Fight for Democracy. Glenda Daniels

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СКАЧАТЬ by Independent Newspaper Group, with copy sales of 12 630 and a total circulation of 23 148.

      • Sowetan is a daily English language newspaper aimed at a literate black readership, owned by Avusa, with copy sales of 86 892 and a total circulation of 116 347.

      • The Star an English daily published in Johannesburg but circulated throughout the country is owned by Independent Newspaper Group, with copy sales of 58 321 and a total circulation of 136 552.

      • The Times, one of South Africa’s newest papers, is an English language tabloid, the sister paper to the Sunday Times, owned by Avusa, with copy sales of 38 579 and a total circulation of 142 024.

      • Volksblad is an Afrikaans language daily based in the Free State and is owned by Media 24, with copy sales of 13 169 and a total circulation of 21 353 for the daily edition.

      • The Witness, an English language daily newspaper based in Pietermaritzburg, owned by Media 24, has copy sales of 8 971 and a total circulation of 21 908.

      • The New Age is an English daily with sales and circulation figures unavailable.

      The weekly newspapers:

      • City Press is an English Sunday paper, owned by Media 24, with copy sales of 155 247 and a total circulation of 157 306.

      • Saturday Star is a weekly, based in Johannesburg, owned by Independent Newspapers, with copy sales of 57 121 and a total circulation of 97 257.

      • Independent on Saturday, owned by Independent Newspapers, has copy sales of 22 473 and a total circulation of 46 008.

      • Isolezwe nge Sonto, owned by Independent Newspapers, has copy sales of 81 041 with a total circulation of 81 553.

      • Ilanga Langesonto, owned by Independent Newspapers, is distributed in KwaZulu-Natal and has copy sales of 85 726 and a total circulation of 85 726.

      • Mail & Guardian, owned by Mail & Guardian Media, has copy sales of 35 324 and a total circulation of 45 692.

      • Post, owned by Independent Newspapers, has copy sales of 25 831 and a total circulation of 43 413.

      • Soccer Laduma owned by Media 24, distributed nationwide but also in Botswana and Swaziland, has copy sales of 345 088 and a total circulation of 345 088.

      • Rapport, owned by Media 24, has copy sales of 215 479 and a total circulation of 231 911.

      • Sun, owned by Media 24, is an Afrikaans language Western Cape tabloid, with copy sales of 103 056 and a total circulation of 103 056.

      • Sunday Independent, owned by Independent Newspaper Group, in Gauteng, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Northern Province, has copy sales if 14 621 and a total circulation of 39 569.

      • Son op Sondag is owned by Media 24; distribution is in the Eastern and Western Cape, with copy sales of 60 174 and a total circulation of 60 174.

      • Sondag is owned by Media 24 and distributed in Gauteng, Free State, Northwest, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and Northern Cape, with copy sales of 46 304 and a total circulation of 47 286.

      • Sunday Times, owned by Avusa, is distributed nationwide with copy sales of 253 721 and a total circulation of 451 361.

      • Sunday Tribune is owned by Independent Newspaper Group, distributed in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, with copy sales 41 344 and a total circulation of 82 477.

      • Sunday World, owned by Avusa, distributed in North West, Northern Cape, Free State, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, and Gauteng, has copy sales of 127 490 and a total circulation of 147 614.

      • Weekend Post is owned by Avusa and distributed in Western Cape and Eastern Cape with copy sales of 19 899 and a total circulation of 23 656.

      • Weekend Argus is owned by Independent Newspapers and distributed in the Western Cape with copy sales of 49 217 and a total circulation of 70 212.

      • Weekend Witness, owned by Independent Newspapers and distributed in the greater Pietermaritzburg area, has copy sales of 12 549 and a total circulation of 21 908.

       Some trends

      In an analysis of the above list a number of different trends emerge, but I cannot focus here on all of them. While there is a variety of newspapers, the majority in English, they are geared towards different readerships. Some tabloids target niche markets, for example those interested in sex and scandal, as reflected, for instance, in the Sun. But although there are many newspapers there are very few owners. A point worth noting is that, according to Harber (2009) the growth of the Daily Sun suggests that the reading public is widening. The Daily Sun is the country’s biggest newspaper, aimed at black, working class people, offering local news and gossip, and focusing on the everyday lives and struggles of people rather than on intellectual debate. While the Daily Sun is the most widely read daily newspaper in the country, Harber said, daily papers aimed at an intellectual market, on the other hand, do not survive, and he provided the example of the attempt by the Weekly Mail in 1990 to launch a daily, the Daily Mail. This paper could not sustain itself and lack of funding meant that it met its demise less than two months after launching. ThisDay, a national intellectual daily to compete with The Star lasted a year, from October 2003 to October 2004, running up debts of up to R14 million (www.bizcommunity.com/article/196/90/4987). The problem was that neither was able to capture a sufficiently large advertising market or to reach a broad enough audience. The Weekender followed the same pattern as the Daily Mail and ThisDay when it shut down in November 2009. Business Day/Financial Mail (BDFM) launched the Weekender in March 2007. It serviced an intellectual readership, and at its second birthday in March 2009, according to the All Media and Products survey (AMPs) of 2009, the paper showed a significant following of 71 000 readers per issue. However, by November 2009 the management of BDFM closed the paper because of financial constraints. Again, it was a case of not enough advertising and not enough sales. In the meantime, at the lower end of the market the tabloid Daily Sun – launched by Media 24 in 2003 – sold 508 000 copies daily in March 2004, when it was not yet one year old (Harber 2009), and the AMPs survey showed growth from 1.4 million readers in 2003 to 3.4 million by 2005 (AMPs 2009).

      A further trend, evidenced by the last point, is that newspaper readership’s decline has been arrested, according to the South African Advertising Research Foundation (Business Day: 1 April 2010). Newspaper sales stabilised, according to the research, and the number of South Africans reading newspapers had increased to 15.324 million, compared with the figure of 14.5 produced by Media Club South Africa in March 2010 cited earlier in this chapter. A fifth trend to be gleaned from the above listing of newspapers is that there is a concentration of ownership by four main players: Avusa, Independent Newspaper Group, Caxton and Media 24. This concentration cannot be a good thing. We need more media, we need a diverse media, and we need media where all voices, from all classes, races and genders are heard – but does this concentration translate into an unprogressive hegemony by big capital? There are far too many issues that are conflated in a discussion of media freedom in South Africa. According to the ANC, in a discussion document for its September 2010 NGC, ‘Free, independent and pluralistic media can only be achieved through not only many media products but by the diversity of ownership and control of media’ СКАЧАТЬ