But it’s not that bad. South African daily newspaper circulation has been declining by roughly five per cent year on year since 2008, and the second quarter of 2012 has proven this is still happening, but not as badly as some may have thought. There have been a few publications that have bucked the trend.

Total daily newspaper sales in South Africa have fallen from 1 386 504 in Q2 2011 to 1 373 377 in Q2 2012.

Bizcommunity’s Gill Moodie has put together her analysis of the current newspaper decline this week, and she focussed her efforts on three of the larger publications, the Cape Times, the Cape Argus, and the Mail and Guardian.

This is what things look like for the Mail and Guardian, which is published weekly:

The paper is down to 46 518 total circulation in the second quarter (Q2) of 2012 compared with 48 016 in the same period last year – 34 293 single-copy sales this year compared with 37 407 last year.

These are the figures for the Cape Time and the Cape Argus:

The Argus fell from 45 924 total circulation a year ago to 35 332 this year while single-copy sales experienced a lesser drop: from 20 861 a year ago to 19 744 this year.

The Cape Times fell from 43 950 total circulation a year ago to 37 948 this year (after holding steady and even showing increases in the 2011) while single-copy sales fell from 23 793 a year ago to 19 851 this year.

Considering that the Cape Argus switched to a smaller format in March this year, it seems as though people don’t mind the change too much, especially if we look at those daily single-copy figures.

However, even though “[the Cape Argus] started moving from the afternoon into the morning market, raising concerns that even though they serve different markets the Argus might cannibalise the Cape Times’ sales,” this doesn’t appear to have happened.

Moodie spoke to Independent Newspapers’ acting Western Cape GM, Sandy Naudé, who said that some of the drop in Cape Argus and Cape Times sales could be attributed “to a drop in business subscriptions as companies are preferring to order fewer papers in our straightened economic times. However, the biggest factor is that the Argus and Cape Times started doing away with incentivised sales during the second quarter of this year,” explained Moodie.

Says Naudé:

It’s not just the cost; it’s actually the value to clients. We would rather focus on the core sales to ensure that the best value is going out to the reader… Of course, we’re working on digital strategies and I think in the next ABCs that’ll start to come through and we’ll build from there.

According to the latest ABC figures, the Cape Times reported 83 digital sales in Q2 2012 while the Argus did 47.

On the Mail and Guardian, Moodie had the following insight:

In the case of the M&G, editor Nic Dawes says this year’s falls can be partly attributed to their distribution agents tightening up returns and partly to some M&G readers opting to read the paper on Kindle (which is not yet counted by the ABC) and iPad (which is).

“It looks like we’re basically flat and still ahead of 2010 so I’ll take it, frankly,” says Dawes, adding that iPad and Kindle sales together now account for about 25% of the M&G’s subscriptions.

Kindle sales are now at about 1 600 a week and iPad is at about 700 while the paper will be launching on Android soon. “There’s a real migration there to paid-for digital products,” Dawes says.

According to ABC figures, the M&G’s digital sales for the second quarter of 2012 came in at 496 weekly.

Digital sales can only counted by the ABC if it carries all the ads that appear in the print edition and Dawes says that his team weren’t always able to do that through the second quarter as they were still learning about producing for iPad.

Moodie thinks that things don’t look as bad as some may have thought, and she’s also of the opinion that solid, thought provoking editorial moving forward will stabilise and improve sales.

Here are the single-copy sales risers and surprises:

• The Sunday Times (owned by Avusa), now at 253 121 compared with 249 168 in the second quarter of 2011.
• Publishing phenomenon Isolezwe (owned by Independent Newspapers) is now at 112 648 single-copy sales compared with 107 143 in 2011. Isolezwe ngeSonto (the Sunday edition) is at 89 534 compared with 80 120 in the second quarter of 2011.
• It’s also worth noting that the Saturday edition, Isolezwe ngoMgqibelo, has now reached a remarkable 75 934 single-copy sales after launching in August 2011.
• The Sowetan (owned by Avusa) is at 89 282 single-copy sales, up from 88 749 in 2011 while sister paper, The Herald, in Port Elizabeth is pretty much holding steady. It was at 15 096 single-copy sales in Q2 2012 compared with 15 516 in 2011.
• Media24′s Bloemfontein-based daily, Volksblad, is also holding steady at 12 103 single-copy sales compared with 12 755 in Q2 2011.

MarkLives.com compiled a list of total circulation figures for the top performers:

1. Daily Sun 348 265 (Media24)

2. The Star 117 874 (Independent Newspapers)

3. Isolezwe 113 786 (Independent Newspapers)

4. Son 100 331  (Media24)

5. Sowetan 98 156  (Avusa)

6. Beeld 73 595  (Media24)

7. The Citizen 67 794  (Caxton)

8. Die Burger (Eastern + Western Cape) 60 354  (Media24)

9. Cape Times 37 948 (Independent Newspapers)

10. Cape Argus 35 332 (Independent Newspapers)

11. Business Day 35 070 (BDFM/Avusa)

12. Daily News 33 093 (Independent Newspapers)

[Source: Bizcommunity]