Over the past decade, there have been significant changes in the South African print media industry. As more people shift towards online news consumption, some of the most prominent daily newspapers have lost as much as 80% of readers over the past 10 years. This is according to media monitoring company Novus Group’s newly released ’10 Years in Print Media’ report covering the period from January 2014 to January 2024.

Media24 is set to close several of its most well-known print publications like Beeld, Daily Sun, Soccer Laduma, Rapport, and City Press on the 30th of September as they focus on a digital future. Media24 is selling its community newspapers and delivery service to Novus Holdings (not associated with Novus Group).

“These highlight some of the challenges that print media has in the country,” says Joe Hamman, Director of Novus Group. “Falling circulation figures of titles (in general) and a decline in advertising revenue have exacerbated these. With data becoming more affordable to South Africans and fibre more prevalent, more people are logging on instead of buying physical copies. Even though many publications have introduced paywalls, people still expect their online content to be free which has further impacted revenue streams for media houses.

“There is also Google which is acting as an intermediary. While the argument is that it can drive substantial traffic to online news sites, it is also competing with these publications through its own news aggregation services affecting the reach and impact of independent news outlets.”

The cover cost of certain publications has gone up by as much as 138% due to a decrease in advertising revenue. Exacerbating this has been the steady rise in print media inflation due to an increase in production costs as high as 45% coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic which dramatically changed the media landscape.

Due to various publications being combined, we could not include their annual statistics for comparison. The Pretoria News was incorporated into sister-publication, The Star. The Sunday Independent was also merged with the Sunday Tribune. Weekend editions, like Weekend Argus and Isolezwe, were also combined. We bid farewell to the Weekend Post, which was one of SA’s oldest weekend newspapers, closing down after 77 years. 11 Daily and weekly newspapers have closed down since 2014.

Most recently, the ABC figures for the first quarter of 2024 show that Isolezwe increased by 6% to more than 20,200 in circulation. Die Burger has become the highest-selling daily newspaper with more than 24,160 while the Cape Argus (a decrease of 19%) was the most significant casualty during this period.

It is only when one compares these figures to the first quarter of 2014 that the true state of the decline becomes evident. Isolezwe had a circulation of higher than 119,000, Die Burger 59,895, and Cape Argus 30,319.

Interestingly, this year, Volksblad became the first e-edition-only daily newspaper to be audited and verified by ABC.

Daily Maverick and Beeld shared the highest growth of 5% when comparing the first quarter of 2024 with Q1 of 2023. Despite a 2% loss in circulation, the Sunday Times remains the highest-selling weekend newspaper with a circulation of more than 60,700.

However, this is still a massive decrease from the heady days of 2014 when it had a circulation of over 408,000. When one looks at City Press, the publication had a circulation of over 118,600 in the first quarter of 2014, but that has subsequently dropped to just over 12,400 for the comparative period this year. The Daily Dispatch Weekend and Weekend Post were discontinued earlier this year.

“Journalism will always be considered the gatekeeper of democracy regardless of the platform being used. News publications and the media in general must adapt as people shift their content consumption habits online. So, even if the platform shifts from print to online, publications need to find more innovative ways of driving profitability and ensuring their operating models remain sustainable. Of course, this also means that companies must expand their monitoring to include social media and online sources to remain updated on all the platforms people consume their content on,” concludes Hamman.

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