/ 13 May 2016

M&G surges amid print decline

Jewish studies teacher Adina Roth believes that modern values such as feminism may save religion from the very worst parts of itself.
Jewish studies teacher Adina Roth believes that modern values such as feminism may save religion from the very worst parts of itself.

The latest count of media reach, the Audit Bureau of Circulations Analysis Q1 2016, covers the first quarter of this year measured against the same period last year. It shows a decline of just over 1.3-million copies for the daily papers and a smaller decline, mostly in the thousands, for the weekend and weekly papers – though a loss of tens of thousands for the Sundays is painful.

The Mail & Guardian is one of only two papers showing some growth and, in our case, it’s a fair jump upwards: we are selling about 34 400 copies a week, having sold an average of 30 000 copies a week in the same quarter a year ago. (The other paper to show growth is the Cape Argus, whose year-on-year comparison shows an uptick of little more than 100 copies.)

It is no secret that this newspaper and its associated media platforms has been through a tough time recently – all the media, as the newspaper figures from the ABC show, are having a very tough time. The M&G has survived and is restructuring to assure that survival.

More and more readers are accessing our internet and other electronic forms – a good sign that we can monetize digital production sufficiently to keep expanding.

We believe we have made these gains by providing readers with excellent content, in-depth stories of what is going on in South Africa, the region and the world. We will build on those gains.