The Audit Bureau of Circulations South Africa’s (ABC) figures for Q3 2022 show daily newspapers are down on both a y-o-y and quarter-on-quarter basis.
In the report the ABC stated that despite decreasing consumption, South Africa still sees a massive amount of newspaper consumption.
“However, strategies aside, the media print industry in South Africa is still vast. The country still distributes about 10 million registered ABC publications in a quarter. A massive 6,5 million newspapers were consumed in Quarter 3, which remains an impressive high consumption for a country like South Africa,” states the report.
Daily newspapers
This quarter sees Daily Nation, Die Burger Daily, Bukedde, Beeld Daily and Sowetan up by less than 5% across the board.
The biggest losers this quarter are Herald, Son Daily, Daily Sun, The Citizen (Daily) and The Witness with all of them recording losses of over 5%.
Daily Sun has continued its losing streak this year as it records the biggest loss for y-o-y with a 27.8% loss.
Weekly newspapers
Soccer Laduma and Lesotho Times are the only two weekly newspapers that saw an uptake this quarter with Lesotho Times seeing a 9% increase for the quarter, and an uptake from the prior year as well.
Weekend newspapers
Rapport and Beeld Saturday are the only two weekend newspapers that were up this quarter. The biggest loser in the third quarter is Sunday World which saw a double-digit loss. City Press saw the biggest y-o-y loss of 26.4% following a similar loss in Q2.
Local newspapers
Local paper Witbank News which shined in the Q2 with a double-digit increase saw a 2.2% loss this quarter. However it has continued to grow on a y-o-y basis with it reporting a 42.3% increase.
Paarl Post, Worcester Standard, Limpopo Mirror and Die Daller were the only local newspapers to show a positive increase for the quarter.
Free newspapers
Merebank & Chatsworth Tabloid was the only free paper to have a double digit increase this quarter. The Kwazulu-Natal based publication saw a significant y-o-y increase of 23.8%.
