South Africa: Newspapers booming

Posted by Rory Satran on September 28, 2006 at 2:27 PM

Newspapers are experiencing an upsurge in South Africa, with most daily newspapers increasing readership. The publisher Media 24 has two English-language star papers to its name: the Sunday Sun and the Daily Sun. The Sunday Sun is up 10% in the past 3 months, and the Daily Sun 4%.

Both Media 24 papers are relatively new: the Sunday Sun was founded 5 years ago and the Daily Sun came about just 3 years back.

Media 24 chalks up the success of its papers to its aggressive distribution to lower-income readers, heretofore ignored by newspaper marketers.

Isolezwe, a Zulu paper based out of Durban, has also shown encouraging numbers. The paper’s readership has grown to 644,000 in just 4 years, making it the most-read Zulu paper. The paper boasts an impressive 41% female readership.

There is one cloud on the horizon for the South African press. New legislation threatens to allow censorship through the Film and Publications Board, on such fronts as sexual material, war propaganda, incitement of violence or advocacy of hatred. The National Editor’s Forum and Freedom of Expression Institute are working against this possibility.

The recent Highway Conference Africa at Rhodes University united 500 representatives on the subject of African media.
The Editors Weblog is also proud to announce that the World Association of Newspapers has chosen Cape Town as the site of our June 2007 conference.

Source: Follow the Media