
“In our forward planning at Sapa we will have to consider the weighty role it plays as one of the supporting pillars of our democractic society against the requirements of its members and its customers. As media owners, we would be foolish to allow Sapa to go to the dogs. That would simply be wrong, for Sapa, the media industry and our country,” says Howa.
“Our new budget will kick off in the first quarter of next year. The management team is meeting with members and users at the moment to understand their needs so that we can review our current offering against those needs.”
“Once that is done, the management team will develop an overall strategy for Sapa. The resource requirements will have to be considered by the board against this strategy and once the issues have been quantified the board will have to take a view of the costs versus the overall benefit to the industry,” says Howa.
The entire media industry should be keeping its fingers crossed that this translates into more resources to allow Sapa to grow rather than shrink. The Media will keep its readers updated on the story.
What is the difference between Sapa and foreign news agencies?
Sapa is based only in South Africa and provides local news stories, ranging from a short and snappy crime stories to comprehensive coverage of events such as Brett Kebble’s killing or Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s annual budget speech.
The international news agencies such as Reuters, AP and AFP have offices across the world and cover major events in those countries.
The US-based AP has a similar structure to Sapa and is owned by ten thousand newspaper publishers in the United States, and still has the arrangement in place to share copy.
Reuters is a private company while AFP is partly owned by the French government.
The German-based Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) is a limited company with some 190 shareholders ranging from newspaper and magazine publishers, publishing houses and public and private broadcasters. No shareholder may hold more than 1.5 per cent of its capital and the broadcasting corporations are limited to a maximum of 25 percent between them. According to its website, this prevents any one shareholder from exerting an undue influence on the company.
How do subscribers view Sapa?
“It is a valuable service – I use their diary service constantly as well as their news service. Most of the senior news managers at the paper check Sapa constantly to see if there are breaking stories or stories worth following. Their diary service is especially necessary as it helps with the planning of The Star’s daily diary.” – Yvonne Grimbeek, news editor, The Star
“If you look at the media internationally, it really is an important cornerstone, a pillar of society, to have an independent news agency. It should be a very strong priority and we should push to keep it strong. There is an obligation to support an independent news agency.” – Juliette Saunders, editor, Johnnic Online
“We find Sapa very useful. Perhaps they’re a little under appreciated, but we’d all miss them if they were gone.” – Patrick Conroy, news editor, e.tv
“From my personal experience, it is a very valuable service. In general we have no complaints and we rely on it every day, but every now and then you need to double-check their facts. And also, a very valuable service Sapa has is the daily dairies, which helps us to collaberate and substantiate our own daily diaries.” – Nico Fouché, deputy news editor, The Citizen
“We do find Sapa a valuable service and that’s why we are willing to subscribe to them. I do however believe it is more valuable for our Talk Stations (Talk Radio 702 and Cape Talk) as opposed to our music stations (94.7 Highveld Stereo and Kfm). The challenge for Sapa now is to continue providing us with relevant information that affects or is of interest to our listeners.” – Katy Katopodis, Johannesburg Editor, Talk Radio 702 and 94.7 Highveld Stereo
“The reason for the dependence on news agencies like Sapa and Reuters is that they do a really, really good job. It’s because Sapa’s offering is so good that it is actually easy to rely on them. I think they are the unsung heroes of the publishing industry.” – Matthew Buckland, publisher, Mail & Guardian online.
“Sapa also has a huge training benefit to the industry. I recommend a lot of people to go and work there for experience.” – Juliette Saunders, editor, Johnnic Online