The ABC’s: who won and who lost

There are however some signs of promise on the newspaper side of things too. While English and Afrikaans dailies have declined annually by 6.6% (397 000 copies) and 4.7% (72 000 copies) respectively over the last four years, vernacular titles have in fact increased by 1.8% (8 500 copies).

The titles that have shown the largest decline are the Cape Argus that dropped by almost 27% – from 45 128 to 33 006 copies – compared to this time last year, The Star dropping 22.6% from 136 552 to 105 666 and the Cape Times, declining 20.22% from 43 274 to 34 523.

Yet after showing a decline last year and in 2009, weekly newspapers have managed to reflect an annual increase of 1.7% (46 000 copies) over the last four years. Among these the largest increases came from Motorsport World, increasing by 47% from 2 886 to 4 246 copies compared to last year, and Soccer Laduma, up 4.5% from 345 088 to 360 668. UmAfrika however has dropped almost 30% from 14 361 to 10 065 copies and Ilanga by 8.48% from 135 706 to 124 200.

On a more uplifting note, the vernacular weekend newspapers have grown annually by just over 33% (142 000 copies) over the last four years, while the English and Afrikaans titles have dropped 4.8% and 3% respectively. To single out the winners, Isolezwe ngeSonto has grown 3.71 %, up from 81 553 to 84 577 copies, and holding the flag high for the Afrikaans titles is Volksblad Saturday that has increased by almost 2% from 21 353 to 20 762 copies. Less fortunate is The Saturday Star that dropped 22% from 97 257 to 75 682 copies in the last year, Pretoria News Saturday declining 21.57% from 14 248 to 11 174 and Sondag that went town 17.34% from 47 286 to 39 085 copies.

Then on the free newspapers’ side, it has to be mentioned that Zululand Eyethu has grown massively, up 303.8% from 6 003 to 24 240 copies since last year.

Now to the magazines. Although decreasing by 3.7% over the previous quarter, overall consumer magazine circulation has increased annually by 1.4% (406 000 copies) over the last four years. The winners here are Kuier, up 67.75% from 47 032 to 78 896 copies in the last year, Tuis/Home up 35.76% from 23 090 to 31 347, Kick Off up 34.72% from 45 382 to 61 140 copies, and Living and Loving, growing 33.86% from 21 856 to 29 257.

Playboy magazine however has shown a concerning 64.51% drop from 10 818 to 3 839 copies since this time last year, Cars in Action a 64.1% decline from 13 118 to 4 709, with The Red Bulletin being down by 49.42% from 135 341 to 68 461 and Prestige by 39.13% from 15 334 to 9 334 copies.

Other growth seen was with consumer magazines in the home category, increasing in total by 5.4% (167 000 copies) annually over the last four years, and the travel magazines that have grown annually by 23% (315 000 copies.)