Newspaper 10 2008

NEWSPAPER 10 July/August 2008

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SA newspapers feel the pinch The daily broadsheet as a category, has been struggling for some time, given it is challenged by the evolution of the tabloids and weekend papers as well as the rise of online news readership. “Dailies are under pressure from people who prefer to read on the Internet,” says Ferial Haffajee, editor, Mail & Guardian. She says the niche papers are holding their own. “Some readers are dropping the dailies and buying the Sunday papers,” says Van Niekerk. She goes on to say that newspapers must adapt their portfolios and their offerings to take into account the crunch on consumers. The Mail & Guardian, for example, is looking at special packages for those markets that would be most sensitive to the crunch. “Our copy sales are holding steady though with a cover price of R16.50, I am concerned. As an editor, I would like us to get our coverage of this important time in our country’s history to as many people as possible, so we are crafting special offers for students, pensioners and other vulnerable groups,” says Haffajee. “I think we are at the end of a market where readers are less price sensitive, but we still need to work to protect our student, younger and retired readership, which may hurt from a decline in disposable income,” says Haffajee. Looking ahead, says John Bowles, joint MD, Newspaper Advertising Bureau (NAB), dailies and, to a certain extent, weekend papers will always have a role to play, but will face massive challenges as they encounter the impact that youth culture will have on news consumption. The same cannot be said, however, for the newspapers aimed at the black middle class. “For some newspapers, there is significant pressure on circulation as people have less disposable income. For some of the black

emerging middle class the growth rate in advertising numbers is very positive, and I think there will be opportunities here,” says Groepe. City Press editor, Mathatha Tsedu, says his newspaper’s advertising revenues have not seen losses; circulations, however, have declined by five per cent (mirroring similar declines across the majority of newspapers). “This signals that there is something happening at circulation level in the South African market,” he says. Tsedu believes that the steady ad revenues are the result of an increased number of government recruitment ads. “A year ago, we saw advertising from cellphone brands and service providers, banks and so on. This is no longer the case. These

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increase in cover price has been in response to declines in ad revenues. “This is one of the reasons we have steadily been raising our cover price. It reduces our dependence on ads a little, and helps us to get through tough times because readership stays steady,” says Bruce. For the tabloids, and some of the weekend papers, sales appear to be holding firm. “Weekend papers, globally, are doing better than their daily counterparts as they are still regarded as a leisure read – something to put your feet up with over the weekends,” says Haffajee. “We see the downturn as part of the cycle and hope it will turn next year,” says Willem Pretorius, editor, Sondag. Meanwhile, the Daily Sun, the

upward mobility slowing,” says du Plessis. He adds that this market is where the boom is, and average incomes are growing. “And yes, some of them are leaving for higher LSMs,” he adds. However, he is realistic about the challenges of the current economic situation: “I’m sure we haven’t seen the worst of it yet. I’m not going to be cavalier about it just because it hasn’t affected us yet.” Fergus Sampson, CEO: Emerging Markets, Media24, is a little more concerned. “Advertising sales are definitely contracting, especially national advertising. Single copy sales are still holding steady under the circumstances. We are planning for a severe and protracted downturn –

I don’t think that the South African market has an insulated digital perspective.

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Locally, advertisers and consumers are feeling the pinch, tightening their belts and looking for ways to make their rands stretch further than ever. And while global adspend figures show that SA’s adspend is growing (Nielsen’s Global AdView reports that our adspend grew 15.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2008), the decline in sales across the motor vehicle sector and the state of the property market signal that the economic decline is having a serious impact. Looking closely at the newspapers it becomes clear that while they view the downturn as part of a global trend some are facing greater challenges than others. “The impact is not too dramatic, but it’s tougher. Newspapers passed through a comfy phase where targets were reached. Now newspapers must become more professional and more relevant,” says Gavin Rheeder, marketing manager, Beeld. He points to declines in motor and property advertising in newspapers as indicators of the increasing pressure on incomes. “There is evidence of a downturn but it’s definitely not negative as it’s still a single-digit decline,” says Francois Groepe, CEO, Media24. Lucille van Niekerk, independent media consultant, reports that she has seen an impact on the general buying patterns of newspaper readers. “Not only is there pressure from the consumer and the advertiser, but there is also competition: there are so many community shopping malls and new competitors to take into account,” says Van Niekerk. She adds that subscriptions too, are showing signs of strain. “I can see the crunch in everyone’s circulation figures and even in the margins. The magazines and newspapers on the shelves are thinner and some are carrying more ads to buffer their losses,” she says.

Local publishers haven’t felt the effect of market dilution that stems from increased digital activity

advertisers and these sorts of ads are tapering off and are being replaced by government recruitment advertising, because there has been a major growth in the number of upper LSM black readers that we attract,” he says. “If you are not getting replacement advertising as we are getting, you will most certainly see a decline in revenues.” For the business newspapers, the credit crunch may be a good thing; after all, investors, home owners and people with assets are increasingly turning to these titles for up to date and reliable information to help them navigate the tough times. Peter Bruce, editor, Business Day, has found that in spite of the fact that the cover price has almost doubled over the past few years circulation has remained steady. However, the

country’s most successful tabloid, reports very healthy circulation. “We are beating our budgets by millions and this is partly explained by our resolute campaign that you only need to use the Daily Sun to reach the LSM 4 market, which is a powerful market,” says publisher, Deon du Plessis. “Our newspaper is dedicated to the guy in blue overalls, and he changes. When we launched, he had a kid aged five and now that kid is nine. There is increasing wealth in this market and some sections of the townships are indistinguishable from the suburbs,” says du Plessis. The changes in this market are huge – consider the development of shopping malls and the way they are changing behaviours and patterns of shopping. “There is no evidence of these fast changes slowing or of the

possibly as long as 18 months before we can breathe comfortably again,” he says. What’s clear is that the next year or two will be very challenging for newspapers that have not invested in the technologies and platforms to build relationships with readers and advertisers, and differentiate their newspaper brands. And certainly, all the editors and publishers that Newspaper 10 spoke to said they would be investing in developing the quality of news reporting or new media platforms. Haffajee, for example, says that she will build up expertise across all specific interest areas (business, politics, science, and so on) to ensure that reporting on these topics is at the exclusive cutting edge. “The motto

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A day in the life of a South African newspaper

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A recent study carried out by African Response and SAARF AMPS found that the average newspaper passes from the hands of the seller to a whole series of readers. The average township dweller will buy their newspaper from a street vendor on their way to work; they read their paper while commuting or during their lunch break. Then it is passed from one colleague to the next until the original buyer leaves work and takes their paper home with them. The study found that the course of most newspapers is assisted by a link of different social groups and communities, and that many black South Africans are buying the newspaper, but are not buying all the newspapers they read. This demonstrates how readership has increased without a corresponding increase in circulation figures. Plus, many newspapers end up serving functional purposes in the home. The study also found that varied content and hyper-local neighbourhood news drives an increase in readership (community newspapers have got this right). “Relevance, relevance, relevance. One of the compliments which stood out was that they are enjoying the community updates instead of the usual national and international news, which is not as ‘close to home,” says Anina Maree, director, African Response. Likewise, newspapers have become more accessible through sales at taxi ranks and stations. This convenience is also driving readership. “Marketers need to focus on accessibility, relevance and variety. But keep in mind that there is no one magic recipe that works for all South African readers, we really have such a diverse market. Marketers need to gain insight into the specific target audience of their newspaper and not just readers in general. This will go hand in hand with their distribution strategy. Our younger upwardly mobile markets move around and change address so home delivery may not work as well for them as it would for the older and more settled reader for example,” says Maree.

Gill Randall, joint MD, Newspaper Advertising Bureau (NAB)

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should be: if you miss us, you miss out,” says Haffajee. Newspapers serving the niche markets (such as the gay market) are upping their game too. Gary de Klerk, editor of The Pink Tongue, says the economic downturn should be a time when advertisers rethink where and how they spend their money. “Now is the time for the gay media to approach clients affected by the downturn, because although the gay community also feels the economic pinch, it is a community that subscribes to a more luxurious lifestyle because of the disposable income factor that stems from not having kids. When there is a gay couple that pools its incomes, you’re looking at another potential market. The gay media needs to find a way to communicate this to advertisers effectively,” he says. Black diamonds and unmarried yuppies, for example, may also represent viable niche markets. And, as du Plessis points out, the simple act of delivering to homes may be the key for newspapers looking to reach these niches. The Daily Sun recently took over the Sunday Sun, and du Plessis has high hopes for this paper because it is delivered to the homes of readers. “Home delivery is still a revolution in the townships. This means there are huge opportunities for brands to do sampling campaigns via the Sunday papers.” Look out for clever distribution systems as newspapers seek out new ways to become more easily accessible to readers, especially in light of subscription losses. “We might see subscriptions drop, but we expect street and agency sales to grow,” says Rheeder. Subscribers are a loyal market but innovations are being evolved in street sales to grow this sector. The plus side of the downturn is the fact that it will shake out the industry’s weaker players. Experts believe we will

see consolidations and closures as a result. But publishers will also be more cautious as far as their investments in new markets are concerned. Expect greater creativity in terms of what’s on offer to readers and advertisers. “There will be pressure on newspapers to sharpen up. So I don’t expect that it will be business as usual, but this gets the creative juices flowing and forces us to look for new opportunities. The biggest threat to newspapers now is complacency – we can’t afford it! Newspapers must see everything as a threat. The good news for newspapers is that readers are not reading newspapers differently, in the way that TV audiences are watching TV differently. But newspapers need to get to the reader directly whether online or via cellphones,” says Rheeder. Yet across the board, publishers are adamant that they will not compromise their products. While they will consider creative innovations to their print products and advertising solutions, they will only consider those that build their brands, rather than compromise the quality and integrity of their newspapers. “Newspapers need to deliver quality readers to advertisers,” says Groepe. The emphasis is firmly on creating a future for newspapers that are measurable. “There are many other value-added ideas that will work for newspapers,” says Sampson. “It is my view the purpose of valueadded promotions is to encourage product sampling and ultimately repeat consumption. The actual editorial product is the only and final measure of success or failure. No amount of value-added promotions will ever replace the appeal of a credible, relevant and well-targeted publication,” he says. What’s more, these value-added- initiatives should occur in concert with a focus on the editorial product offering. Du Plessis

Gill Randall says that since newspapers remain the primary window to the outside world for many South Africans, easily accessible, affordable and widely available newspapers are very well positioned to fulfil the need for information to guide everyday decision-making. Abroad, newspapers are facing serious setbacks and losses. Locally, the newspaper category is still vibrant. “I don’t think newspapers are doomed. They need to change though, we all know that. More analysis and less news, I suppose,” says Peter Bruce, editor, Business Day. Experts believe that, until Internet penetration is significantly higher, local newspapers are not threatened by the pull of free news online. As Geoff Cohen, General Manager: News24, says, South Africa is an interesting case. “I think that the South African market has been insulated from a digital perspective. Local publishers haven’t felt the full effect of market dilution that stems from increased digital activity.” Instead, the circulation fluctuations are attributable in large part to the economic conditions, though less so for emerging market newspapers. When the Internet does become a mass medium in SA, the pressure will be on newspapers to reach the top of the search engine rankings. And those newspapers that are not investing in development of these digital platforms now, especially to grow their understanding of how users interact with online content, may be left behind.

Emerging markets want newspapers Over the last few years, local townships and small towns have grown and evolved are viable markets for newspapers. The booming growth of shopping malls in the townships, for example, paved the way for free community newspapers in these regions. Meanwhile, the rising tabloids, such as the Daily Sun, are creating new readerships where previously there may not have been any. The emerging market holds great potential. “Newspaper readership in the emerging market (LSM 4-7) has ballooned over the past six years. The tabloid press, led by the Daily Sun, is single-handedly responsible for bringing the masses into the newspaper readership fold. As this market continues to grow and change, new gaps and submarkets will emerge over time,” says Fergus Sampson, CEO: Emerging Markets, Media24. Consider, for example, that the Daily Sun’s readership used to be a township LSM market, but today, it captures upper LSM black readers. “The middle class will grow and spread. There is the notion that the suburbs and the informal settlements will dissipate. But I believe that we will see growth in the townships and the suburbs,” says Francois Groepe, CEO, Media24. However, before this market can be served efficiently, says Chantel Erfort, editor, Cape Community Newspapers, media owners need to realise that township and rural markets are not homogeneous and content should be diversified to tap into this. “Developing areas – and the developing world – are all experiencing an upswing in newspaper consumption, and there is potential for this to continue in township areas, but only if we discard our common perceptions of what ‘typical township’ readers want. There is no typical,” says Erfort. Ferial Haffajee, editor, Mail & Guardian, also believes that segmentation of these markets is better done along LSM lines, categorising them into quality/tabloid or niche/mass newspapering. “I don’t buy into the township versus town/black and white models of newspapering because my experience on the Mail & Guardian has shown that there is more that unites than divides,” she says. And while there is still a lot of growth in metropolitan areas, newspapers will grow in the developing markets in the coming months and create opportunities for previously untapped advertisers. Lucille van Niekerk, independent media consultant, believes that some regions of the country want more technology (cellphone and mobile advertising, websites, and so on) and newspapers are in the perfect position to drive news consumption via new media and technology platforms. “Newspapers need to do better; they need to observe readership trends and find areas that are under-marketed. The farmers on the platteland, for example, have been forgotten by the city media. There are opportunities here,” she says.

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Distribution evolves Creativity and flexibility in distribution remain a challenge for newspapers, especially in gated communities and secure complexes. The community newspapers often make it into the zones and complexes that are otherwise inaccessible to newspaper distributors. As Gill Randall, joint MD, Newspaper Advertising Bureau (NAB) says: people living in complexes want to receive their community newspapers and they look for it. They put pressure on their body corporates to get the community newspapers. However, distribution footprints are more focused, and as Fergus Sampson, CEO: Emerging Markets, Media24 says, more customer orientated and efficient than previously. Better segmentation of audiences has helped, and Sampson believes the younger tabloids especially, have a clear understanding of who their target audience is. Willem Pretorius, editor, Sondag, finds that more and more newspapers tend to focus on metropolitan areas and that distribution footprints have evolved to reflect the movements of readers. Distribution managers are looking at creative ways to get their newspapers into

gated or secure complexes; branded stands, for example, would create opportunities for advertisers while also allowing newspapers to have an established home. “Distribution must be critically evaluated,” says Groepe, pointing to the security estates, which have presented distributors with a challenge. He adds that Media24 has not had much success in getting to these estates. City Press editor, Mathatha Tsedu says the newspaper was being distributed via the system carried by Rapport, but as City Press’s readership has evolved to attract readers who live in different areas (or in gated complexes, for example), this distribution system is no longer effective. He says it is pushing subscriptions among this market although (although staff mindsets will need to change first to favour a subsciptions model). “Twenty years from now, news consumption will be very different. We may not be able to put posters up because of the environmental issues around this, so we must start thinking ahead and about how we can drive news consumption,” he says. In Japan, newspapers are cooperating in their online productions and distribution

to combat the threat of the Internet. According to a report published (AFP, 1 October 2008) the Yomiuri Shimbun, the Asahi Shimbun and the Nikkei business daily have set up a new website with their articles posted beside one another. They hope this will lure younger readers to their print editions. This project also comes as a solution to the difficulties the newspapers face in maintaining the extensive home delivery systems, especially in remote areas. Experts believe newspaper home delivery is one of the reasons Japan’s circulations have not suffered to the extent that other newspapers globally have done. By sharing printing factories and distribution networks these newspapers hope to make this system more sustainable. Flexible subscriber packages are also in the pipeline. “Subscribers tend more and more to not want to be locked in. Therefore the focus has shifted more to points of sale and being visible there. We have a few interesting venues opening up that will increase revenues and sales,” says Pretorius. Look out for more affordable subscriber packages or added-value deals in the next few months.

Innovation Newspapers must evolve to address the needs of both readers and advertisers. “If newspapers don’t innovate they will die. They need to understand the value proposition for both the advertiser and the reader, and give them a product of unrivalled quality and at a price that works,” says Francois Groepe, CEO, Media24. In terms of innovation, Deon du Plessis, publisher, Daily Sun points to Brazilian newspapers, such as the Folha de Sao Paolo (which offers its advertisers the ‘Folha Origami’ formats which allow their ads to pop up), and ad formats to create a more compelling read; scratch and sniff ads, for example, are increasingly being used. “The range of things that can be done to innovate is wide,” he says. He also admits that local newspapers need to be more innovative and creative. Innovations in advertising format, coupled with advances in paper technology, are allowing newspapers to offer advertisers even greater impact. Generally speaking, these technologies are not produced locally, so the cost of obtaining metallic inks or transparent papers is a barrier to adoption. But abroad, newspapers are reinventing themselves with transparent paper, fluorescent inks and metallic effects, even scents and new shapes (Media & Marketing magazine, 12 May 2008); view the adverlab blog (http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2006/03 rethinking-print-advertising.html) to see some creative print adverts. These are all simple ideas, and even though some of the examples featured on this blog are taken from magazines, newspapers could easily adopt the ideas. The Wonderbra toggles, for example, turn a two-dimensional page into an engaging 3D ad, by allowing the reader to tighten the toggles, and enlarge the cleavage in the ad. Guinness made the newspaper in which it advertises so much more than a static medium – the clever cut-out made the advertisement more impactful. Also visit designer Frederick Samuel’s blog (http://www.frederiksamuel.com/blog) for more fabulous examples of clever print ads. Newspapers are investing in these innovations and clever ideas to attract new sources of revenue and change the belief that newspapers are an expensive, inflexible and outdated advertising tool (while also creating buzz around the newspaper as a brand) as well as offering brands an opportunity to create ads that engage the reader. However, these newspapers are careful not to disturb readers or to compromise the integrity of their product, so the masthead is kept clean. And while the front page of the newspaper used to be off limits to advertisers, papers like The New York Times have started selling advertising on their covers. Locally, some of these innovations may not feature in newspapers yet, though editors and publishers say they are investigating simple solutions that will result in more inventive layout and design. They will also assess their existing distribution models and explore new models to drive circulation and readership. “There are exciting new ideas that will be tested in the

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coming months. Layout options are being explored at the moment. It is part of the modernising process that every product has to look at,” says Willem Pretorius, editor, Sondag. As Fergus Sampson, CEO: Emerging Markets, Media24 explains, content is king, and the layout, size and advertising are integral parts of the offering, which either enhance or detract from the content. “Readers are the final arbiter of content. Their expressed preferences ultimately guide the type and extent of changes, and innovation throughout the newspaper,” he says. For some newspapers abroad, glossy magazines are providing new hope. The USA Today earlier this year launched a glossy magazine to be distributed within their traditional papers. These magazines will lure advertisers who are happier to spend money if their ads appear on the glossy pages of mags that deliver quality fashion and lifestyle reporting, and extend the newspaper brand further (reports Advertising Age, 18 June 2007). What’s more, quality paper and glossy presentation speak to a high-end market, so the newspapers will be able to attract advertisers that would not normally advertise in a newspaper. Seeing that distribution is not impacted by the addition of these magazines it makes sense for these newspapers. Retail sales of newspapers are also evolving. Pretorius says retailers are increasingly looking to inserts to drive their product sales, having recognised that newspapers attract readers who will also buy bread or milk. These have been used more extensively in the community papers until now. Sampling and promotions may offer newspapers a viable means to deliver advertising in a unique way. However, maintaining high standards of journalism remains a priority. “I think that rather than gimmicks, we should invest in excellent journalism, break stories and protect circulation and readership in this way. It’s a better return to advertisers in the long run than quick spike measures like cover mounts,” says Ferial Haffajee, editor, Mail & Guardian. She goes on to say that while gifts and cover mounts do push sales, newspapers must be careful – readers complain about advertorial – and as Haffajee says, the front page is a newspaper’s biggest currency. “Over 80 per cent of sales are still based on retail sales,” she says. Local newspapers have not used cover mounts as it is widely understood that these have little impact beyond the sales spike and are not sustainable. However, sampling has been carried out by some newspapers (the Sunday Times, for example has distributed product samples with its street sales). Volksblad editor, Jonathan Crowther, says that these measures don’t sell newspapers. “We don’t think it is a good way of building circulation and it can be a logistical nightmare,” he says. Mathatha Tsedu, editor, City Press, says that the newspaper is actively pursuing subscriptions sales, and while this would create an opportunity for the newspaper to offer sampling, he says that it is not viable yet. The cost of distribution would be impacted; plus, street vendors and delivery staff would need to be trained to manage the sample distribution.

New publishing environments IFRA (the global news publishing research and service organisation, with headquarters in Germany) published special report in June 2008 (Systems for a multi-channel publishing environment) to address issues around key foundation technologies in the multichannel publishing realm, and to put digital channel production and traditional print-driven newspapers into a common context. According to the report, ‘multi-channel publishing exploits media complimentarity and has the scope to use all available media channels, including but not limited to print, information websites and pages, blogs and forums, social networking sites, electronic newspapers, on-demand printed newspapers, SMS messaging, radio, television and any other channel used to communicate a message’. The boundaries between traditional media production methods for print and other delivery formats (TV, video and audio) are blurring, and readers can now choose from a range of content channels in a mix that is rarely static. This issue is central to the dilemma facing media organisations. Newspapers must use technology to attract and retain reliable communities of interest for their advertisers, according to this report. ‘Mass market technology is key to generating new revenue streams’. Sites like Facebook and MySpace are fuelling new advertising markets, which means that newspapers have to up their creativity and expertise if they hope to retain advertising share. But it’s not only about incorporating technology; it’s about choosing the right technology recipe (and this is as much a business decision as it is a technological choice). Newspapers are facing the challenge that arises because advertising management channels rarely function smoothly across media. True multi-channel environments will create opportunities for services development and may address this. The report finds that all the newspapers that are successfully involved with multi-channel publishing have invested substantially in training journalists (in giving them greater awareness of nonprint channels as well as audio and visual skills). But the report finds that the newspaper industry has not yet capitalised on the huge volumes of Web traffic that some users are encountering. ‘The industry’s greatest asset is its ability to gather, shape and deliver top quality, relevant and trustworthy content. Multi-channel publishing systems allow newspapers to give content producers free rein for content development, so newspapers can sell high-quality content elsewhere on the Web to companies who need content to draw visitors.’ Brand positioning and development across multi-channels is also key. Newspapers must actively exploit their brands across these systems. The greatest risk to newspapers now, according to the report, is to do nothing. ‘Although there are many years of life left in the print-centric model, its age is over… Newspaper publishers continue to plan their future based on a print-centric view but advances in computing, interface design, network technologies and commerce often get overlooked.’ For more information, visit the IFRA website (www.ifra.com).

Hyperlocal News In Europe and the US, newspapers are implementing hyperlocal strategies. The World Editors Forum Weblog (www.editorsweblog.org) found that this means these newspapers focus on local news and issues that are close to readers’ hearts. With this strategy, these newspapers aim to build communities and create real encounters between the newspaper and the reader. Locally, Volksblad has developed Kontrei, a product focusing on hyper-local media coverage. Pieter Delport, assistant editor, Kontrei, says that the publication was launched in the beginning of 2004 as a supplement to Volksblad’s Free State circulation. “Due to the popularity of the publication we have recently started to cover Northern Cape news and to insert in Volksblad’s Northern Cape circulation,” he says. The original target market was Afrikaans speaking people in all the rural areas of the Free State. However, research illustrated that Kontrei is just as popular in the cities within Volksblad’s distribution area, like Bloemfontein, Welkom and Kimberley, mainly because of the links most people in the city have with the rural areas. “Kontrei mainly carries human interest stories about people and happenings in the rural areas of the Free State and Northern Cape. But we have found that our target market also appreciates snippets about important happenings in the cities, because they have to travel there on a regular basis to do shopping or to take their children to school,” says Delport.

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Enticing the female of the species

Newspapers still viable advertising tools

Newspaper readerships have, over the years, predominantly been male. The World Editors Forum blog (www.editorsweblog.org) reports that 41 per cent of women read a daily UK newspaper. It is understood that females are responsible for the majority of household purchasing decisions, which means that advertisers want to speak to them in a more meaningful manner; this, in turn, means that newspapers need to offer advertisers a platform that has a greater impact in this market. According to blog reports on the World Editors Forum, the UK’s Daily Mirror has changed its focus to appeal to women who buy popular weekly gossip magazines. By conflating female interest and shorter news story formats with celebrity stories, the paper has grown We need to be far more its female readership from 49 per cent in 1995 to 52 per cent in 2007. pointed in our offering, In May this year, the Wall Street in the content, its presentation Journal launched a glossy magazine, and also the selection of content; which offers professional women and by whom the content is presented businesswomen the appropriate mix of fashion and beauty advice with is also important. intelligent news insight. Until recently, only a handful of local newspapers had a female readership that matched (or exceeded) its male readership. Lucille van Niekerk, independent media consultant says that, compared with the efforts newspapers abroad are making to capture female interest, local newspapers have not explored this. “I think newspapers would do well to include more lifestyle articles aimed at females,” she says. But addressing female readers goes beyond simply including a few female-targeted stories. Van Niekerk, believes that newspapers are doing little to keep female journalists on their staff or to address the fact that the news reporting environment is not women-friendly. Women make up just less than half of newspaper readership and Francios Groepe, CEO Media 24, stresses that newspapers need to gain a greater grasp of socio-economic nuances in these smaller markets, and must address these via their editorial policy. “We should learn this from the magazines,” says Groepe. “We need to be far more pointed in our offering, in the content, its presentation and also the selection of content; by whom the content is presented is also important. The content has to have relevance and style.”

Take a look at the challenges that newspapers are facing abroad and it becomes clear that the traditional newspaper is a species under threat (at least in mature markets). Some believe that in future, printed products will fall away and be replaced by electronic and digital tools, and that newspapers will be the first to go. Adam Penenberg (the famed American investigative journalist who uncovered the journalistic fraud of journalist Stephen Glass in 1998) wrote in an October 2007 article, Print is doomed (www.pehenberg.com), that the declining circulations of newspapers, coupled with their shrinking size and pagination as proof that users (especially those with broadband Internet) are opting to read their news online where they can click on headlines that catch their interest, often for free. He argues that newspaper production is costly and in an age when media need to become more eco-friendly, paper wastage is risky. He argues that today’s modern individual picks up the news via their cellphone, the radio, TV and the Internet before they get a copy of the daily newspaper (which, by the time they read it contains old news). This raises a lot of questions around the viability of the newspaper as an advertising vehicle. “It is still seen as a trustworthy way to spread your message. Concerns are around the plethora of new media, but their costs are high. Newspaper

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Newspaper launches slow viable and approach them carefully. “When you find a gap or niche, you have to be sure to do it better and quicker than anyone else. And it’s

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When you find a gap

or niche, you have to be sure to do it better and quicker than anyone else. And it’s always the right

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Newspaper launches are seeing a slowdown, perhaps this is because newspaper groups are choosing to consolidate their existing offerings and invest in improving their products rather than extending their brands into new markets. “There are gaps, but the economy does not allow for anyone to exploit them now,” says Willem Pretorius, editor, Sondag. Lucille van Niekerk, independent media consultant, shares this sentiment. “First we need to let the cream rise to the top, and we need to do a market analysis and map the newspaper brands to find the gaps.” She stresses the need for investment in research and development first and foremost. However, others believe that there are indeed opportunities for new papers to launch. “Both The Times and the Weekender show there is still an ample market for new newspapers in SA,” says Ferial Haffajee, editor, the Mail & Guardian. Peter Bruce, editor, Business Day believes that there are always new markets, but the trick is to identify them properly to ensure they are

time to find new markets and invest in them

always the right time to find new markets and invest in them,” he says. Fergus Sampson, CEO: Emerging Markets, Media24, says that the emerging market sector offers an array of sub-markets that are still

unexplored such as women and upper LSM black readers. “The great benefit of a stratified, fast-evolving society is that newspaper companies possess the skills and infrastructure necessary to fill the new gaps that are opening up in the market,” he says. However, any such movements will be cautiously carried out. Francois Groepe, CEO, Media24 wonders if there is a market in this gap. “And are the gaps big enough to be viable commercial enterprises,” he says. It seems that while there may be potential new markets for newspapers, this may not be the best time to target them. “The South African newspaper market is still growing,” says Gavin Rheeder, marketing manager, Beeld. “This tells us that there are opportunities in this market. But whoever goes for it must do their homework and must know exactly what they’re doing, especially in the emerging markets where most of the growth is taking place.” Rheeder believes new entrants into the market will need to be patient and have the right financial backing as it may be some time before investments are recouped.

A global struggle Abroad, particularly in the US and Europe, newspapers are struggling to maintain circulations in the face of Internet migration. Some are responding with rigorous costcutting measures, which include job cuts or scaling down of the actual size of the newspaper. Reports indicate that newspapers are getting lighter, and smaller as a result. A Pew Research Centre report (www.pewresearch. org) finds that there is less foreign and national news in newspapers.

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Newspapers are devoting less space to science, the arts, features and specialised subjects. Business coverage is either packaged in an increasingly thin stand-alone section or collapsed into another part of the newspaper. However, coverage of some local issues has strengthened and investigative reporting remains highly valued. The report also finds that newsroom staff are younger, more tech savvy, and oriented to serving the demands of both print and Web news. And editors feel that their products are improving.

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brands are important as they are credible, and in uncertain times people flock to products and brands they can trust,” says Willem Pretorius, editor, Sondag. Deon du Plessis, publisher, Daily Sun, points to the browsability of the newspaper and the fact that none of the other traditional media still carry all the details of price, product, the merchant’s telephone number, and so on. For this reason, retail advertising cannot walk away from newspapers, he says, especially now that times are tougher and readers want to be able to tear out the promotions and retail specials that are relevant to them. “Brand knowledge is high and consumers are prepared to buy products and brands. They need to have more detailed info about brands and products, and the perfect place for this is in print,” says Gill Randall, joint MD, Newspaper Advertising Bureau (NAB). She goes on to say that print works especially well for time-sensitive information. But the advertising in a newspaper, and more specifically in a community newspaper, must have a strong call to action so that it is thought of in a buying situation. A study published on Marketing charts.com (13 June 2008) finds that 44 per cent of people who saw a product or service advertised in a newspaper in the past month researched it. And two-thirds of that group went online to find more information. The research also finds

that 42 per cent of respondents in the study purchased at least one product that they had seen in a newspaper. Plus, seeing products and services advertised in multiple channels increased consumer trust and likelihood to buy. So the outlook for newspapers is positive. Fergus Sampson, CEO: Emerging Markets, Media24, is clear that newspapers remain a critical component of any brand’s advertising campaign. “They offer a measure of credibility and reference value second to none. People trust newspapers. Almost half of the adult population in South Africa are regular daily and weekly newspaper readers.” Gavin Rheeder, marketing manager, Beeld believes the newspaper reader is still economically active and therefore remains a viable target market for advertisers. “When budgets are being cut, companies want to advertise in the market where they get returns. We have this to fall back on,” he says. However, there is a call for greater creativity and innovation, both in terms of advertising in newspapers, and in terms of how news reaches the consumer. Chantel Erfort, editor of the Independent Group’s Cape Community Newspapers, says: “It may sound like a romantic notion but newspapers, and even more so, community newspapers, remain one of the few media that allow intimate, directed interaction.” And this is good news for our newspaper industry.

Niche markets for future growth Newspaper readerships have, over the years, predominantly been male. The World Editors Forum blog (www.editorsweblog.org) reports that 41 per cent of women read a daily UK newspaper. It is understood that females are responsible for the majority of household purchasing decisions, which means that advertisers want to speak to them in a more meaningful manner; this, in turn, means that newspapers need to offer advertisers a platform that has a greater impact in this market.

With target markets hyper-segmenting, newspapers are challenged to find niche markets and address their news needs more specifically. “Young people. Black people. Women. These three groups are growing substantially as readership grows,” says Ferial Haffajee, editor, Mail & Guardian. Looking ahead, we can expect newspapers to focus on evolving their positioning and begin focusing on specific niches. “People will always want to know that there is a publication that caters – and cares – for their specific needs,” says Chantal Erfort, editor, Independent’s Cape Community Newspapers “So, there is potential for new newspapers as long as they serve niche markets, whether it is by geographical boundaries or along lines of interest. This will always hold value for advertisers who want a path straight to their market.” Free community newspapers have achieved this successfully; it remains to be seen whether dailies and tabloids will apply this thinking to their strategies. The new class stratification, says Mathatha Tsedu, editor, City Press, means that newspapers need to define their readers according to their interests and pitch specific (and very desirable) content at their class; race is no longer a viable means of segmenting.

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Classifieds particular are the hardest hit sectors. The decline of classifieds is something that newspapers should have

“

Locally, The Times

has made a success of a crossover model, which sees its print classifieds driving job seekers to its online platform for more

“

Worldwide, the migration of classifieds online hit newspapers hard initially, thanks to the move by a large number of buyers to the online environment, where such content is usually available for free. The State of the News Media 2008 report, compiled by the World Association of Newspapers, has found that the biggest blow to newspaper advertising has been the decline in classifieds revenue which, according to the report, once accounted for 40 per cent of advertising revenue. The report also found that: ‘Newspapers have lost market share to electronic classified rivals that exist in every major category. These online competitors, often by definition, are made to be searched and thus are a perfect match to Webbased commerce.’ Automotive, employment/recruitment and real estate classifieds in

information about individual jobs.

spotted, argues Geoff Cohen, general manager: News24. When the motoring industry turned to weekly publi-

cations (such as the AutoTrader) to list their ads, newspapers were dealt a serious blow. “The AutoTrader does not belong to any of the traditional newspaper groups, so not one newspaper is benefiting from it,” says Cohen. The launch of recruitment websites and online property advertising sites dealt newspapers a second blow by reducing the value equation in buying a newspaper. Newspapers have been left with thin classified sections as a result. “They were, in my opinion, remiss in not seeing this coming,” says Cohen. Perhaps the local situation is far less dire than it is abroad. Newspapers do not seem to be fretting over this migration. Gill Randall, joint MD, Newspaper Advertising Bureau (NAB) believes this is because it is difficult to measure whether online classifieds are

One thing’s for sure: newspapers in

South Africa have greater longevity than

“

their counterparts in more developed states.

Look out too for newspapers that actively address the needs of niche markets, including women, black readers and the youth. “Children, however, have no relationship with newspapers and this is a clear and present danger,” says Deon du Plessis, publisher, Daily Sun. Newspapers that seek to grow their readership among the younger markets will need to work on developing social networks and online platforms that engage these younger readers. Look out for greater adoption of new media, and Web 2.0 technologies in particular. Those newspapers that are not (at the very least) investigating potential integration strategies for these media will be left behind. “I feel sorry for those media that didn’t invest in technology,” says Lucille Van Niekerk, independent media consultant. And while there are a handful of newspapermen and women who believe that the penetration of Internet locally is not sufficient for newspapers to justify developing fully fledged online platforms, the reality of the situation is that those readers who are online are the desirable top end of the market. What’s more, as soon as broadband becomes more

“

“I think we should have about 10

good years left in which newspapers can continue to grow. Over the next seven

“

Management of how people get their news content (both in print and online) will come into the spotlight together with the relevance and exclusivity of content. Community papers may be safe for a while, since they provide specific community news that is not available elsewhere. “And these newspapers remain relevant without growing a massive audience because they have are the right audiences. Plus, they remain the reference point for shopping,” says Gill Randall, joint MD, Newspaper Advertising Bureau (NAB). But the national and regional dailies, weeklies and weekend titles may be looking ahead to tough times, especially if broadband Internet finds a mass market locally. They will need to examine whether the content they deliver, and the format in which is it delivered, is relevant to the target market. So, what can we expect? Look out for changes in format and style, particularly as newspapers move away from traditional formats to more modern formats that have shown positive results in developed markets. Willem Pretorius, editor, Sondag, believes that there will be a movement away from broadsheets towards tabloids as the stigma around tabloids will disappear.

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advertising and editorial, so advertisers need to be sensitive to this. Nonetheless, local newspapers are launching their own classifieds online to complement their print offerings. Schibsted newspaper, in Norway, owns classifieds site finn.no, which has become a market leader, according to the IFRA (a global news publishing research group). “An asset that newspaper publishers have is the combination of print and online, which is something that standalone online classifieds cannot offer. We also see that some newspaper publishers have been creating web to print products,” says Manfred Werfel, research director and deputy CEO, IFRA. Locally, The Times has made a success of a crossover model, which sees its print classifieds driving job seekers to its online platform for more information about individual jobs.

Measuring newspapers

Future trends

“

taking revenues away from newspapers. “Classifieds online are complementary to ads in newspapers. Users still seem to prefer newspapers,” says Willem Pretorius, editor, Sondag. Indeed, for the Caxton group, the migration of classified advertising to the online space is not too great a concern. “Our AutoDealer is getting a very positive response,” says John Bowles, joint MD, NAB. Among the lower LSM markets in particular, online classifieds are not yet a reality. These readers generally do not have the kind of Internet access that might make online classifieds more of a threat to newspapers. In fact, according to Deon du Plessis, publisher, Daily Sun, classifieds are growing in the newspaper, thanks to the increasing consciousness of them. However, he stresses that its research has shown that Daily Sun readers make little distinction between

years, the interest in politics will enhance growth of newspapers.

accessible and affordable a large proportion of the middle class will suddenly have access to news online and may well leave traditional newspapers behind. So it is essential for newspapers to start investing in young talent, and in the strategies and thinking that will enable them to develop successful online platforms. Says Mathatha Tsedu, editor, City Press, the future of newspapers is not necessarily in print alone; there is migration online and newspapers must internalise the lifestyle changes of readers if they hope to capture them. The prevailing sentiment is that newspapers can no longer behave as if they are the monopoly medium. The expectation is that newspapers will focus on their relevance to their particular target markets, and as Chantel Erfort, editor, Cape Community Newspapers says, we can expect newspapers to evolve clear strategies to this end. One thing’s for sure: newspapers in South Africa have greater longevity than their counterparts in more developed countries. And it may be some time before our newspapers have to battle the same pressures that have forced UK and US newsgroups to scale down their operations to survive. “I think we should have about 10 good years left in which newspapers can continue to grow. Over the next seven years, the interest in politics will enhance growth of newspapers. You saw this last year when intense pre-Polokwane interest saw newspaper sales grow. Democracy and the media go hand in hand, and as our country’s media develops, so will its newspapers,” says Ferial Haffajee, editor, Mail & Guardian. As Erfort puts it: “Newspapers offer more than just news, they offer a news service. There is a wealth of knowledge locked within communities which cannot be measured by the standards we’ve become accustomed to, and within that knowledge lies a whole new avenue of wants untapped by traditional industries.” As long as there are developing pockets of readers, there will be gaps for newspapers that service these evolving readerships.

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Marketers and media agencies are under greater pressure than ever to deliver accountability. Campaigns need to deliver measurable results. Lucille van Niekerk, independent media consultant, says that she is seeing more salesdriven ads in newspapers. The circulation measurements have come under fire, and some argue that the reporting of PMIEs (Print Media in Education, which includes copies sent to schools), and third party bulk figures needs to be addressed. “The biggest mistake will be to delay confronting the reality of declining circulations,” he says. “The advertising fraternity must stand up and confront the newspapers. They have vested interests, so they must deal with it,” says Francois Groepe, CEO, Media24. Charles Beiles, GM of the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) says that the PMIEs will not be capped; while there has been a tightening of the rules that govern PMIE distribution, the board has decided not to cap the number of PMIEs a newspaper may declare because there is a need for newspapers in the education space. But the way that newspapers sell advertising space is also under the spotlight, especially since they are increasingly venturing online. Abroad, newspapers no longer sell their print and online offerings separately, choosing instead to measure a blend of both or opting to measure engagement and reach in conjunction with sales. Locally, the ABC does measure digital editions, but Beiles says that few newspapers report digital editions. “We have one major rule in place, and that is that the digital edition must be the same as the print edition. So the PDF files of the print edition constitute the digital edition,” he says. Locally, newspapers have not started measuring their online activity in the same way that newspapers in the UK are doing (they are measuring engagement across print and website as a whole). The ABC says that at this stage, there is no intention to measure website engagement for newspapers. Geoff Cohen, general manager: News24 says newspapers will be under pressure, given that there is a renewed focus on measurement and ROI. “Newspaper companies absolutely should take the entire audience to the market. They need to stop looking at newspapers as a medium and start looking at the media channels that happen to be in print. A brand can exist anywhere today, not just on paper,” he says. Looking ahead, we may see measurement shifting to reflect a more holistic concept of readership. “It’s about total market aggregation – no matter the medium, newspapers must have measurable figures,” says Van Niekerk. However, we may only see this once the multimedia approach, and greater investment in online and digital strategies becomes economically viable.

The silver lining... Despite the doom and gloom, it seems that newspaper readership is doing better than ever. Reports on MarketingCharts.com (24 July 2008) find that newspaper readership in the top 100 markets grew to 80.6 million in 2008. Plus, the median household income of these readers grew 4.9 per cent. Researchers cite several factors which may explain this growth in readership in spite of circulation declines: newspaper websites are showing consistent growth and are attracting new readers; publishers are cutting marginal circulations but not core circulations; secondary readership is up (readers are reading copies of newspapers they did not purchase themselves); and free dailies are appealing to new readers. A Mediamark Research and Intelligence Survey (reported on www.mediabuyerplanner.com, 24 July 2008) mirrors these findings, stating that newspaper readership grew 2.5 per cent in the top 100 markets. This is because newspaper websites are showing consistent growth in unique visitors and may be drawing in new or returning print readers. Secondary readership (people reading newspapers they did not buy) is also up.

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Praat die taal The Afrikaans newspapers are targeting niche language groups, such as the coloured Afrikaans speakers, with more focused offerings. Beeld, for example, is targeting the coloured Afrikaans market with its newspapers, but notes that this market is tougher to target than white Afrikaans markets. “In the Cape, the coloured market is Afrikaans, but up here it is English. It’s not easy and our approach needs to be different,” says Gavin Rheeder, marketing manager, Beeld. Gradual changes in content mix, editorial and design have allowed newspapers to target specific markets or sectors more accurately. “It’s about attracting a different market and making it aware of the changes you have made to attract them,” says Rheeder. Willem Pretorius, editor, Sondag, finds that under apartheid, coloured newspaper readers moved away from Afrikaans, but now the trend is back towards it. “The trend is back to Afrikaans newspapers now that they have been liberated. It is the young market that needs to shift and see that Afrikaans is cool,” says Pretorius. In general though, the trends seen across English speaking newspaper readers are reflected across the Afrikaans community. “For example, there is a strong move to digital in the younger markets that needs addressing even in the short term,” says Jonathan Crowther, editor, Volksblad.

The State of the News Media 2008 Consider the findings published by The State of the News Media 2008 report (www.stateofthenewsmedia.org). An annual report on American Journalism found that paid circulation is continuing to fall while readership remains higher. The report found that it is especially younger and more Web-savvy readers that read their news online. Most news consumers were found to use a combination of three or four media formats. Electronic options are getting a bigger share of time and attention from their audiences as multimedia and breaking news websites improve. Paid circulation losses come from people who used to subscribe seven days a week, but now read some days and skip others, especially when they can turn to online newspapers. Locally, editors are certain that newspapers are not doomed. Says Jonathan Crowther, editor, Volksblad: “Bill Gates announced the death of newspapers about 10 years ago. Since then newspapers have proven the opposite to be true, but with the proviso that they are able to adapt to the rapidly changing media environment.” The change from printed word to digital media (especially in mature markets) must secure readership and an economic future for newspapers.

Poll results reveal reading habits Marketing Mix’s website poll has yielded some interesting finds, revealing a little more about the newspaper habits and preferences of the visitors to our website. What is most interesting about these results is that the majority of respondents read their news online (though it is not known if these respondents also read printed newspapers). Results of the Marketing Mix newspaper readership poll:  23 per cent of respondents read a newspaper daily  13 per cent of respondents read a newspaper several times a week  17 per cent of respondents read a newspaper several times a month  5 per cent never read a newspaper  39 per cent read their news online.

Verve The Independent Group recently launched Verve magazine, a tabloid supplement printed on high-quality paper, for monthly distribution in The Star, Pretoria News, Cape Argus and Daily News. According to editor, Zenaide Jones, the magazine is in response to advertiser demand for better quality paper and a national footprint. Verve reaches a combined national readership of 1 854 million, according to Jones. “Verve is already in The Star and the Pretoria News, so we are extending it to the rest of the afternoon papers in our group. Their readership tallies more with Verve target readers than the morning papers, which tend be more business orientated,” says Jones. Target readers are educated women, aged 25-35. Jones says that while it is difficult to measure advertiser response after only one issue, staff at the Independent Group are reporting positive responses. “We’ve had positive feedback from readers, but the debut issue was very fashiony and visual to showcase the paper. Future issues will have meatier content, such as Verve readers in Gauteng are accustomed to,” says Jones. There are plans to make the Verve mag available online too. NEWSPAPER 10 • PRINTED ON

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Going green Locally, the green revolution is not the tidal wave that is being seen in Europe or the US. But if we are to follow trends, our newspaper industry may soon be dealing with some serious pressure to become more sustainable and eco-friendly. ‘Newspapers will be impacted by the environmental trends and companies need to start measuring their carbon footprints,” says Lucille van Niekerk, independant media consultant. Locally, printing companies have strong recycling policies in place, and according to Francois Groepe, CEO, Media24, the company is looking at responsible ways to address environmental issues, installing afterburners and establishing further recycling schemes. “Where it’s practical to do so, we will invest money in responsible schemes,” he says. Mondi Recycling, which supplies 380 000 tonnes of recovered paper to board and paper mills per annum, has various Paper Pick-Up programmes in place, which include commercial, kerbside, schools, churches, community, townhouse complexes, offices, small business buy-back centres and an extensive network of agents and dealers. And the Mondi Shanduka Newsprint has a sophisticated recycled fibre de-inking plant, which supplies recycled fibre for newsprint production. Recycled fibre plant processes approximately 90 000 tonnes of waste paper annually. However, plants do face the challenges of sourcing sufficient recycled newspapers and magazines, so clearly, there is the need for pick up schemes in certain areas. Mondi reports that for every ton of paper that is recycled, 3 cubic metres of landfill space is saved. Plus, 40 per cent less energy is required to manufacture paper from recovered fibre as compared to paper manufactured from virgin fibre. Lee Singh, sales executive, Goss Web Offset Systems, says that large printing groups are choosing to produce newspapers by offset printing, which makes it easier to de-ink for recycling. He also says that in the US and across Europe, newspaper publishers and printers are focusing on reducing waste and maximising efficiency. They are looking at ways to reduce newsprint and ink waste during production, and are improving press automation to achieve this. “Compact presses are considered to be the future of newspaper printing by a number of industry pundits and are arguably a growing trend among newspaper printer/publishers looking to achieve a more favourable carbon footprint,” says Singh. But taking it further, and using ecofriendly papers or inks, for example, would be too costly. “It is a luxury that developed countries can afford. All local newspapers are recycling and most have green pages [sections or articles covering green issues and advice for readers]. It is costly, but everyone is moving towards a greener newspaper,” says Willem Pretorius, editor, Sondag. However, as Deon du Plessis, publisher, Daily Sun, points out, recycled newsprint has a grey-ish appearance, and some markets do not respond well to this newsprint, espe-

cially if they believe that recycled newsprint is second-rate newsprint. Editor of the Mail & Guardian, Ferial Haffajee has declared this her big mission for the next year and will focus on how to develop a sustainable newspaper with a zero carbon footprint. She intends to research recycling policies and internal practices, as well as off-set policies, such as planting trees. “It’s going to be a hard slog but for the good of the earth, it’s something we must do,” says Haffajee. Her comments highlight the reality for newspapers: not only will they have to become more green, but they will also have to report more widely on green issues.

Westminster council fell short of the targets set; it was expected that the recycling bins would ensure the recycling of 400 tons of paper per annum, but only 120 tons have been recycled in the six months since the project was started. As a result, experts speculate that legislation may be tightened to counter the growing problem discarded newspapers pose. But there are other projects and initiatives on the go abroad, such as The Newspaper House (read more at http://newspaperhouse.blogspot.com). This project sees artist Sumer Erek building houses from disused newspapers. The Arts Council of England

Gavin Rheeder, marketing manager, Beeld, believes that newspapers as a group, must take responsibility for the green trend. “This is a valid concern, especially among the youth, who are very aware of this trend. It makes sense to have a recycling policy in place and to communicate it.” According to the Newspaper Advertising Bureau, (NAB), the Caxton group is looking at ways to go green (look out for carbon footprint reporting and greater sensitivity around paper). “The younger population is very aware of it,” says John Bowles, joint MD, NAB. While newspapers will need to be environmentally responsible, they will also need to be careful about the way in which they express this and which market they express it to. As du Plessis, says you cannot tell an LSM 3 reader, who has no electricity not to cut down trees when this is the only way he is able to heat his food. “The green issue is critical, but not in this market,” says Du Plessis. “Right now, pressures are elsewhere: keeping up with the Khumalos next door, adding on to their house and so on.” Looking ahead, newspapers (especially those at the top end of the market) will have to examine more sustainable business models and get involved in recycling initiatives. Newspaper groups will, like any other company, find themselves under pressure to disclose their carbon footprints, for example, or to develop partnerships with ‘green’ organisations. In the UK, newspaper groups are teaming up with local municipalities to put recycling bins in the underground and on the streets to combat the growing problem of newspaper waste; although some of these have not been very successful, as a report on the Guardian website (www.guardian. co.uk) indicated on 21 July 2008. The report found that in Westminster, recycling schemes set by the London Lite and the London Paper and

supports this initiative, with installations often receiving sponsorship from cultural groups in the cities in which Erek constructs the installations. And then there is Project Freesheet (www.projectfreesheet.org), a UKbased voluntary online petition, which hopes to rally the newspaper publishers and the municipalities in the UK to take action. “We will need to reflect the rise of the free newspaper model within legislation. It is not enough to expect municipal services to deal with the huge increases in street litter produced by the millions of free newspapers being handed out every day,” explains founder, Justin Canning. “Whilst our recycling services attempt to deal with the already enormous amounts of litter being left on the streets, the free newspapers have served as a tipping point by swamping the streets and public transport networks with unnecessary litter that is costing cleaning subcontractors millions of pounds,” he says. Canning believes that the publishers of free newspapers, as well as the advertising companies that use them, should take responsibility for clean up and recycling. “Newspaper publishers are externalising their costs by dumping millions of their product on the street without any real attempt to help clean them up,” he says. But the newspaper reader also has a role to play, and should be taking responsibility for recycling their newspapers. Increasingly, print shops are upping their green credentials and awards such as those held by Heidelberg Printers locally (the Eco Printers Awards), recognise print companies that are sustainable or very future solutions focused. (visit Heidelberg.com for more information). Responsible Forest Management certificates allow companies to demonstrate their commitment to sustainable, wellmanaged forests. Looking ahead, we can expect to see greater involvement in such initiatives.

Best selling covers of the year

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11

GOT IT COVERED 2007/2008

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Community News

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Community newspapers Community newspapers are the darlings of the newspaper world, having proven themselves viable media investments. And if global trends are anything to go by, major newspapers should increasingly be localising their content to become more relevant to significant niches of readers. “Worldwide media owners are recognising the value of community and regional newspapers, and this highlights, I believe, the future of the newspaper. There is still a market for the paper that reports on issues closer to home,” says Chantal Erfort, editor, Cape Community Newspapers. Up until the end of 2007, the community newspapers in South Africa were seeing great growth, with new titles launching across the country (particularly into rural and township areas as well as growing cities), and circulations looking healthy. “Community newspapers are very competitive and seem to be holding their own against the paid for papers. Although there is no visible impact yet, I am sure that the reach and affordability advantages will benefit community newspapers under tighter economic conditions,” says Fergus Sampson, CEO: Emerging Markets, Media24. John Bowles, joint MD, Newspaper Advertising Bureau (NAB), says that there has been a slight slowdown in ad revenues since the beginning of the year, but thanks to certain market trends, the community titles are seeing growth in some sectors in spite of losses in others. The losses in ad revenues are being seen across those sectors (such as the smaller independent retailers, automotive advertisers, etc) that have taken a hit due to rising inflation and tough economic conditions. Meanwhile, the sectors that are seeing growth are those that are benefiting from the market trends that are the result of the tougher economic conditions. Bulk and wholesale retailers, for example, are seeing an increase in the number of shoppers in their stores; they are also quick to advertise in community newspapers. Plus, new advertisers are stepping

into the community newspaper space (FMCG brands and DIY retailers). Says Gill Randall, joint MD, NAB: “The battleground now is the community paper. Dailies used to be cheaper, but now community papers are being kept even when advertising is being cut.” And the good news for community publishers is that this seems to be holding true for paid-for titles as well as free knock-‘n-drops. “Half of our papers are sold community papers, and we are finding that readership and sales have not been impacted at all, and that they mirror the readership of the free community papers,” says Randall. This may be because the news content in a community paper is not available in national or regional newspapers and readers are happy to pay for the information. The NAB team is clear that advertisers are increasingly recognising the fact that during tough times it is important to advertise and create awareness. However, they also say that they expect to see branding campaigns suffer, as advertisers will shift to campaigns that deliver results and outcomes-based measures.

Community papers explore creative marketing solutions In an age that is seeing traditional advertising losing out to new media, peer referrals and mobile vouchers, newspapers are increasingly challenged to evolve more flexible offerings. For now, however, advertising and marketing innovation is at a grass roots level. The Caxton community newspapers, for example, are looking at sampling. “Since our papers are a reference point for planning shopping, it makes sense,” says Gill Randall, joint MD, Newspaper Advertising Bureau (NAB). “Sampling in-store might not work because the shopper has already decided which brands and products they will buy. But to get a sample to the shopper when they are planning their

Is there growth for the community newspapers in new areas? As markets in South Africa evolve, new nodes develop and the community papers move in to offer residents local news and retail advertising. “New communities are growing as shopping centres sprout up everywhere; and that’s where we launch new papers,” says Gill Randall, joint MD, Newspaper Advertising Bureau (NAB). In emerging markets, the greatest challenge for new papers is that there are appropriate retailers in the region, in order that there is sufficient, relevant advertising support for the newspapers. It is also essential for these papers to build trust in the com-

Community newspapers online

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While initially there

was a lot of interest, social networking sites like Facebook are not the best route because

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As national and mainstream newspapers in developed markets start looking at ways to engage more readers more regularly, so community papers too are exploring the potential of online platforms as complementary media tools. In the UK, some of the larger community papers have launched social networks through their websites to allow their readers to engage with one another and share their experiences as members of a particular community. Locally, few community papers have ventured beyond the basic website, although many have expressed an interest in developing richer online experiences for their readers. “With community papers in particular, there are various issues one has to take into account; one of them is Internet access. While

to access the group one needs to have a Facebook account.

the number of Internet users is steadily increasing, the cost of connectivity makes home Internet access out of the reach of many South African citizens – and yes, many readers of our community newspapers,” says Chantel Erfort, editor, Cape Community Newspapers.

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shopping trip means they have a chance to test the product, and then go into the store prepared,” she says. At this stage, the sampling campaigns are in the early stages of testing. But as John Bowles, joint MD, NAB explains, the major perk for advertisers is that they can pick specific markets that they want to sample to, according to such factors as market share or the particular catchment area of stores. “Community papers serve very specific markets, so they provide the avenues for advertisers to reach these markets – whether they are segmented along geographic or demographic lines”, says Chantel Erfort, editor, Cape Community Newspapers.

She says that none of the Cape titles are online as yet, but before any newspaper can achieve success online it needs to answer the question: ‘what exactly do you hope to achieve by going online? “Until a newspaper can answer that question it’s pointless simply dumping copy from the printed newspaper onto a web page,” says Erfort. She goes on to say that they have started a Facebook group for one of the titles in their stable, to engage the youth and encourage their interaction. “While initially there was a lot of interest, social networking sites like Facebook are not the best routebecause to access the group one needs to have a Facebook account,” says Erfort. She believes that in spite of this, social networks are an avenue that can be more adequately explored.

munities that they enter. “The first papers in will usually build relationships with readers and advertisers,” says John Bowles, joint MD, NAB. Rural and township areas are expected to see new launches in the coming months, especially as the number of commuters grows or as these regions become hubs for trade and business (such as Polokwane, Nelspruit and Rustenburg). “Community newspapers depend on circulation with a geographic identity,” says Randall. Furthermore, according to NAB, in areas where the existing community newspapers get too large for the

catchment areas they serve, there is an opportunity for the area to be sub-divided and served by new papers. “Evaluating community newspapers by their size may not be the best way to look at it, since the smaller ‘mom ‘n pop’ stores cannot afford the higher rates that are charged and therefore for them this measure is irrelevant,” says Bowles. As soon as the community newspapers close in on the 60 000 mark, publishers will note that local players can no longer afford to advertise in these papers and a new paper might be a more effective strategy.

Geo-demographic segmentation and the community newspaper The Newspaper Advertising Bureau (NAB), finds that the traditional method of segmenting markets by demographics and psychographics is no longer totally relevant. In fact, according to Gill Randall, joint MD, NAB, the modern consumer is a promiscuous shopper and instead of being 100 per cent loyal to one brand (or one store), they are partially loyal to a range of stores and brands. The decision about which brand to buy or where to buy it is influenced by the shopper’s mood, needs, expectations, and so on. NAB found that shopper profiles differ from one region to the next, which means that the shoppers in Rivonia will have a particular profile, comparable with the shopper profile of Brakpan. This means that the shopper profile for the Pick n Pay in Rivonia will differ from that of the Brakpan Pick n Pay. Therefore, says Randall, geo-demographic segmentation is a more effective tool in deciding which products and brands to sell, and how to reach these shoppers via media channels. The community newspaper is in the perfect position to make the most of this trend. The community newspaper, after all, is directed at a particular area profile, and carries advertising that is locally relevant. “The whole community newspaper environment is conducive to geo-demographic segmentation,” says Randall. “After all, the community newspaper is where people go for community news, and shopping planning”. National and regional newspapers have tried to create local editions but have never managed to offer the local total market coverage of each area, required by retail advertising.

Community News

NEWSPAPER 10 • JULY/AUGUST 2008 •

13

No free sheets or commuter papers for SA Locally, there are no freesheets beyond the free community newspapers. The Caxton Group launched the CitizenMetro paper in 2006, a free daily paper which was distributed on Metro buses. Yet this newspaper was not very successful and was forced to close in 2007. According to Greg Stewart, publisher of The Citizen, the newspaper was launched to provide a platform to expand the paper’s existing brands and products. A separate editorial team was appointed to give content a unique slant, and to produce more entertainment and sport (and less hard news). “Research showed that commuters loved our content,” says Stewart. However, a lack of advertising support for the paper led to its demise. Stewart believes that this launch was ahead of its time, given we may only become more of a commuter society once the impact of 2010 public transport system upgrades coupled with rising fuel prices take effect. “We are predominantly not a commuting community (outside of mini bus taxis and Metro Rail that tend to attract a less economically viable audience) and this makes for very little grasp of the concept within the marketplace,” he says. However, he points to research that shows that early morning/late

afternoon commuters are predominantly employed and are an economically active audience. Jacques du Preez, MD, Provantage Media believes that the CitizenMetro failed because the content was not suitable for the market at which it was aimed. “It has to be relevant to the market. A freesheet with low interest will not succeed. What kills it is the cost of print and distribution. The model does not work from a viability point of view. The content did not rival other papers targeting the same commuter market such as the Daily Sun. Any freesheet has to have a reason for being in that environment,” he says. He goes on to say that, currently, he believes the Caxton community newspaper model works best in terms of its focus on community news, coverage of those issues that are closest to the heart of each community, school activities, and so on. “The fact that these newspapers carry retail information is an added bonus and not the reason for their existence,” he points out. Dr Piet Bakker (a freesheets expert and professor of Cross Media Content at the School of Journalism and Communication at the Hogeschool Utrecht in Holland) says that while a major publisher, such as Metro SA

look into a taxi in the morning to see that,” says Ferial Haffajee, editor, Mail & Guardian. Du Plessis says that the Daily Sun is ubiquitous in taxi ranks and along commuter routes simply because its distribution infrastructures have taken these details into account. “I wouldn’t like to take us on. Even with a free newspaper model, you would still need very deep pockets,” says Du Plessis. Groepe has doubts about the value of the commuter market, given the spending power of this market. He questions whether advertisers would support an ad-funded model aimed at this sort of consumer. “It would be difficult to convince the advertiser of the value proposition in this model. In our situation, it won’t translate into value,” he says. And while he isn’t ruling it out, he argues that there are no viable business propositions for this model. “Launching a free newspaper is a challenging and expensive venture,’ he says. John Bowles, joint MD, NAB, echoes these sentiments. “The commuter market overseas is economically active, so it is possible for publishers to create good quality, free newspapers for these markets,” says Bowles. In a market such as ours, he argues, the commuter market is generally below LSM

6, and therefore it is not viable for advertisers to reach this market through a free newspaper. “The formula just isn’t right. There is also the issue of where and how to distribute these newspapers,” adds Bowles. Lucille van Niekerk, independent media consultant, says that perhaps, distribution strategies need to evolve, to see taxi drivers getting commission for sales of commuter newspaper titles. She stresses that any newspaper entering this sector will need to develop a relationship with its reader base and build reader loyalty. Chantel Erfort, editor, Cape Community Newspapers, believes that the model for successful commuter papers (smaller physical size and shape, format and length of reports, etc) opens possibilities for mainstream or community newspapers to use commuter papers as a tool to draw readers to their main publications. Haffajee believes that the newspaper revolution in South Africa will be quite disparate to that seen abroad. “From what I’ve read, we do not face a free revolution as you have seen in Europe and the US. Instead, we are living in a tabloid revolution where papers such as the Daily Sun and the Voice have redefined the world of newspapers in South Africa,” she says.

The global picture for freesheets

Freesheets appeal One cannot ignore the fact that the free newspapers are doing what the traditional newspaper cannot – reach young urbanites that the traditional dailies are finding increasingly difficult to engage. “They attract younger readers because of distribution mostly – content is less important. In my view it’s not very appealing content – it’s just more convenient. It’s there, and you get a quick overview and some extras. If it’s not there, you don’t complain,” says Dr Piet Bakker (a freesheets expert, and professor of Gross Media Content at the school of Journalism, and communication at the Hogeschool Utrecht). What’s more these freesheets are often more creative, flexible and innovative than their paid-for counterparts, so their offering to advertisers is more diverse. For example, the Metro Group partnered with Swatch watches (according to the Metro website, www.metro.lu) to create a compelling campaign. Swatch’s Season’s Surprises campaign saw it working with Metro papers to hide a musical insert inside the newspapers. To launch the new Samsung K5 mp3 player, Metro created a series of day-long spontaneous street parties in New York, London, Paris, Marseilles, Lyon, Rome and Milan, which reached 10.5 million urbanites.

International, might view South Africa as a market with opportunity, any group that looks to publish freesheets in the country will need a local partner. “And all incumbent groups fear cannibalisation,” he says. “The logistics of the market here are very different to those of Europe. And this is the biggest challenge to a free newspaper model locally,” says Francois Groepe, CEO, Media 24. He, like other experts, believes that the commuter experience on taxis, trains and buses is not at all conducive to reading a newspaper, given that these are cramped, rushed and often dangerous environments for commuters. “Assuming that the Gautrain will be less crowded – with organised and assigned seating arrangements – the prospect of European-type newspaper distribution will become very attractive,” says Deon du Plessis, publisher, Daily Sun. However, according to Bombella Concessions, there are no plans in place (presently, or in the near future) to produce a commuter newspaper of any sort. Some papers seem to have a higher profile among commuters in South Africa. “We may not call them that, but the Sowetan and the Daily Sun were commuter newspapers before the term was coined. You only have to

Plus, many of these titles are launching online profiles to take advantage of digital platforms; some are seeing very positive results from the increased reader interaction that these sites promote. The UK Metro website (www.metro.co.uk) features UK and world news, and here, readers can also check out the recently launched e-Metro, a digital version of the Metro paper (www.metro.co.uk /e-metro). In France, readers can view their regional edition of 20minutes at www.20minutes.fr. And in Italy, readers of Leggo daily can log onto www.leggonline.it. The format of free dailies is here to stay, says the IFRA (a global news publishing research group). “The free daily serves a market demand for fast and easy to access mass-market news. However many markets have experienced or are still experiencing kind of predatory competition. There are three to four similar positioned free sheets in one market. With advertising being the only revenue source, reaching attractive target groups (eg affluent young people) is crucial,” says Manfred Werfel, research director and deputy CEO. Market leaders are delivering the relevant reach and are a financial success.

Metro launches e-metro On 4 August, Associated Newspapers’ Metro launched e-Metro (www.metro.co.uk/ e-metro), an electronic version of the free daily Associated Newspapers title (according to news reports on www.guardian.co.uk). The e-Metro allows readers to view the news for free, turn pages at the click of a button, print, search for text, bookmark interesting pages and save the newspaper to their PCs. As yet, the service is only accessible from PCs as the newspaper has not been optimised for downloading to iPhones or PDAs.

Across Europe freesheets are seeing dozens of launches each month, and millions of newspapers are being distributed daily. Yet the Metro Group SA International. (the largest publisher of freesheets globally) is feeling the pinch in several territories. Dr Piet Bakker professor of Cross Media Content at the School of Journalism and Communication at the Hogeschool Utrecht in Holland, says this is the result of heavy competition (discounts on advertising rates) and a gloomy economic outlook, which makes advertisers cut costs. “The first reason is probably the most important. Countries like Italy, Spain, Sweden, Portugal, Denmark and the Netherlands seem to be affected. There are also problems in Canada and the US,” he says. Dr Bakker is an expert on the freesheet industry, and tracks the developments of the industry on his blog, newspaperinnovation.com. He reports that the outlook for Metro International SA is not good. Recently, losses

and revenue declines were reported for Spain and the US, followed by Denmark and Portugal (which had both been marked as strong markets in 2007). The pinch is being attributed to increasing competition (newspapers are competing for limited advertising and are cannibalising one another) as well as the decline of ad revenues across the newspaper industry in general. Newspaperinnovation.com reports that while launches continue to outnumber collapses, competition and economic pressure could see off the weaker newspaper brands. It’s quite likely that there will be consolidations as these markets mature as well as greater investment in quality editorial. “Growth in print is easy (print more papers), growth in readership is more difficult, but almost always has to do with better distribution: finding the right reader at the right time. For free newspapers, readers don’t look for you, you have to look for them,” says Dr Bakker.

Who’s responsible? Looking ahead, freesheet newspapers will have to battle not only the issues around declining revenues and tougher market conditions, but also the sustainability of their model. The City of Westminster website reports that “around 20 tonnes of free papers end up as street waste every week, and it costs the council £111 000 [more than R1.5 million] a year to deal with the deluge. Around a quarter of the street waste in parts of the West End is discarded free newspapers, but as it’s strewn on the ground or mixed with other waste it is not recycled due to contamination”. The Westminster council joined forces with the London Lite and the London Paper to place recycling bins around the city, while their parent companies (Associated Newspapers and News International) agreed to arrange for regular litter collections. However, reports (newspaperinnoivation.com) find that these initiatives are not being met. Some argue that these newspapers should be delivered to homes instead of being handed out to the public to avoid them ending up as litter on the streets. Project Freesheet, a Web-based campaign (www.projectfreesheet.org) is petitioning for the banning of distribution of free newspapers and the promotion of newspaper recycling.

The history of the freesheet Free newspapers have been around for ages. In the US, the first free newspaper, the Contra Costa Times, was launched in the 1940s, with a host of freesheets following suit across the US and the UK. But these were all short-lived ventures. The concept of the free daily newspaper, as we know it, was developed in 1992, when the Metro International SA Group approached the Swedish public transport system (and investors) with the idea to launch a free newspaper for commuters. Three years later, the first of the free newspapers from the Metro Group hit the Swedish transport system. Since then, dozens of free newspapers have been launched across the globe; some have encountered legal battles as a result of the clash between entrepreneurial freesheet publishers and the traditional newspaper publishers, but many have enjoyed great success.

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Global Headlines

NEWSPAPER 10 • JULY/AUGUST 2008

UK          

The Riddle was the first film to debut as a cover mount DVD given away by a newspaper – courtesy of the Mail on Sunday. The Audit Bureau of Circulations in the UK will combine its monthly print and online figures for newspapers into one report. The Evening Standard launches UK’s first cashless payment card for a newspaper. The Guardian launched its US website in October. In May, the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, went green with the announcement to discontinue the Londoner newspaper and instead plant trees. The Mail on Sunday relaunched in January. The Independent gets full colour and a redesign, scheduled to be finished by September. In January, The Sun gave away energy-saving light bulbs, adding 400 000 copies to its sales. The Times launched a lifestyle luxury supplement called Luxx in November. In July, the Guardian.co.uk became the first UK newspaper site to record more than 20 million unique users.

Sweden 



Metro International, publishers of the free daily Metro papers is starting to feel the pain of the global recession after revenues began to fall this year. Metro closes US title, BostonNow, after the paper failed to attract buyers.

Iran

Iraq 



Forty-four journalists were killed in Iraq in2007. So far, 10 journalists have lost their lives this year.



In August, liberal paper Shargh is banned. Leading Iranian newspaper shut down for printing an interview with a homosexual.

Afghanistan 

Yemen 

Spain 

In March, the Al-Sabah and the Abwab newspapers were banned from distribution by the government.

Two journalists killed in 2007. Two more journalists, Abdul Samad Rohani and Carsten Thomassen were killed this year.

Pakistan 

The printing press of the El Correo newspaper in the Basque region was bombed.

Five journalists were killed in 2007 in Pakistan. Three have been killed this year so far.

Algeria 

In March, Omar Belhouchet and Chawki Amari of El Watan daily were sentenced to two months in prison and fined.

Saudi Arabia 

United Arab Emirates  In April, Abu Dhabi English language paper, The National, was launched by Martin Newland, former Daily Telegraph editor.  The FT launched a Middle East edition in April.

Philippines 

Somalia 

DRC 

Blogger Fouad AlFarhan was arrested in December 2007 but released in April this year.

Patrick Kikuku and Serge Maheshe Kasole were killed last year.

Over the course of 2007, eight journalists were killed in Somalia. This year, Nasteh Dahi, a BBC and AP journalist, and Hassan Kafi Hared, a reporter for the Somali National News Agency have been killed.

Cambodia 

Journalist Khim Sambo was killed in July this year in Cambodia.

Zimbabwe  

In June, a ‘luxury’ tax was imposed on newspapers imported into the country. In March last year, freelance cameraman, Edward Chikombo was killed.

Eritrea 

Paulos Kidane and Fessehaye ‘Joshua’ Yohannes are both presumed dead after disappearing last year.

Sri Lanka 

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Six journalists lost their lives in Sri Lanka from April until November 2007. One journalist has been killed so far this year.

Two radio journalists were killed last year.

Global Headlines

NEWSPAPER 10 • JULY/AUGUST 2008 •

17

US             

Numerous newspapers have slashed thousands of jobs over the last year. New York – The Wall Street Journal will launch glossy magazine, Pursuits, in September. Northern Virginia – USA Today launched quarterly glossy magazine, Open Air, in March. Mountain View, California – Google acquires Doubleclick and hopes to aid newspapers with more online revenues. July – Google launched Print Ads to allow advertisers to buy traditional print newspaper ads. September – Google launches a free software tool to allow AdWords advertisers to design their own Google print ads for newspapers. In April, The New York Times magazine launched its first green issue. In September 2007, The New York Times got rid of paid for content on its website. In February, The New York Times launched ShiftD, allowing users to move content between PC and mobile. The New York Times launched AdReady in June, allowing small-budget advertisers to create and serve ads on its website. Dallas – in May, the International Newspaper Marketing Association (INMA) dropped the word ‘newspaper’ from its title, reflecting the changing world of the newspaper industry. It changed ‘newspaper’ to ‘news media’. Philadelphia – in June, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News ran fake ads in its print editions and websites. Oakland, California – Oakland Post editor, Chauncey Bailey, was gunned down in August 2007.

Canada 

Adget is launched for digital news editions in Canada. Adget is a cost-per-action ad format.

China 

China is the largest market for newspapers with 107 million copies sold daily – WAN World Press Trends.



China unblocks the Reporters Without Borders website in time for the Olympics.



Li Chongqing, a Chinese journalist, is awarded the 2008 Golden Pen of Freedom – the annual press freedom prize of the World Association of Newspapers.

Mexico 

Gerardo Israel García Pimentel, a journalist with the La Opinión de Michoacán newspaper, was gunned down in early December. Two other journalists were killed in April last year.

Japan 

Tokyo – Japan’s leading newspapers cooperate in online and distribution. The three titles are the biggest selling newspaper, The Yomirui Shimbun along with competitors The Asahi Shimbun and the Nikkei business daily. This happened in October.

El Salvador 

Salvador Sánchez Roque was killed last September.

Brazil 

Luiz Carlos Barbon Filho is killed in Brazil.

Nepal 

It is not certain when Prakash Singh Thakuri was killed, but Birendra Shah was killed in October and Shankar Panthi in September last year. So far, one journalist has been killed this year.

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Down Under

NEWSPAPER 10 • JULY/AUGUST 2008

News un-Limited Newspaper10 talks to News Limited Group Marketing & Circulation director, Joe Talcott, about the Australian newspaper industry, branding newspapers and the future of newspapers. Newspaper 10: Globally, an economic recession is impacting on media and business. Have you noted a decline in newspaper advertising revenues, subscriber numbers or copy sales?

Joe Talcott: Australia has been shielded from the global crisis, at least to some degree. We are seeing a slowdown in advertising in some categories. Newspaper sales, both subscriptions and casual sales, have not moved dramatically from their trends of the past few years. N10: What will you do to counter this impact?

JT: From an advertising perspective, we don’t believe we’ll escape the effects of the global downturn. We are working to demonstrate the effectiveness of newspaper advertising in tough times and working hard to increase our share of spend. N10: What are Australian retailers doing to help newspapers cope with the economic pressures?

JT: We are working on two fronts: at newsagents we want to give more visibility to newspapers and we’re working to position them in a way that helps newsagents sell more merchandise that might be associated with papers. We are also taking newspapers to non-traditional outlets such as convenience stores, street vendors and quick-service restaurants. N10: How viable is the newspaper in today’s media advertising environment? JT: Our industry organisation, The Newspaper Works, recently completed a research study that demonstrated the power of newspapers to affect brand perceptions. Newspapers are a trusted media, and the trust can rub off on brand messages. N10: Are ad revenues moving online? Are online ads cannibalising print revenues?

N10: What are you doing to build youth readership and create a culture of newspaper readership in these future markets?

JT: We’ve redesigned our business to be brand-led media. That means that a reader will interact with us in their morning paper, spend lunch with us online at work and get an update from the same brand on their mobile phone. The distinction between old and new media is fading fast; it’s just media in the consumer’s mind.

JT: We are redesigning papers to keep them contemporary. We launched mX, and we

N10: What strategies do you have in place to take your newspapers into the new media

N10: User-generated content and citizen journalism – are these relevant and what is

space?

their role in the media landscape?

JT: If you’re searching for a house, a car or a job, you can’t beat the Internet as a tool to find one. That’s changed the classified business. We’ve built our own online classified businesses and are redesigning our print classifieds to appeal to ‘browsers’ rather than ‘searchers’. In other words, you can browse through pictures of homes in the paper and when you’re ready to buy a home, you’ll head online to find the specific one for you.

JT: Today our readers are connected with each other. We are working hard to stay connected with them. User generated content (UGC) is an important part of our online offering and in the paper. Our readers expect it. In addition, we are listening to them, not just publishing them. There is a lot of talent in the world and we are learning from our readers.

“

are integrating with other media. We are writing about the things that matter to young people.

N10: How are distribution footprints in Australia challenged, and how are they

Australia has been shielded from the global crisis, at least

evolving?

casual sales, have not moved dramatically from their trends of the

JT: One of our biggest success stories is the growth of community papers; delivered free on a weekly basis to homes in small suburbs or communities. They deliver local news with a local feel. For paid papers, distribution is being challenged. Readers are going to work earlier and getting their news from new sources. We are working to get papers to readers in the most relevant place and at appropriate times.

past few years.

N10: What are your newspapers doing to address environmental issues?

to some degree. We are seeing a slowdown in advertising in some categories. Newspaper sales, both subscriptions and

“

JT: To succeed we have to stay relevant to modern readers, and that means adapting to meet their changing needs.

JT: In the past 15 years, Australia has moved from being a relatively poor recycler of newspapers to the world’s best. Our company is committed to being carbon neutral by 2010 and has taken dramatic steps to reduce its energy consumption and to educate its audiences about how they can make a difference. (www.1degree.com/au.what_we_are_doing/australia).

N10: Are there any commuter papers in Australia, and if so, what makes them

N10: Future trends for the newspaper industry?

N10: What about innovation?

successful?

JT: The newspaper industry is being challenged like never before. Over the next few years, JT: We launched mX newspaper a few years ago in Melbourne (http://wwwmxnet.com.au) and have since expanded its distribution to Sydney and Brisbane. It is a free afternoon paper. It’s designed to be a 20-minute read (the average commute time). mX covers the issues that matter most in a concise, upbeat, funky, intelligent and sexy way.

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the successful newspaper business will change to better connect with its readers; and as a result will continue to succeed. There are intrinsic strengths to the printed page, to edited content, to great writing and powerful photography. Successful newspapers will leverage these strengths in new ways to attract new audiences and to keep the ones they have.

International News

NEWSPAPER 10 • JULY/AUGUST 2008 •

The demise of press freedom? In a leading decision of the Constitutional Court – Khumalo v Holomisa – decided six years ago, the Court proclaimed that “The mass media… bears an obligation to provide citizens both with information and with a platform for the exchange of ideas, which is crucial to the development of a democratic culture.” In recent months, both the ruling party and the government have instigated policies and proposals that seem to undermine the value of freedom of expression and the media in our society. Ardent protectors of freedom of expression argue that South Africans are witnessing the demise of press freedom and the rise of pre-publication censorship. Of particular importance is the Protection of Information Bill (2008) which aims to protect certain information in the hands of the government by setting out the criteria for the classification of such information. While it is correct that certain state information, such as that relating to state security measures, ought to remain secret, the Bill, in its current form, contains provisions that may facilitate censorship in the political arena. For example, the Bill provides that the government may classify information as ‘classified’ if it may harm ‘the national interest’. This proviso is problematic because the definition of ‘national interest’ is so broad that it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine what will amount to ‘national interest’. The Bill, by not succinctly defining the concept of national interest, makes it very easy for a government official to use this provision to classify information that exposes corruption or illegality in their department as classified. Furthermore, the Bill fails to take into account the media’s right to

publish information, whether damaging or not, that is in the public interest by not including a public interest defence. Accordingly, a publication that publishes classified information, even if it is in the public interest, will not escape liability. The Protection of Information Bill was introduced just a few months after the introduction of the controversial Films and Publications Bill, which seeks to introduce a system that requires magazine publishers, writers and artists to submit materials that contain visual presentations, descriptions or representations of sexual conduct, propaganda for war or hate speech to the Film and Publication Board for pre-classification. It is argued that both the Protection of Information Bill and the Films and Publications Bill undermine the media’s right to operate freely without interference or pre-publication censorship. The government is not the only institution making inroads on press freedom. It is widely known that the ruling party has a contentious relationship with the media. The ANC has gone so far as to suggest the formation of a Media Tribunal to serve as an ‘appeal division’ allowing members of the public to submit complaints against the media, thus eliminating self-regulation in the media. The exact nature of the tribunal is as yet unclear. For instance, it is unclear what powers will be granted to the tribunal, what sanctions it would be able to impose on the media, and whether it would be a government, independent or ANC tribunal. Some argue that the media is already over-regulated. Aggrieved persons currently have recourse in the common law in the form

19

Press Freedom In 2007:

Legal Column of defamation and privacy law as well as the media codes (the press ombudsman code and broadcasting complaints commission of South Africa code of good practice). In addition, statutory restrictions in the provisions of, inter alia, the Criminal Procedure Act, National Key Points Act, the new Children’s Act and a host of other offences contained in statutory provisions also impose restrictions on what may or may not be published. One must also mention the continued existence of the sub judice rule, which criminalises the publication of material that prejudices the administration of justice. There has also been talk that the ruling party is considering establishing its own commercial newspaper so that it can communicate information to the public ‘the ANC way’ in order to counter what it views as bias in the South African press. It is difficult to see what good an effectively state-owned newspaper could serve in a democratic society. Whether the newspaper would be able to report objectively on the good and the bad in the ANC is highly unlikely. The biggest danger is that a newspaper of this kind would be nothing more than a government mouthpiece designed to relay to the public only that information the ruling party wants the public to know. It will be very interesting to see whether any of the ANC’s suggestions come to fruition and the impact that these suggestions have on press freedom. One can only hope that at the end of it all, we remain a society that recognises and respects the importance of freedom of expression and freedom of the media.

The top 10 countries that have dropped significantly down the index  Tonga (119 down from 55)  Bolivia (68 down from 17)  Fiji (119 down from 58)  Guinea-Bissau (109 down from 64)  Malaysia (124 down from 92)  Benin (53 down from 23)  Lesotho (99 down from 72)  Mozambique (73 down from 47)  Palestinian Territories (158 down from 134)  El Salvador (64 down from 41)

In 2007 86 journalists and 20 media assistants were killed 887 arrested 1 511 physically attacked or threatened 67 journalists kidnapped 528 media outlets censored



 





Online:   

37 bloggers were arrested 21 physically attacked 2 676 websites shut down or suspended

Top 10 countries moving up the index  Kenya (78 up from 118)  Tanzania (55 up from 88)  Israel (extra-territorial) (103 up from 136)  Mauritania (50 up from 77)  Zambia (70 up from 94)  Armenia (77 up from 101)  Georgia (66 up from 89)  Cambodia (85 up from 108)  Nicaragua (47 up from 69)  Nepal (137 up from 159)

Source: Reporters Without Borders for Press Freedom. www.rsf.org.

The countries at the bottom of the Press Freedom Index haven’t really changed, except Eritrea is now at the bottom and Iran comes in below China, Burma and Cuba. Turkmenistan and North Korea are still in the bottom three. Montenegro has been added to the list in 59th place.

For Africa, Mauritius (25) leads the Press Freedom Index, followed by Namibia (26), Ghana (29) and South Africa (43), which has leapt two positions only because Benin and Mali dropped down the list.

Physically Media attacked or outlets Arrested threatened censored Kidnapped

2006

Killed

Africa

12

162

145

61

1

Americas

7

86

626

91

11

Asia

17

430

562

273

23

Europe

2

77

83

60

3

43

Middle East

48

132

95

Total

81

887

1 472 528

By Portia Mngomezulu, associate: Corporate Services Department, Webber Wentzel

29

67

Source: The 2007 Round-Up – Reporters Without Borders for Press Freedom.

Worldwide PressFreedom Index 2007 – Reporters without Borders www.rsf.org

Source: www.rsf.org

The ranking N°

Country

Score

N°

Country

Score

1 3 5 8 11 12 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 23 24 25 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 39 41 42 43

Iceland 0,75 Norway 0,75 Estonia 1,00 Slovakia 1,00 Belgium 1,50 Finland 1,50 Sweden 1,50 Denmark 2,00 Ireland 2,00 Portugal 2,00 Switzerland 3,00 Latvia 3,50 Netherlands 3,50 Czech Republic 4,00 New Zealand 4,17 Austria 4,25 Hungary 4,50 Canada 4,88 Trinidad and Tobago 5,00 Germany 5,75 Costa Rica 6,50 Slovenia 6,50 Lithuania 7,00 United Kingdom 8,25 Mauritius 8,50 Namibia 8,50 Jamaica 8,63 Australia 8,79 Ghana 9,00 Greece 9,25 France 9,75 Taiwan 10,00 Spain 10,25 Bosnia and Herzegovina 11,17 Italy 11,25 Macedonia 11,50 Japan 11,75 Uruguay 11,75 Chile 12,13 South Korea 12,13 Croatia 12,50 Romania 12,75 South Africa 13,00

44 45 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 58 60 61 63 64 65 66 67 68 71 72 73 74 75 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 -

Israel (Israeli territory) 13,25 Cape Verde 14,00 Cyprus 14,00 Nicaragua 14,25 USA 14,50 Togo 15,17 Mauritania 15,50 Bulgaria 16,25 Mali 16,50 Benin 17,00 Panama 17,88 Tanzania 18,00 Ecuador 18,50 Poland 18,50 Cyprus (North) 19,00 Montenegro 19,00 n. c. Kosovo 19,75 Hong-Kong 20,00 Madagascar 20,00 Kuwait 20,17 El Salvador 20,20 United Arab Emirates 20,25 Georgia 20,83 Serbia 21,00 Bolivia 21,50 Burkina Faso 21,50 Zambia 21,50 Central African Republic 22,50 Dominican Republic 22,75 Mozambique 23,00 Mongolia 23,40 Botswana 23,50 Haiti 23,50 Armenia 23,63 Kenya 23,75 Qatar 24,00 Congo 24,50 Moldova 24,75 Argentina 24,83 Senegal 25,00 Brazil 25,25 Cambodia 25,33 Liberia 25,33

N°

Country

Score

N°

Country

Score

87 90 91 92 94 96 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 106 107 110 111 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129

Albania Honduras Niger Paraguay Angola Malawi Ukraine Côte d’Ivoire Timor-Leste Comoros Uganda Lebanon Lesotho Indonesia Turkey Gabon Israel (extra-territorial) Guatemala Seychelles Morocco Fiji Guinea Guinea-Bissau Kyrgyzstan Cameroon USA (extra-territorial) Chad Venezuela Tajikistan Bhutan Peru Bahrain Tonga India Sierra Leone Jordan Algeria Malaysia Kazakhstan Colombia Burundi Philippines Maldives

25,50 25,50 25,50 26,10 26,50 26,75 26,75 27,00 27,00 28,00 28,00 28,75 29,50 30,50 31,25 31,50 32,00 33,00 33,00 33,25 33,50 33,50 33,50 33,60 36,00 36,00 36,50 36,88 37,00 37,17 37,38 38,00 38,25 39,33 39,50 40,21 40,50 41,00 41,63 42,33 43,40 44,75 45,17

130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169

Gambia Nigeria Djibouti DRC Bangladesh Thailand Mexico Nepal Swaziland Azerbaijan Sudan Singapore Afghanistan Yemen Russia Tunisia Egypt Rwanda Saudi Arabia Zimbabwe Ethiopia Belarus Pakistan Equatorial Guinea Syria Libya Sri Lanka Iraq Palestinian Territories Somalia Uzbekistan Laos Vietnam China Burma Cuba Iran Turkmenistan North Korea Eritrea

48,25 49,83 50,25 50,50 53,17 53,50 53,63 53,75 54,50 55,40 55,75 56,00 56,50 56,67 56,90 57,00 58,00 58,88 59,75 62,00 63,00 63,63 64,83 65,25 66,00 66,50 67,50 67,83 69,83 71,50 74,88 75,00 79,25 89,00 93,75 96,17 96,50 103,75 108,75 114,75

NEWSPAPER 10 • PRINTED ON

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20 •

Letters

NEWSPAPER 10 • JULY/AUGUST 2008

Letters to the editor Dear Editor I am always amazed with the pessimism surrounding newspapers in South Africa. All newspapers are currently going through a tough time. Circulations are down for the most part, and hard costs are skyrocketing. The paper price and the relative weakness of the Rand are two factors not helping their losing cause. But why do they keep surviving and flourishing? I am of the opinion that newspapers like cockroaches (excuse the crude comparison) will survive most things, including the Internet and the Digital revolution. Newspapers always seem to get their portion of the advertising pie, no matter what happens to their performance. The most recent ABC figures looked like an obituary for many papers but yet, I dare anyone to tell the marketing director of Pick n Pay or Shoprite to cancel their print advertising due to declining circulations. Newspapers still serve a purpose, albeit a different purpose to that of many years ago. They always used to be the first with the news and on the cutting edge of information dissemination. Nowadays, with 24-hour news channels, the Internet, and radio journalism stepping up to the plate, this function is taking a step back. Although, I still believe this is their primary function. Becoming more like magazines, newspapers are growing the ‘lifestyle’ section of their editorial. Two recent examples are the phenomenal growth of the Sunday Times Lifestyle section and the Independent Newspaper Group taking the Verve concept national. The editor of the Verve section recently said, “Verve is considered the ‘pulsating heart’ of The Star. It provides the energy and information to help readers make sense of their lives. They love its lively, beautiful pages and its thoughtprovoking, compelling articles.” Sounds like magazine territory to me. Secondly, I believe newspapers will always be the shop window for everyone from the bored housewife looking for a good price on baked beans, to the yuppie man looking for a new BMW X6. According to recent Adex figures, newspaper insert spend has grown by 35% over the past two years. This is despite the fact that it is costing the advertiser exponentially more every year to print these inserts. If there is one thing you know about retailers, it is that they would not be doing it, if it wasn’t working for them. Credit to the medium indeed. Newspapers will definitely still be here for a very long time. The day after the bomb goes, the survivors will still get a paper with a lifestyle angle article on what nuclear fallout could do to your garden. Chris Botha director The MediaShop

Dear Editor, With the staggering number of titles available in SA daily, weekly and on Sundays in every geographical location and catering for almost every socio-economic, cultural and linguistic group, if you need to communicate a message with credibility and reach, newspapers are the way to go. While glossy magazines and popular lifestyle titles with international lifting rights may be popular among the upper LSMs as an easily accessible medium, the press remains a primary source of information for many people, and is arguably the most influential and far-reaching. Set within a vibrant, flourishing publishing industry, the press serves as an essential source of information on current affairs, entertainment, sport and lifestyle, among other subjects, for millions of people, setting trends and moulding perceptions. In the commercial world, there is little that can compete for space with the popularity and importance of specialist local and international business titles as well as supplements that are widely read and well supported. These remain an essential element of the marketing mix for any communications professional who needs to reach this influential audience. Although online content is growing in importance – and every major newspaper these days publishes an electronic version- in developing countries like SA, where Internet access is limited by financial and infrastructural constraints, the printed press continues to be a primary information resource. Newspapers tend to be passed on, thus generating a wider reach and longer shelf life than their electronic cousins. With a tradition of independence in SA dating back to the early 1800s, newspapers retain unrivalled credibility as an impartial and objective source of information. Given the importance of credibility in the arsenal of the communications professional, rand for rand, reader for reader and inch for inch, there are few media that can deliver the quality, credibility and reach of SA’s newspapers in generating publicity to manage perceptions, maintain reputations and quite simply, spread the news. Cameron MacKenzie content director Redline

Dear Editor Research carried out by Millward Brown for the Newspaper Marketing Agency (NMA) in 2006 showed that brand advertising campaigns which include national newspaper and TV advertising can double the brand commitment and brand investment compared to those using TV alone. So why do some advertisers still believe there is truth in the old myth that newspapers are primarily a call to action medium and cannot contribute to brand building? The NMA study proves that due to their emotional and informational characteristics, newspapers are very different from other media. This makes them a perfect partner to TV when it comes to building successful brands. By adding newspapers to TV advertisers will see real and tangible enhancement of their campaign effectiveness. And for those that ask why you should advertise in print in this new digital era the evidence is compelling. With a strong online presence, newspapers can no longer be thought of a just a print medium. Whether in print or online, the research shows that newspapers drive Web traffic. One newspaper print campaign for the Vauxhall Tigra resulted in a 39 per cent increase in traffic to the brand’s website. In today’s multi-channel, digital world, some may question the future of newspapers. But moving forward, advertisers will need to use a range of media to reach consumers. Newspaper’s complementary nature, which allows it to work in synergy with both TV and online, places it in an advantageous position to weather the media fragmentation storm Karen Paterson senior director Millward Brown UK

NEWSPAPER 10 • PRINTED ON

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Dear Editor Our mantra ‘forever curious’ constantly reminds of the need to be hyper-alert to keep up with, and ahead of, the pace and agile minds of the urban youth. And, on that note, newspapers are an interesting medium on which to comment, because their relevance is increasingly being challenged by more interactive tools of communication and more youth-centric, high-tech gadgets (chat, SNS, websites and cellphones). However, even though the youth have a wide range of mediums at their disposal, it is clear from discussions with them and the results from urban youth in this year’s Sunday Times Generation Next brand survey that newspapers are still on young South African’s radar particularly as they get older. Among young adults 54 per cent claim they read a newspaper weekly, but only a quarter (25.64 per cent) of all youth (including tweens and teens) polled in the same study claim to read them daily. As a reliable source of information, newspapers feature eighth on the list, making them less convincing than TV, websites and radio: all of which seem to fare better because of their immediacy, familiarity and ‘sizzle’. It is not new to us that the youth are active consumers of celebrity gossip, but from discussions with them throughout this year, it’s clear to us that their interest extends beyond tabloid news and it is becoming more and more cool to be clued up on world affairs. “I think people underestimate the youth, when I used to go to school with my mom we’d listen to 702 and John Robbie… you get into it and you’re interested – you want to hear about the American election race. People think the youth just wake up and watch MTV … but [we’re] actually interested in what’s happening!” says Alma, 17. From our many recent discussions with young adults, one thing that suggests to us that newspapers may not be getting their oldfashioned butts squarely kicked by newer, sexier, techno-fodder was the topic of David Bullard’s fall from The Sunday Times. There was a surprisingly strong and well-informed response to his departure, with the debate generating thoughts like: “One of the first things I looked for was [David Bullard]… he always pushed the envelope. He took people out of their comfort zones!” expressed Tinashe, 21. So maybe newspapers do have the potential to really engage with young audiences: both in good old-ink-on-your-fingers-print, but more particularly through accessible – in all senses – formats like The Daily Sun and The Times and its www.thetimes.co.za counterpart. So instead of wilting into a soggy lump of papier-mâché under young feet, let newspapers step up to the plate and explore ways to become more real, relevant and connected to the lives of young South Africans. The Insight Team HDI Youth Marketeers

Dear Editor, Give me the newspaper in its full 54 x 10 column glory, any day. We’ve chosen press over other mediums for two of our major clients over the past six months: one being Mahindra and the other Clover. In both cases, our clients were willing to push the boundaries and motivated us to do what we do best – use creativity as a tool. In the case of Mahindra, we produced long-copy ‘story’ ads. Full-page insertions in order to educate the consumer about the fact that Mahindra had been around since 1945. The newspaper medium allowed us to make these ads look like authentic 1945 advertisements and to communicate to our consumer in a space where they are most likely to read a long copy ad. I believe that the results of this campaign for the rands spent were far superior to that any other medium. The second campaign was for Clover’s Long Life Milk. This campaign uses the ‘Best Before’ area on the pack and exchanges the date normally found in this space for relevant tactical headlines, like’ Best Before Riaan Cruywagen Retires’ and ‘Best Before Zim Election Results are Released’. It is the tactical relevance that only a newspaper can offer which enhanced both these campaigns in ways few other mediums could have. And in the instances when you don’t have the size, it allows you to use it in so many exceptional ways. I first used press in 1995 for a tiny ad in the Classified section advertising escort agencies. The ad was for Virgin Atlantic Upper Class advertising free massages. Another time was when we ran an ad selling a shack in Gugulethu Township in the Camps Bay property section, highlighting the massive divide between the rich and poor in South Africa. I can go on and on. King James used the page numbers of a local Cape Town paper with simple headlines exposing consumers to the radical statistics surrounding HIV/Aids. I have never seen this space in newspaper used, which makes this campaign highly original. I also saw a lovely ad for the Apartheid Museum by Grey Advertising where a lot of black copy is crammed into the top left corner of a full page with a single small line remaining in the open space in the middle of the page. The crammed copy read something like: ‘In the apartheid era 15 million Black South Africans were forced to occupy 10 per cent of the land’. The small line in the middle read: ‘while 3 million whites got the rest’. Powerful communication, only available in press. Yet sadly, I realise that most of my examples are for NGOs and causes. What happened to powerful communication for powerful brands? I can only say that the marketer with balls is dead, and if there are a few still out there, maybe it’s time you allow your agency to put its money where the bite is – in press. Because when you use press well, it’s like a magazine on Viagra. And you may be surprised to see that it gives TV a run for its money. Pepe Marais executive creative director Joe Public

Business/Technology News

NEWSPAPER 10 • JULY/AUGUST 2008 •

Creating news for mobile

market of business decision-makers and affluent individuals. Locally, newspapers have identified the potential of cellphone technology, and some have started using cellphone media to engage their readers and offer greater value to advertisers. “Everyone has a cellphone, it is the idea tool through which to drive a brand, though it is totally underused,” says Lucille van Niekerk, independent media consultant. Deon du Plessis, publisher, Daily Sun, points to the massive growth of the cellphone, and also to the possibility that for many in the local market, the cellphone will be the device through which they access the Internet. “We, as the Daily Sun, should be doing more with mobile because we’ll be leapfrogging a website,” he says. And if the Daily Sun does indeed drive the launch of a mobile platform, you can be sure that it will have massive reach and impact. The massive success of the cellphone locally is driving the viability of the medium for newspapers. Beeld, for example, has plans to

launch new platforms towards the end of the year which will see the use of mobile or e-mail vouchers, for example. “Our mobile offering is still limited at this stage, but it will change towards the end of the year, and we are expecting growth here. Our team is working out the restrictions of our new systems and assessing what benefits there are to this,” says Gavin Rheeder, marketing manager, Beeld. Meanwhile, the Caxton Group is reportedly planning a project with Johannesburg City Power to provide a service that informs the community about power cuts via SMS. “We will be building a community forum via SMS. This opens the possibility of SMS couponing in the papers so advertisers can leverage print via mobile,” says John Bowles, joint MD, Newspaper Advertising Bureau (NAB). “Mobile advertising is growing and the media need to look at ways forward. But they should not give content away for free,” says Van Niekerk. “The newspapers need to own their content since it’s part of their brand.” Newspapers will continue to develop mobile offerings that enhance the relationship with the reader (mobile headline reports, for example). But until the cost of connecting to the Internet via cellphone becomes more affordable for the mass market, we may not see newspapers launching fully fledged mobile sites.

South Africa’s top 20 local news sites (OPA, Q2 008) Site News24.com IOL News MSN 24.com News24 South Africa The Times www.mg.co.za World (media24) www.fin24.co.za SuperSport.co.za M&G Online Mg.co.za News24 sport News24 Beeld News24 entertainment Home page (M&G) Business report (Independent) IOL Tonight IOL Sport M&G Homepage

Unique Browsers 1 833 388 1 047 800 938 259 690 193 661 569 439 299 467 052 420 542 392 739 429 741 440 661 440 066 311 084 271 014 263 642 197 609 180 133 181 275 175 884 184 122

Page Impressions 31 967 830 12 085 299 11 248 079 9 553 758 4 663 681 3 981 579 4 296 047 1 256 995 2 311 043 8 018 353 3 948 214 3 924 697 1 784 356 7 398 211 1 155 833 1 378 591 625 920 846 010 779 576 1 283 335

Mobile news: not for all Oscar Westlund, a doctoral student at the University of Gothenburg, has found that while many Swedes own Internet-equipped cellphones with news functions, few actually use their phones to access news services. Speaking at the 15th World Editors Forum, Westlund pointed out that this trend was also apparent in Japan, a country with very high mobile use. Westlund says one of the reasons for this is that the cost of accessing the Internet via a cellphone is high. Research respondents said they don’t actually want to receive news on their cellphone (a device that is intended for interpersonal communication, after all). Considering this, there are opportunities for newspapers to develop partnerships with service providers to create subscriber packages (subscribe to the newspaper’s mobile service and pay half the normal price to access the Internet on your phone).

The UK Telegraph launched a news site for cellphones earlier this year (according to reports on the telegraph.co.uk website, on 4 August 2008). Designed to be easy to navigate with a simple layout (minimal use of photographs, for example) and only three main sections through which the user needs to navigate. Readers can text the word ‘mobile’ to a specific short code to receive the link directly to their phones or they can opt to browse using their phone’s Internet capabilities. The service has been optimised to work with a variety of devices.

Blurring the boundries Newspapers have increasingly invested in developing their multimedia offerings, and many are now equipped with mobile services/applications, podcasting, blogging and interactive websites with video content. But newspapers aren’t just investing to take advantage of growing broadband numbers: they are aware of the fact that the youth markets are online and demand that their media meet them here. “Online news readers are looking for richer and richer experiences online, blurring the lines between newspaper and television news reporting,” says Rob Jonas, Google’s European Partnership Lead Media and Publishing. “The boundaries between advertising and content continue to shift and many new advertising formats are using this for the benefit of users, advertisers and also the sites on which these ads are displayed and consumed. Much innovation is being driven by consumer demand for interactivity with both content and advertising, and we look forward to this continued evolution and further partnerships with newspaper groups to help them achieve their objectives,” says Jonas. As newspaper groups become more innovative and online news consumption grows, most groups recognise that audiences are becoming hyper-fragmented and they need to reach their readers through different online media, such as social networks, and new platforms, such as mobile phones. “Recent examples of both include the Telegraph TV Facebook application and the iPhone application created by The New York Times,” says Jonas. “Also, many newspapers have been offering RSS feeds to allow their readers to find their stories more easily.” He also says the Google News service is another way for newspapers to reach their readers as the service delivers many users directly to their websites once they click the link. “In this regard, Google News is an important contributor to a news site’s online traffic.” According to Willem Pretorius, editor, Sondag, newspapers see print as their main focus, but increasingly strategies are being focused on new media as brand extensions. “The first priority is to get a huge number of readers that can be shifted towards new media. It is not a question of either/or. Both have strong features that every news media want to explore. New media is therefore an add-on. Newspapers have moved away from the cliché that print is dead, and are moving towards new platform-based strategies to distribute news and entertainment,” says Pretorius. Ray Hartley, editor, The Times,

believes that South African newspapers have a bright future SA, provided that they understand that readers have less and less time to spend reading them, and that they will spend more time online. “I predict that the laggards will soon adopt our model of an integrated newspaper and online multimedia offering,’ he says. The Caxton Group, for example, is looking at ways to deliver geographic media via whatever platform is required, says Gill Randall, joint MD, Newspaper Advertising Bureau (NAB). However, the online consumer market in SA is relatively small, so new media cannot be the only tool newspapers use to extend their brands.

“

The market is not

rich enough yet. Internet penetration is still not large enough and neither is share of mind. Or share of mind

“

Mobile news In 2005, China-based Xinhua News Agency teamed up with several other newspapers and the Guangdong Mobile Communications Company to introduce a mobile phone newspaper service. Chinese newspaper readers could access the partner titles through the Internet, multimedia message and SMS (according to the china.org website). In December 2007, Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter newspaper launched a newspaper telephone: a cellphone that offers daily subscribers direct and free access to its website (as reported by the Sydney Morning Herald’s website, www.smh.com.au, 13 December 2007). Subscribers purchase the specialised Nokia phone via the newspaper’s website and sign up for a monthly call plan, which allows them to surf the newspaper’s website for free, simply by hitting a special button on the phone. This system addresses conceptions about the cost of cellphone Internet access being high and places the newspaper’s content directly in the hands of its readers. The Wall Street Journal launched the WSJ.com Mobile Reader for BlackBerry smartphones on 19 August 2008 (www.globenewswire.com) providing immediate access to business, finance and tech news directly from WSJ.com as well as from a grouping of other websites. With customised categories and tabs, the platform offers the user an individualised and flexible service. Plus, this platform is aimed at a

21

with media planners and media buyers

Geoff Cohen, general manager: News24, says he doesn’t think any newspaper owner or editor is doing a truly great job of truly incorporating new and digital media into their offerings. Newspapers are sporting multimedia elements, but the real shift to a multimedia reality has not occurred. And this is impacting on the measurement of newspapers and the way their audiences are gauged. “The market is not rich enough yet in comparison to traditional mediums. Internet penetration is still not large enough and neither is share of mind. Or share of mind with media planners and media buyers,” says Cohen. And perhaps newspapers should be investing in multimedia approaches to attract new audiences now, ahead of the curve, but for many newspapers this investment is still too risky. But as cross-media and multimedia packages become more popular, newspapers will find themselves well placed to offer their services as solutions providers, especially since advertisers may feel lost regarding the huge choice of advertising possibilities, says Reiner Mittelbach, CEO, IFRA (a global news publishingresearch group).

NEWSPAPER 10 • PRINTED ON

MONDI ENVIROTEXT 60 gsm

22 •

Business/Technology News

NEWSPAPER 10 • JULY/AUGUST 2008

News online in SA

company names. “This allows us to do quite a bit of powerful cross-referencing on the site. Simply put, this gives computers the ability to ‘understand’ what the articles are about, which then allows us to do powerful things with them,” says Buckland. The Times has a website that features video and blogs, interactive commentaries, and so on. “We have achieved over 80 000 hits on one of our slideshows and we regularly go into the 5 000 plus territory on videos and podcasts, which has surprised us on the upside. I think there is a fantastic opportunity for someone to ‘own’ our multimedia portal, and in so doing, reach the cream of South Africa’s broadband users,” says editor, Ray Hartley. He says that newspapers might still be able to imagine that the Internet and multimedia are not threatening because they have yet to gain mass market traction, but The Times is positioning itself for a future where

“

Sales will come when

the readership is there. At the moment, one print

“

NEWSPAPER 10 • PRINTED ON

“

Google is testing a programme Print Ads is being used in the US, which allows advertisers and companies to buy ad by smaller advertisers who space in newspapers. Launched in July 2007, the service, called can’t afford the large budgets Google Print Ads, allows advertisers to choose a newspaper required to secure creatives from a list of participating publications and place a bid for and planners and just want the ad space. Once approved, the advertiser can use Google to place a simple ad in a AdWords to design a simple print ad. local newspaper According to Stafford Maisie, local country manager for Google, the Print Ads system is only available in the US at the moment, and it is not clear if or when it might be extended to other countries. What this platform does represent is a new, easy-to-use way for users to find and secure advertising space in newspapers and for newspapers to earn revenue for advertising space which otherwise might not be sold. “It’s a user-friendly and easy-to-use tool which lets advertisers know which newspapers might be most appropriate and affordable for their needs. It is a fully automated process as well,” says Maisie.

“

Locally, newspapers haven’t delved into all of the opportunities. While many are beginning to understand what newspaper websites should look like, some are not convinced that these will work for them. Not all newspapers believe that they need a website just yet. Deon du Plessis, publisher, the Daily Sun, says: “It’s my mistake that we don’t have a website, but we don’t feel that we need one yet. Internet penetration is still small in our target market. And yes, there is a slowly rising Internet café culture in the townships, but it’s a future shock that hasn’t hit us yet.” He also argues that no media in South Africa will straddle both the top end and the lower end of the market. “Having said that, this market moves so fast. It is leapfrogging technology. The Daily Sun’s beady eyes are on mobile.” Lucille van Niekerk, independent media consultant, believes that there is an old-school guard in place, looking at old ways of doing things. She points to global figures predicting an increase in newspaper ad revenues worldwide. “There is so much growth, and newspapers are still a good investment opportunity, especially in new technologies and digital media. But they must invest now and develop the organisational skills and cultures,” she says. Long-term goals and budgets must be set. Matthew Buckland, GM: publishing and social media, 24.com, believes that newspapers need to move away from seeing the print-online relationship as one characterised by cannibalisation. “A media company’s objective is to secure readership and advertising revenue from across a variety of platforms, whether print, online or mobile. It’s really about what the readers want and the format they want it in.” The trick for media is to make sure that their content is available to as many readers as possible across a variety of platforms. The Mail and Guardian Online and The Times are two local papers that are investing in their websites. The M&G recently relaunched its website. “Our old site had become outdated and inflexible. We needed a new site with a contemporary design, better features, optimised advertising and all built on an infrastructure that would allow us to grow. We feel we have that now,” says Buckland (the former GM of M&G Online). Key features of the new site include: registration of users, which allows the M&G to profile users and serve targeted content and advertising. Each user now gets a dashboard which allows them to save article clippings and view their browsing history. “We’re also building a ‘story predictor’, which will suggest stories to users based on their surfing history. There are many things we can do with the dashboard on a social networking level,” says Buckland. This is also one of the few websites in the world to introduce semantic tagging of its articles, which allows extracting data from articles, including place names, people’s names and

The impact of Google

reader is still worth 100 online readers.

broadband is cheaper and far more widely adopted than today. “We are doing the learning now when the pressure is still relatively light. When readers switch their focus to the Internet, those who are not ready with a sophisticated offering are going to suffer,” adds Hartley. Consider too that Beeld’s online platform is receiving between 280 000 to 290 000 unique users each month, and Gavin Rheeder, marketing manager, notes that it has a very different profile in comparison with the print readers. “Our online market is healthy. And while many use the online platform as an addedvalue feature, we use ours as a separate product because the online market on its own is strong enough,” says Rheeder.

MONDI ENVIROTEXT 60 gsm

Issues of Internet penetration are quickly pointed out as reasons why papers are not yet online. “All newspapers have strategies to grow readership and revenues online, but broadband is still not where our overseas counterparts are. The biggest problem is online literacy and all newspapers have a development section dealing with that. Most online readers still access the Internet from work,” says Willem Pretorius, editor, Sondag. Yet for some experts, the current Internet access scenario means that there is greater opportunity. Van Niekerk points out that most of the broadband market is LSM 10. “This is a quality market, with large numbers, and it will grow – it is predicted to double by 2010.” She believes that the technology and pricing structures need to be refined. “With Internet penetration stagnant at about 10 per cent of the population and inching up at a snail’s pace, newspapers still have good growth years left in them. In fact, e-zines, e-readers and newspapers on the move have, to my knowledge, not yet made an impact,” says Ferial Haffajee, editor, Mail & Guardian. Cost is also a concern for some newspapers. A report which appeared in The New York Times (7 February 2008) finds that more people than ever are reading newspapers (since some major papers have more readers online than in print). And newspapers are selling more ads than ever if one includes the online ads. “But for every dollar advertisers pay to reach a print reader, they pay about 5 cents, on average, to reach an Internet reader.” The gap between these needs to be closed, and that isn’t easy. “The cost of developing online readers is exorbitant with low returns,” says Pretorius. “Sales will come when the readership is there. At the moment, one print reader is still worth 100 online readers.” He also argues that none of the papers are making money from traffic generated to their websites. “The print reader is hooked in. The challenge is in change management and how to drive print readers towards online products,” he says.

“The Google innovation sounds attractive because it seems more cost-effective than the conventional procurement method,” says Fergus Sampson, CEO: Emerging Markets, Media24. “Both advertisers and newspapers will prefer a system that reduces the time and cost of production and placement, However, I am not convinced that our industry can do without the creative input, skill and knowledge that advertising agencies represent.” Sampson believes that the collective skill and wisdom of advertising agencies is necessary to the ad creation process, media planning, and tracking of advertising and ROI. Yet Maisie is quick to point out that this system will not be to the detriment of the advertising agency. “Advertising agencies tend to work with big advertisers who need agencies to be creative and dynamic. Print Ads is being used by smaller advertisers who can’t afford the large budgets required to secure creatives and planners and just want to place a simple ad in a local newspaper,” says Maisie.

Will Google become the world’s biggest news provider? There are some who fear that Google is just one step away from becoming the largest news site in the world. “Google is not a content provider. We are a technology company that devises tools to make advertisers’ and publishers’ lives easier,” says Stafford Maisie, local country manager, Google, putting paid to these concerns. “The Internet has revolutionised the way that users interact with and gather information such as news. The newspaper industry has reacted well to this new paradigm, creating interactive and user-friendly websites that offer users an alternative way to gather news,” says Maisie. Maybe newspapers need to work more closely with Google and start viewing it as another distribution channel. Google has, in fact, become the digital newspaper’s best friend, driving huge volumes of traffic to news websites. According to reports published in the Financial Post (12 May 2008), Google accounts for over half of all search queries in the US. The trick for newspapers is to provide original and timely content.

Google acquired advertising service DoubleClick in June this year, and according to reports (Associated Press, June 12 2008), Google execs are positive that this service could help newspapers to generate revenues online by serving up online display ads and measuring responses.

Ten tips to increase your visibility on the Internet (from Google):  

  







 

Sign up for webmaster tools (www.google.com/wemasters/tools) Think like a user and make sure your page includes the terms they will search for. Make sure your URLs are simple. Link to every page on your site from at least one other page. Use appropriate headings and make your titles interesting and relevant to each page. Provide good meta descriptions to help with the snippets (the page extracts shown in the search results). Avoid using dynamic or animation technologies for navigating around your site. Use ALT tags for images (helps the Googlebots to categorise images accurately). Check your site using a text browser to make sure crawlers can read it. Test and measure! This should be an ongoing process.

Business/Technology News

NEWSPAPER 10 • JULY/AUGUST 2008 •

The Newspaper Association of America found that ad spending on newspaper websites increased 18.8 per cent in 2007 over 2006 figures (reports MarketingCharts.com, 3 April 2008). However, reports also indicate that this spend has not yet supplanted print ad revenues. Yet monetising Web readership is high on the list of priorities for all newspapers, even though print still accounts for the majority of a typical paper’s ad revenues. Some experts believe that in the future, online sales will be made first with print ads becoming the add-on buy in a reverse of current models.

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I think the online

advertising model could be optimised more: to some extent, as an industry, we have taken a traditional advertising model and applied it to an online

tweaks here and there. I

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environment with some

think it could work better.

However, there are questions about the effectiveness of advertising on news websites. The World Association of Newspapers’ report on the State of The News Media 2008, says that online ads are becoming intrusive; furthermore, online shoppers are on narrowly targeted buying missions and are therefore happier to search e-commerce sites. However, specialist companies are starting to offer newspapers smarter advertising. NewspaperDirect, based in Canada, offers SmartEdition technology, which brings newspapers Adget – an ad product that drives transitions to the Web. The platform supports audio and video content, and also offers ‘click-to-transact’ features. Basically, instead of readers having to click through an ad to the advertiser’s website they interact with the advertiser’s microsite, which has been embedded in the ad. This allows the reader to say, book a test drive, without leaving the newspaper’s website. Locally, Fergus Sampson, CEO: Emerging Markets, Media24, says that online advertising has become a

viable option, although most of the approaches are experimental. “Apart from Google and other successful international examples, I am not aware of a proven local online business model yet,” he says. He also says that many contenders are being challenged to build critical mass before they start to realise the full potential of online advertising. “Personally, I’ve witnessed ad revenue growth in both print and online. If a print publication can offer a certain niched readership that an advertiser wants to access, then the advertiser will look at that print publication,” says Matthew Buckland, GM of Publishing and Social Media, 24.com. “It’s not all doom and gloom for print, as this is happening now. While online advertising is growing rapidly, I don’t see advertisers abandoning magazines and newspapers in a hurry. If I were running a big newspaper with strong online and mobile sister brands, I would be a very happy media owner,” he says. As Francois Groepe, CEO, Media24 points out; newspapers need to stop selling their digital platforms as separate offerings. “We need to sell total number of readers and remove the artificial disconnect between digital and print audiences.” Sampson meanwhile, finds that the advertisers who venture online are the same advertisers who appear in the newspapers, despite the fact that online users are generally younger than newspaper readers. There needs to be a shift towards a better fit, if online advertising is to deliver results. The basics apply equally to online advertising as to any other format of advertising. “It’s about the message, the design and how targeted the placement is. The message should be compelling and relevant,” says Buckland.

He also believes that new formats such as video and audio could make advertising really stand out. “If you don’t want a branding campaign and don’t have a big budget, then use Google AdSense. If you want a branding campaign as well as the leads, then use an online publisher, though I recommend you use both,” he says. The good news is that since online advertising is cheaper and more efficient than print advertising, we may see an upswing in Internet advertising during the economic downturn. “If anything, in times of economic slowdown, companies will use the Internet to optimise their business and transact even more,” says Buckland. Looking ahead, greater cooperation is called for. “I would like to see a greater effort by the industry to respond proactively to the evolution of online media. Search, for example, and the migration of classifieds into the online space. We must reflect more critically on what we can do,” says Groepe. Buckland believes that media owners locally and internationally should come together to create an online advertising network that works across brands and is contextually relevant. “I think the online advertising model could be optimised more: to some extent, as an industry, we have taken a traditional advertising model and applied it to an online environment with some tweaks here and there. I think it could work better,” he says. Through the use of Google AdSense and other contextual advertising models online publications could monetise their international traffic as well as their archived content. “Content never dies online. It keeps being accessed again and again, and you can sell advertising revenue off it till the world ends,” says Buckland.

Social networks: newspapers’ new threat Social networks are being touted as a major threat to newspapers, particularly when it comes to the youth markets. A Youth Media DNA study, conducted by US-based research firm D-Code, found that social networks are replacing newspapers as disseminators of news (read the blogs at www.readershipinstitute.org for more info). And as these social networks add news aggregator tools to their offerings, so the youth have even less need to leave the social network to get the news. “For newspapers, the rise of many social networks and community sites show that it won’t be enough to just deliver news,” says Jochen Dieckow, business and new media research, IFRA. “They have to put their content in context with the interests of users and communities, and while this is something that many newspapers manage fine on printed paper, the digital world offers many new opportunities,” he says. Newspapers should try to establish their own communities (virtual or real), suggests IFRA.

Citizen journalism: huge returns The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) found that citizen journalism has the following benefits:    

It is free It sees trends and news that professional reporters might not; Contributors love their topics and their reports; and It is a great way to reach new audiences.

However, citizen journalists are not trained and as they are not formally employed by a newspaper, cannot be relied on to plan a newspaper around. Stories are usually not balanced in their views. Germany-based newspaper, Tide, is training its citizens in the use and handling of professional equipment, ethical reporting, meeting and managing deadlines and so on, through a series of short courses. Editor of Tide, Werner Eggert, told the 15th World Editors Forum that these courses are training citizens that are now producing 1.5 hours of new video programmes per day, so it is delivering huge returns on a small investment.

User generated Intrinsic to the rise of Web 2.0, is the rise of user-generated content (UGC) and citizen journalism. Some would argue that newspapers practice citizen journalism daily, simply by responding to reader tip-offs or letters to the editor, and reporting on those events that readers inform them about. “People have always provided content to and participated with newspapers via letters to the editor, for example. There are huge benefits to this, such as that the content is relevant and quite often it’s breaking news; and there is greater reach in terms of the staff. But the big question around UGC is the legal implications of incorporating it, especially in the case of users who use false identities,” says Francois Groepe, CEO, Media24. However, he stresses that UGC might help newspapers to break news sooner than their competitors. In fact, according to Deon du Plessis, publisher, the Daily Sun has

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the quality of content generated by readers is questioned; after all, part of a newspaper’s promise to its readers is quality editorial. Secondly, there appear to be doubts about where to draw the line with UGC. “Our editorial team has considered these interesting approaches, but there are still some issues, for example, how do we sub-edit UGC?” says Rheeder. However, what is becoming very clear is that younger readers, in particular, who have grown up with new media expect to be able to interact with their favourite media. Newspapers that don’t allow them to comment on stories or write e-mails to the news staff will alienate these readers. “Most newspapers straddle the continuum between the reader-driving and readerdriven business models. On the one hand, the reader-driving strategy safeguards the key strength of the model: the credibility of the news product. But such papers are in danger of

User-generated content is about getting really

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Online advertising: potential for revenues?

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exclusive content. The question is, are our media talking to themselves without going to their readers?

purposely spent money making sure that it has an undercover person in every city in the country, feeding the news team titbits and providing tipoffs. But the key here is the news team, which decides what is truly newsworthy and relevant. “On its own, citizen journalism has little relevance unless checked by a trained journalist,” says Willem Pretorius, editor, Sondag. UGC, in its modern form, involves the use of user-generated video, reporting and blogging, commentary and photos. Some newspapers have begun actively incorporating UGC into their reporting, to make their readers feel more involved. In many cases, newspapers start out small, inviting readers to post comments on stories on their websites, for example. “User-generated content is about getting really exclusive content. The question is, are our media talking to themselves without going to their readers?” asks Lucille van Niekerk, independent media consultant. She believes that locally, newspapers should be exploiting UGC as much as possible, and using reader interactions to find out which stories and topics they want to know more about. “Newspapers need to get more young people involved, people of different races and genders,” she says. From what we can gather, the local market is willing to experiment more with UGC. Gavin Rheeder, marketing manager, Beeld says: “Beeld is seen as part of the Afrikaans community – readers refer to it is my koerant [my newspaper], so they are comfortable sharing with the newspaper. The regional newspapers especially open the doors for this interaction.” Yet the national newspapers are hesitant to open the floodgates. Firstly,

losing touch with readers and becoming irrelevant to their lives,” says Fergus Sampson, CEO: Emerging markets, Media24. A reader-driven model implies more of a two-way communication stream between newspapers and their readers, and it incorporates their wants and interests. Yet Sampson stresses that this may diminish a newspaper’s credibility and independence. “While newspapers are widely considered to hold value and credibility, for many they are also less exciting, more time-consuming, less flexible and not as easily accessible as the electronic and online media options. “Newspapers must learn to walk the line,” he says. In the USA, free daily, The Examiner, posted an ad calling for freelance journalists and bloggers across the states to serve as ‘examiners’ reporting on local news; according to Newspaperinnovation. com, the ad explains that compensation for the role of ‘examiner’ is based on page views and readership. And while there are questions around the problems that such freelancers could cause (if they wrote very controversial posts, for example), this is surely a relevant way of including more voices into a newspaper’s reporting. Locally, the Mail & Guardian has recognised that its readers want to have a say, and according to editor, Ferial Haffajee, the newspaper has incorporated this in a meaningful way by bringing the best of their Thoughtleader blogs into the newspaper; it has also grown the opinion section and the letters pages. “People got tired of being spoken at by newspapers and this is an imperative we must listen to with extreme care,” says Haffajee.

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Business/Technology News

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Yahoo! and Google partner with newspapers Newspaper companies in the US have partnered with Yahoo! in a deal that sees the Internet company sharing news content among the papers of this Newspaper Consortium, and adding Yahoo’s search function to the sites. According to the Yahoo website, the strategic partnership was announced on 20 November 2006. A press release issued by Yahoo! says that the aim of the partnership is “to deliver search, graphical and classified advertising to consumers in the communities where they live and work. Beginning with recruitment advertising, the newspapers and Yahoo! HotJobs are bringing one of the largest online audiences, targeting capabilities, local expertise and advertising power to recruiters. In addition, the consortium plans to work together to provide search, content, and local applications across the newspapers’ websites”. The World Association of Newspapers’ report on The State of The News Media 2008, expresses that the industry hopes that this partnership will generate as much as 10 to 20 per cent in online advertising because it will make the process of buying and placing ads much easier. And it seems to be working. A report on the Yahoo! Finance website

(30 July 2008) states that Yahoo! has driven more than 100 million visits to Newspaper Consortium websites. Editors quoted in the report say that the Yahoo! placements drive steady traffic and page views, and bring unique visitors to their websites. Yahoo!’s reach through highly engaged communities (accounting for 78 per cent of all Internet users in the US), is not to be sniffed at. And Yahoo! Buzz, which distributes news content according to user votes and popularity, ensures that users are getting only the most relevant content. Google has been working with newspapers since 2004, when it started providing AdSense services to the online properties of newspapers. “Since this time, our relationship has expanded to diverse areas such as their inclusion

within Google News in 42 editions and Print Ads in the US market. Our relationships with our newspapers partners are based on three key areas: driving traffic to their websites; deepening engagement on these websites by providing Google products and services, and, monetising their websites through our AdSense services,” explains Rob Jonas, Google’s European Partnership Lead Media and Publishing. Today, Google News includes over 1 000 sources across all languages. “We count several South African newspapers as our partners,” says Jonas. “We maintain an internal review team that evaluates requests to add new news organisations and then periodically reviews the sources included in Google News to ensure they meet our criteria as news organisations.”

Essential features for a news site V2.0 Hello Computer’s top tips for a web 2.0 news site: 1. Visual hierarchy – Are the news headlines still taking prime position? Don’t forget why people have navigated to your site in the first place, it’s all about news, after all. 2. User accessibility – sites like the BBC’s offer a perfect example of this. If you’re in the UK you can access the high-res version of the site, however, for those living in Africa, a handy little button allows you to switch to a more basic HTML low-res alternative. This could be improved by allowing the user to control the font size – some of the older generation who are swapping from paper to digital would be impressed. 3. Individual customisation – users can manage their own version of the news site to feed them information they’ve shown an interest in. In essence, it’s a .com page of your

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very own using the resources from the main site. This way you are more likely to return. 4. Site registration – this is often a prerequisite and desired by news-hungry viewers. It enables any visitor to comment on or debate a news story as well as engage with other members online – also building communities. 5. Local features – basic local facts like weather, favourite sports team results and news stories can contribute to making your site more relevant to the target audience. 6. Interactivity – crosswords and Suduko also help to engage with visitors. They need not lie only in printed versions of the newspaper, often those readers also access online versions.

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Content for free In 2007, The New York Times ended subscription charges for its website, despite having hundreds of thousands of subscribers, setting a new benchmark for newspapers worldwide. Subscription models are no longer sustainable, especially since so much news is available free of charge elsewhere. The thinking behind this move by The New York Times is that increases in traffic and ad revenues will compensate for the lost subscription revenues, the World Association of Newspapers reports (The State of the News Media 2008). Locally, the Independent Newspapers and Media group is one of the few newspaper groups locally that charges a subscription fee for news content online. According to sources at IOL (the online partner for the Independent group), while IOL manages the websites, the newspapers dictate the policies around subscriptions. Independent Newspapers continues to generate substantial revenues from the subscriptions, especially among ex-pat South Africans who are prepared to pay for access to news from home, and this may explain why the group continues to charge subscriptions. Furthermore, until ad revenues on these websites grow to sustainable levels, these sites will continue to depend on subscription fees for their income.

Who’s reading news online? As one might imagine, the online news consumer is younger than the print reader. “The online profiles are younger, but they don’t tend to stick. They do a lot of hopping and not many clicks on advertising,” says Willem Pretorius, editor, Sondag. This younger market wants to consume news in new ways, through video, photo and blogs. Other newspapers are finding that their websites are attracting broader readerships than their print titles. “At the M&G, the online version attracts a bigger, broader readership than the newspaper, which is published weekly and is niched. Then of course, any online brand is not confined by geographic boundaries like many print publications and attracts a worldwide readership,” says Matthew Buckland, GM of Publishing and Social Media for 24.com (former GM: M&G online).

Competition an issue Jobs for Africa, a jobs classifieds weekly newspaper, was launched in July 2007 in KwaZulu-Natal offering the rural market access to job classifieds for R5. But the paper was short lived (it closed at the end of August). According to publisher, Gordon Smith, this was because a national press group had taken anti-competition action against the publication. He says that while he tried to partner with a national paper initially, he found no takers. Advertisers had initially been hesitant to advertise in the paper, preferring to ‘wait and see’ what the market response would be. Some had indeed tested the paper and had a positive response from this market. Smith believes that had this paper not been shut down it would have continued to see major growth; he points to the unaudited circulation figure of almost 5 000 per issue. “We targeted the market correctly. These are people living in smaller towns looking for permanent jobs in the cities, but with little access to jobs”. The paper was made available at cafes, supermarkets, spazas and street vendors in both smaller cities and townships across KwaZulu-Natal.

Business/Technology News

NEWSPAPER 10 • JULY/AUGUST 2008 •

E-paper is being touted as the solution to the environmental impact that newspaper production and distribution is having. It also has appeal as a new media gadget in an age that finds the number of newspaper readers getting their news online, climbing. “I am a board member of the World Editors Forum and am amazed to see how new technologies co-exist with newspapers in most regions of the world. I think our challenge in SA is to integrate our newsrooms, ensure the quality of online journalism and lobby the government for cheaper, faster broadband access,” says Ferial Haffajee, editor, Mail & Guardian. However, there remain questions around how electronic waste will be handled and whether it can be recycled efficiently without further environmental impact. Then there is the issue of cost. Currently, devices such as the Amazon Kindle cost between

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means that for the average South African the product is out of reach. However, some believe that these devices will eventually take hold of the market, thereby opening up new ways for consumers to read their news. Geoff Cohen, general manager: News24, says that the Kindle is seeing positive sales figured abroad. “If this continues, you may well find this becoming the device that transforms news consumption,” he says. Although the device would need to become commoditise, and its prices would need to come down before it is adopted to any great extent. “Nonetheless, newspapers here should be developing subscriber deals, which give the reader the device for free. The technology is improving, and readers are saying that they want to use it. There are huge opportunities here,” says Lucille van Niekerk, independent media consultant.

While books are the forerunners in the e-reading

market, newspapers have to start thinking of how

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these devices can become a part of the potential distribution channel

US$350 and $400 (around R3 000). Coupled with the fact that it relies on an Internet connection, this

IFRA (a global research and service organisation for the news publishing industry, with headquarters in Germany) is organising an international e-reading conference in September 2008 in Paris, to help newspaper companies make the best of electronic mobile devices’ potential; the conference gives an overview of technologies and discusses the opportunities for publishers to be part of the emerging e-reading world. IFRA believes that in a few years there will be a growing market for this convenient and

environmentally friendly way of reading books, news and documents. “We have established a three year executive programme, ‘eNews’, where innovative newspaper publishers from all over the world explore the business opportunities that the e-reading market offers,” says Reiner Mittelbach, CEO, IFRA. “The programme looks at the market not only from the technological perspective, but also focuses on the consumer side and their acceptance and needs concerning e-reading. In light of this we have recently completed focus group tests in various regions around the globe.” IFRA’s experts believe that the e-reader market is becoming a real market, and not just a hypothesis. Several newspapers are running pilot tests on specially designed ereaders (or existing devices, such as the Amazon Kindle). “Currently the US market is leading; however, we expect that other markets, especially in Europe and Asia, will follow,” says Jochen Dieckow, business and new media research, IFRA. Says Manfred Werfel, research director and deputy CEO of the IFRA: “It is not a mass market yet, but the use feedback is positive and e-reading is not purely an academic topic anymore”. While books are the forerunners in the ereading market, newspapers have to start thinking of how these devices can become a part of the potential distribution channel, he says.

New measurement rules Not everyone who reads the news does so in print anymore, so how should newspapers be measuring their audiences and their reach? Unique users per month is one measure that has been used to determine Web traffic, as is time spent on the site. But, as the World Association of Newspapers points out, these measures may not be sufficient when comparing Web traffic to print circulations. As it states in its report (The State of the News Media 2008), a visit or several to a website (for free) in a month is not comparable to the purchase of a single day’s issue in print. Likewise, the 43 minutes that are spent on average per month on news sites translates to just one and a half minutes a day – while a typical newspaper reader spends 40 minutes a day reading their daily newspaper. New forms of measurement are emerging across the globe. Scarborough Research measures how many adults look at either print or online editions at least once in the course of a week, while in the USA, the ABC Audience FAX reports, measure the audiences coming onto the site and reading the newspaper in the course of a month rather than a week. The Guardian News and Media group in the UK, has developed a new measurement tool, which allows agencies to measure reader engagement. ‘Engagement’, as this research is called, zooms in on media engagement, advertising management and brand engagement. According to the Guardian’s website (www.guardian. co.uk), this reveals what drives newspaper media engagement, and proves the link between media engagement and advertising engagement; media agencies and planners can therefore evaluate titles on quality and also quantity of contacts. Readers can also be profiled according to levels of engagement. This research finds that the following are drivers of engagement: loyalty or emotional attachment to the newspaper; regularity of reading; time spent with the newspaper;

whether it is found to be informative or inspirational; and whether it is found to be relaxing and entertaining.

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Engagement and inter-

action with content is going to become a more significant measure than simply the number of people who happen across a website or

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E-Readers not the future of newspaper reading... yet

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happen to page through a newspaper.

As advertisers demand greater accountability, these measures are going to fall short. Engagement and interaction with content is going to become a more significant measure than simply the number of people who happen across a website or happen to page through a newspaper. Digital technology is making it possible to track not only who reads what news stories online, but how long they spent reading them, what else they read regularly and which ads or items they clicked on. So it might be possible to describe this reader more extensively. However, while newspapers will report that the retailers who advertise on their pages will see an increase in foot traffic through their stores as a direct result of their ads, the newspaper itself cannot say for sure what the demographics of the sports section are, for example. Most measurement tools and surveys don’t include search advertising yet, and some experts believe this is a sign that companies are not keeping up with the digital explosion. As online video becomes more popular and more mainstream, there are questions about whether measurement will keep up.

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TV guide

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*All figures quoted SAARF AMPS 2007B

Channel Dailies: 06:00 Business Day Ave HH Income: R20 699 Ave Age: 40 AIR Readership: 0.5 % Readers per copy: 4 Supplements: • Appointments • Management Review • HomeFront • Motor News • The Tourist • Wanted • The Golfer • Business Law and Tax Review • Health News • SA Exporter • Art

09:30 Daily News

07:00 Beeld Ave HH Income: R15 926 Ave Age: 44 AIR Readership: 1.8 % Readers per copy: 5.3 Supplements: • Sport Beeld • Sake24 • Kampus Beeld • Motor Beeld • Stylplus • Jip • Beroepe/Careers • Huisgids • Tswane-Beeld • Oos-Beeld • Mpumalanga-Beeld • Noordwes-Beeld • Wes-Beeld • Plus

10:00 The Star

08:00 The Citizen Ave HH Income: R13 944 Ave Age: 40 AIR Readership: 1.9 % Readers per copy: 8.1 Supplements: • Citizen Business • Vibe • CitiMotoring • Citizen Racing Express • Hammer and Gavel • Trucking and Transport • Citigaming • Citibike • CitiCollege • Destinations • Health 08:30 The Mercury Ave HH Income: R13 905 Ave Age: 43 AIR Readership: 0.6 % Readers per copy: 4.8 Supplements: • Challenger • Independent Motoring • Business Report • Jobfinder

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Ave HH Income: 13 654 Ave Age: 41 AIR Readership: 1 % Readers per copy: 5.9 Supplements: • Independent Motoring • Matric Q&A • Matric Matters • Tonight • Workplace • Race Goer • Home Improvers • Learn

Ave HH Income: R13 557 Ave Age: 38 AIR Readership: 3.4 % Readers per copy: 6.2 Supplements: • Motoring

13:00 Witness Ave HH Income: R11 386 Ave Age: 39 AIR Readership: 0.4 % Readers per copy: 5.3 Supplements: • Motoring • Life Magazine 13:30 Die Burger Ave HH Income: R11 097 Ave Age: 43 AIR Readership: 1.4 % Readers per copy: 4.8 Supplements: • Tuinroete Burger • Sake24 • Sport-Burger • Buite Burger • Die Burger-Motors/Wheels/Wiele • Leefstyl • LanbouBurger/Agri Nuus • Jip • Beroepe/Careers

17:00 Cape Son (Mon-Fri) Ave HH Income: R8 715 Ave Age: 38 AIR Readership: 0.6 % Supplements: • Motoring 17:30 Sowetan Ave HH Income: R7 989 Ave Age: 36 AIR Readership: 6.6 % Readers per copy: 14.5 Supplements: • Sports Voltage • Sowetan Job Market • Sowetan Travel • Road Rave • Happy People • Time Out • Sowetan Education 18:30 Daily Voice Ave HH Income: R7 507 Ave Age: 37 AIR Readership: 1.6 %

• Travel • Tonight • Workplace • Business Report • Verve 11:00 Pretoria News Ave HH Income: R12 661 Ave Age: 37 AIR Readership: 0.8 % Readers per copy: 8.7 Supplements: • Motoring • Tonight • Business Report • Workplace • Football • Shoot • Verve 12:00 Die Volksblad Ave HH Income: R12 272 Ave Age: 45 AIR Readership: 0.4 % Readers per copy: 4.6 Supplements: • Joernaal • Sake-Volksbald • Motor-Volksblad-Motor • Jip • Jou Geldsake • Bonus-Volksblad • Landbou-Volksblad • Beroepe/Careers

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14:00 Cape Times Ave HH Income: R10 964 Ave Age: 43 AIR Readership: 1 % Readers per copy: 6 Supplements: • Career Times • Property Times • Drive Times • Top of the Times • Techno Times • Business Report 16:00 Cape Argus Ave HH Income: R10 269 Ave Age: 43 AIR Readership: 1.1 % Readers per copy: 4.6 Supplements: • Jobshop • Tonight • Property • Travel • Good Weekend • Motoring 16:30 The Herald Ave HH Income: R10 122 Ave Age: 39 AIR Readership: 0.7 % Readers per copy: 7.8 Supplements: • Motoring • Matric Guide • La Femme • TGIF – Entertainment

19:00 Daily Dispatch Ave HH Income: R7 230 Ave Age: 37 AIR Readership: 0.8 % Readers per copy: 8 Supplements: • Indabazethu 20:00 D.F. Advertiser Ave HH Income: R6 283 Ave Age: 41 AIR Readership: 0.2 % Readers per copy: 6.5 Supplements: • Leisure Guide • DFA Motoring 21:30 Isolezwe Ave HH Income: R6 146 Ave Age: 32 AIR Readership: 2.3 % Readers per copy: 7.3 Supplements: • Study Mate • Ezezimoto • Recruitment 22:00 Daily Sun Ave HH Income: R6 019 Ave Age: 35 AIR Readership: 15.3 % Readers per copy: 9.5 Supplements: • SunMoney • SunWheels • SunMentorships • SunBuzz

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Channel Weeklies: 07:00 Mail & Guardian Ave HH Income: R14 633 Ave Age: 38 AIR Readership: 1.5 % Readers per copy: 9.6 Supplements: • The Teacher • M&G Friday • Campus Times • The Healthcare Journal • Traders African Business Journal

09:00 Post Ave HH Income: R12 283 Ave Age: 39 AIR Readership: 1.1 % Readers per copy: 6.4 Supplements: • Bollymania • Recruitment 11:00 Son (Fri) (All provinces excl. Western Cape) Ave HH Income: R9 537 Ave Age: 37

19:00 Soccer Laduma Ave HH Income: R5 849 Ave Age: 31 AIR Readership: 7 % Readers per copy: 6.7

AIR Readership: 1.7 % Supplements: • Motoring 18:00 City Press Ave HH Income: R7 948 Ave Age: 36 AIR Readership: 8.6 % Readers per copy: 13.5 Supplements: • Money and Investing • Pulse

20:00 Umafrika Ave HH Income: R5 711 Ave Age: 36 AIR Readership: 0.4 % Readers per copy: 4.4

Channel Weekend: 06:00 Naweek Beeld Ave HH Income: R14 498 Ave Age: 43 AIR Readership: 1.2 % Readers per copy: 4.3 Supplements: • Sake-Beeld • Jou Geldsake • Sport-Beeld • By • Reis • Plus 07:00 Volksblad Saterdag Ave HH Income: R7 751 Ave Age: 39 AIR Readership: 0.7 % Readers per copy: 9 Supplements: • Sake-Volksblad • By 08:00 Saturday Dispatch Ave HH Income: R7 119 Ave Age: 35 AIR Readership: 0.5 % Readers per copy: 6.1 09:00 Naweek Son (Kaap) Ave HH Income: R7 042 Ave Age: 37 AIR Readership: 2 % 12:00 Sunday Sun Ave HH Income: R6 915 Ave Age: 34 AIR Readership: 9.1 % Readers per copy: 14.2 13:00 Ilanga Lange Sonto Ave HH Income: R5 768 Ave Age: 30 AIR Readership: 1.8 % Readers per copy: 7 Supplements: • Vacancies

14:30 Sunday Independent Ave HH Income: R13 870 Ave Age: 40 AIR Readership: 0.9 % Readers per copy: 6.2 Supplements: • Sunday Life • Sunday Drive • Business Report 15:30 Independent on Sat Ave HH Income: R13 507 Ave Age: 43 AIR Readership: 0.5 % Readers per copy: 2.9 Supplements: • Recruitment 16:30 The Weekender Ave HH Income: R13 408 Ave Age: 43 AIR Readership: 0.2 % Readers per copy: 6 Supplements: • Travel and Food Journal 17:00 Saturday Star Ave HH Income: R13 245 Ave Age: 39 AIR Readership: 1.9 % Readers per copy: 4.3 Supplements: • Travel • WeekendWheels • 48Hours • Travel • Property Guide • Personal Finance 18:00 Sunday Tribune Ave HH Income: R12 867 Ave Age: 41 AIR Readership: 2.1 % Readers per copy: 6 Supplements: • Sunday Travel • Ingear • Business Report • Recruitment

18:30 Rapport Ave HH Income: R12 462 Ave Age: 43 AIR Readership: 5.2 % Readers per copy: 5.2 Supplements: • Sake-Rapport • Rapport-TYDskrif • Tegno • Vakansiegids • Kaap Rapport 19:00 Pretoria News Saturday Ave HH Income: R11 642 Ave Age: 35 AIR Readership: 0.5 % Readers per copy: 9.8 Supplements: • Travel • Personal Finance 19:30 Weekend Post Ave HH Income: R11 607 Ave Age: 42 AIR Readership: 0.5 % Readers per copy: 5.3 Supplements: • My Weekend 20:00 The Weekend Witness Ave HH Income: R11 126 Ave Age: 39 AIR Readership: 0.3 % Readers per copy: 3.5 Supplements: • Motoring Witness • Weekend Witness Property 20:30 Sunday Times Ave HH Income: R11 061 Ave Age: 38 AIR Readership: 12.3 % Readers per copy: 7.6 Supplements: • ReadRight • Lifestyle • Sunday Times magazine • Business Times • SoccerLife & Sport

21:00 Weekend Argus: Saturday Edition Ave HH Income: R10 898 Ave Age: 44 AIR Readership: 0.9 % Readers per copy: 4.3 Supplements: • Good Weekend • Travel • Property • Jellybean Journal • Business Report • Recruitment 21:30 Weekend Argus: Sunday Edition Ave HH Income: R10 651 Ave Age: 42 AIR Readership: 0.9 % Readers per copy: 7.8 22:0 Citizen Weekend Edition Ave HH Income: R10 590 Ave Age: 38 AIR Readership: 1.8 % Readers per copy: 9.9 23:00 Die Burger Saterdag Ave HH Income: R10 305 Ave Age: 41 AIR Readership: 2 % Readers per copy: 5.9 Supplements: • Sake-Burger • Jou Geldsake • Sport-Burger • Naweek Joernaal • By Link 23:30 Sunday World Ave HH Income: R9 064 Ave Age: 34 AIR Readership: 4.7 % Readers per copy: 7.4 Supplements: • World Traveller • World on Wheels • World of Jobs • Shwashwi

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Travel & Books

NEWSPAPER 10 • JULY/AUGUST 2008

EVENTS devices for books, news and documents. Publishers need to explore the business opportunities in this new distribution channel.

Africa 4th Global WACC Congress on Communication Cape Town 6-10 October 2008 www.waccglobal.info Communicators and media activists committed to promoting a culture of peace are invited to participate in this year’s congress. The theme of the fourth global congress on communication organised by WACC is ‘Communication is Peace: Building viable communities’. The five-day event will focus on:  Communication rights  Media and gender justice  Power, conflict and peace: Telling the story  New communication and information technologies and peace

Europe IFRA International E-Reading Conference Paris, France 18-19 September 2008 www.ifra.com With new technological advances, the newspaper industry could benefit from the development of thin and flexible electronic reading

INMA Europe Conference Vienna, Austria 1-4 October 2008 www.inma.org/2008-vienna.cfm A host of international speakers will share best practices, strategies, and learnings on subjects ranging from multiplatform audience development to brand growth and advertising excellence. IFRA The Future of News Publishing Rome, Italy 9-10 October 2008 www.iafra.com The most recent developments in the news publishing industry and their impact on business models, strategies and tactics of media houses. Topics to be discussed include the future of the newspaper business; extending the portfolio from print to digital and beyond; and developing new(s) products.

15-16 October 2008 Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.wan-press.org/digital2008/home.php The World Digital Publishing Conference & Expo is the premier event to learn about tried and tested revenue-making strategies, winning editorial solutions and resource management. IFRA Expo 2008 Amsterdam, Netherlands 27-30 October 2008 www.ifraexpo.com Under the theme ‘Get the Big Picture!’ this year’s IFRA Expo presents products and services for the media industry and is vital for newspaper people. IFRA Beyond the Printed Word - 16th World Digital Publishing Conference Budapest, Hungary 20-21 November 2008 This established event presents the latest trends in the digital newspaper business, case studies and a truly global overview.

US WAN 3rd World Digital Publishing Conference & Expo – ‘The Digital Revenue Gold Mine’

2008 Retail Advertising Forum Dallas, Texas 21-23 September 2008 www.naa.org

Newspaper media and retail executives have an opportunity to communicate about strategies, products and processes which achieve the goals of retailers. The forum’s purpose is to showcase best practices, provide industry highlights and future opportunities for both newspaper and retailer media executives. The goal is to positively impact newspaper companies’ market share from local, regional and national retailers and their agencies. NNA’s 122nd Annual Convention and Trade Show Twin Cities, Minnesota 25-28 September 2008 This is the only national convention and trade show devoted to the challenges, opportunities and shared experiences of community newspaper management. NMA Strategic Marketing and Innovation Summit Chicago 15-17 October 2008 www.inma.org/chicago/home.cfm This three-day event holds a wealth of programming for marketing and advertising executives as well as executive and managing editors looking for new ideas to implement within their companies.

NEXPO 09 Las Vegas 9-11 March 2009 www.nexpo.com NEXPO, hosted by the Newspaper Association of America, is the largest annual newspaper exhibition and conference in the world. NAA 2009 Annual Convention San Diego, California 5-7 April 2009 www.naa.org This event is designed to provide education, networking, innovation and solutions to help publishers and other senior level executives in the media industry navigate the challenges and opportunities for today and tomorrow. INMA World Congress, Miami 13-15 May 2009 www.inma.org This is INMA’s premier conference and all newspaper marketing executives are invited.

Asia 62nd World Newspaper Congress 22-25 March 2009 Hyderabad, India www.wanindia2009.com The ultimate conference for newspaper owners, managers, editors and service providers.

Book Corner Upcoming Pulling Newspapers Apart: Analysing Print Journalism by Bob Franklin (Editor) Routledge Launch date: 31 January 2009 This book explores contemporary UK national and local newspapers at a time when some are announcing the industry’s end. Best of Newspaper Design 29: v. 29 by Society for News Design (Society for News Design) Launch date: 1 October 2008 This is the latest in Rockport’s books featuring the best entries from the Society for News Design’s 2007 competition.

Available now Readership 101: How to Get More People Reading Your Newspaper by Randy Craig Marion Street Press Inc. Craig demonstrates how to compete for reader attention and to keep people reading newspapers. The Newspaper Designer’s Handbook by Tim Harrower McGraw-Hill Higher Education; 6th edition This is a guide to newspaper design from page layout to infographics. This book is great for both students and professionals. Paper Tiger: An Old Sportswriter’s Reminiscences of People, Newspapers, War and Work by Stanley Woodward University of Nebraska Press Stanley Woodward was considered one of the world’s best sports journalists. This is his story.

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Headless Body in Topless Bar: The Best Headlines from America’s Favorite Newspaper by New York Post HarperEntertainment See review on the Marketing Mix website. The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google By Nicholas Carr W. W. Norton Carr argues that publishing will disappear at the hands of ‘crowdsourcing’. The book is hailed by critics and readers alike. Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies By Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff Harvard Business School Press The authors describe how to turn the threat of social media into an opportunity. Marketing and media gurus love this book. Always On: Advertising, Marketing, and Media in an Era of Consumer Control By Christopher Volmer McGraw-Hill; 1st edition Volmer says that the age of consumer-centric marketing and advertising offers huge potential for those that get it right and offers to show the way. In the book, there are tips on leading strategies from those who’ve got it right, how to match messages to the right media, how to engage customers on their terms and how to track advertising spending shifts. Our Dumb World: The Onion’s Atlas of the Planet Earth, 73rd Edition By The Onion Little, Brown and Company If you love The Onion, you’ll love this new offering Print Is Dead: Books in our Digital Age By Jeff Gomez Macmillan Gomez tells readers to not only embrace the digital world but to drive it, and shows you how.

Youth News

NEWSPAPER 10 • JULY/AUGUST 2008

Youth

Elusive youth challenge newspapers

In developed countries, the Web generation (16-24) is increasingly consuming digital media (social networks, online TV and video, blogs, cellphone or mobile media, etc). What’s more, they are less likely to get their news from traditional newspapers, especially dailies. This spells trouble for those newspapers that have not yet invested in the media platforms and strategies that will engage these markets. “Everyone seeks to capture the youth market while we know that the real disposable income stays with the over 30s. The challenge is to engage the youth so that they will move on to our products later on. The challenge is also to address the short attention span of the young and mobile audience,” says Willem Pretorius, editor, Sondag. He also views exploring new platforms that will engage the youth markets without estranging the older,

wealthier markets as a challenge. Beeld is taking steps to develop a relationship with the youth markets. “We try to have lots of interaction with new media platforms,” says Gavin Rheeder, marketing manager. “We’re looking at having a presence on YouTube and Facebook, and so on. We recently put Jip [the youth supplement] on Facebook, but it’s not serious yet,” he says. He points to the newspaper’s increasing interaction with TV and radio, which is also strengthening its foothold in youth markets. “Jip TV, as well as the joint features with channel MK89, for example, are the result of our awareness of the media that this market uses. There are budget constraints that limit how much we can do to target this market, but we’re enjoying a lot of successes,” says Rheeder. (get figures). In targeting the youth, Beeld treats its youth products (Kampus

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Beeld and Jip) as separate products with specific strategies. They are distributed at schools and endorsed by local rock bands; promotional road shows take these newspapers to schools across the country. Newspaper groups are challenged in the implementation of these strategies, especially where editorial teams lack the skills and expertise to understand, incorporate and maximise them. Lucille van Niekerk, independent media consultant, believes that as long as the editorial decisionmakers work separately from the marketing and positioning specialists, and the youth specialists, newspapers will not evolve a more effective youth strategy successfully. “We’re looking at changing the structures at personnel level to get it right,” says Rheeder. The belief is that the youth move to newspapers as they grow older and that they are a life-stage read. But that

only gives newspapers more reason to develop those offerings that would entice these readers while they are young, and thereby create a relationship with them that will ensure their transition to their favourite newspaper as they grow older. “Young people want to be taken seriously and not want to be treated as ‘adults before their time’”, says Reiner Mittelbach, CEO, IFRA. “This is a major approach that newspapers should also embrace. Taking young consumers seriously; employing young reporters and editors to write for a young consumership. They know best what young people want to read and what young people want to be involved in, and they want to have a voice in the publication,” he says. Pretorius points to the products that Media24 has created to attract the youth, including classroom newspapers (developed with educators)

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and weekly supplements that are edited by teenagers. “A lot is also being done to attract them online. The challenge is to capture their attention at a young age and get them to become news readers. For in-depth news, they do turn to newspapers,” says Pretorius. Ferial Haffajee, editor, Mail & Guardian, believes that there is still substantial interest by young people in newspapers. “This is certainly our experience on the newspaper where our readership has grown overall but in wonderful ways among younger readers. Our challenge now is to integrate our model of journalism across both online and print to ensure that we grow both at the same time and run out of an integrated newsroom. It is the way of the future,” says Haffajee. Some newspapers are lucky to have a strong profile in the youth market. “Tabloid newspapers like the Daily Sun, Sunday Sun, Son and Isolezwe, attract substantial numbers of young people. One third of the 4.8 million Daily Sun readers, for example, are between the ages of 16 and 24,” says Fergus Sampson, GM, Daily Sun. The paper was also chosen as the ‘coolest’ daily newspaper in the recent Sunday Times Generation Next survey, although publisher Deon du Plessis says that this was not the result of the paper’s intentional aiming at this market. “That we were voted cool is a comfort, but this market needs a whole new effort from us. The Times, for example, is being very clever with its classifieds; if you are a young person looking for work you will read The Times,” says du Plessis. He goes on to say that the Daily Sun has created a reading habit among its target market and a lot of these readers are young. “Their kids are going to become Sun readers before becoming astral travellers,” he says. “Those kids are growing up with mobile phones and their brand awareness is staggering. So I think we will have to expand our Sun Life section and make it more brand driven”. Du Plessis also says that in spite of the strong profile that his paper has as a print title, he is aware of the need to develop digital platforms to build relationships with his younger readers. And certainly, targeting the youth through ‘cool’ channels of communication is key. “Some European newspapers have great success with weekend party photos taken in discos and at public parties, which are published in print and online straight away,” says Mittelbach. This is a simple strategy, which can have great impact among the youth market. “I think that a newspaper which targets older readers will lose its younger audience, but I don’t believe that the converse is true,” says Ray Hartley, editor, The Times. “We are not targeting young readers so much as the changing expectations that newspaper readers have. They want interactivity and multimedia. This is not only true of younger readers but also of older readers who are frequently online,” he says.

The youth is an elusive market, As newspapers, given that it tends towards new media and worldwide trends find we can only hope that that they are spending ever less time with traditional media. This they will find benefit in is a market that reads its news online, and gets its news through our brands. platforms other than the newspaper. Locally, newspapers are focusing on the youth as their future readers. Strategies are being put into place to attract young readers, and these include the development of supplements and sections aimed at younger readers, and joint ventured with entertainment platforms (such as concerts, etc). However, there are challenges around this. Geoff Cohen, general manager: News24, quotes Guy Berger (Head of the school of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University), who says that the youth believe that if the news is important, it will come to them and they won’t have to go out to get it. “As newspapers, we can only hope that they will find benefit in our brands,” says Cohen. Targeting the youth market is tricky. “Treating an age group across race and economic status as homogeneous is a challenge,” he says. The director of World Association of Newspapers Young Readership Development, Aralynn McMane, gave a few tips to inspire a more engaged relationship with the youth at the 15th World Editors Forum. Newspapers should give young people a chance to be reporters (locally, The Times and Beeld are among the newspapers that have implemented this). Newspapers should start recycling schemes and involve the youth in them. Newspapers should also seek to involve young people through technology. “I don’t think any traditional print brands are doing a good job of marketing themselves on accessible platforms for the youth. They are good for educational purposes, but even where they do target the youth, I suspect they are read by adults anyway,” says Cohen. That said, there is just not enough information about the youth market and its news/media consumption habits for newspapers to really make inroads into this.

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Youngsters get news from mixed sources According to reports on New Media Age (www.nma.co.uk, 29 July 2008), company Q Research in the UK has found that 11-25 year olds get their news from TV, newspapers, news websites and radio. Almost three quarters want to know the news. Older respondents were more likely to use digital media for their news. TV is the top choice for all the age groups tested; the older group (aged 21-25) are most likely to use newspapers’ websites. Young men are more likely to get the news via their cellphones, while young women appear to be more attracted to traditional media.

How the youth get the news A Forrester Research report, Which Magazines and Newspapers Generations are Reading, 2007 found that Gen Yers (18-27) spend 1.2 hours each week reading print newspapers; for Gen Xers (28-41), the figure is 1.7 hours. Compare this to the Younger Boomers (45-51) and Older Boomers (52-62), who spend between 2.7 and 4 hours a week reading newspapers. Compare this to the amount of time spent using the Internet for personal reasons. Gen Yers and Gen Xers spend 8.1 hours and 6.6 hours online respectively, while Younger Boomers and Older Boomers spend 5.3 hours and 5.1 hours online respectively. What this indicates is that the younger generations are reading substantially less print news than the older generations, but are spending more time online. The study also found that across the generations local newspapers are subscribed to most often or most likely to be read regularly. Another study (The Fragmentation of Yesterday’s Newspaper, 13 June 2008) finds that Gen Y leads in terms of content personalisation/RSS use. Almost 60 per cent of Gen Yers read personalised content on a portal site, such as My Yahoo! or an RSS reader like FeedBurner. In terms of preferred or most popular content viewed or read, current news, entertainment/celeb news and sports rank highest. Furthermore, seven in 10 Gen Yers read blogs; 12 per cent read blogs daily, 23 per cent weekly and 16 per cent read monthly. Again, news, entertainment and politics top the list of content or topics that are read in blogs.

Crossword, Weather, Horoscopes

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31

The Headbanger Stumper Crossword Clues ACROSS 2. Fired Sunday Times columnist 3. SA’s biggest football paper 4. World’s biggest selling newspaper 10. Body representing over 700 newspapers in SA 12. UK's weekend rag 14. Business Day’s niche weekend paper 16. SA’s biggest selling daily 20. SA’s first multimedia daily 21. Beeld's youth supplement 22. One of the biggest selling newspaper in the US 23. Iranian newspaper closed down for ‘homosexual’ interview 25. Afrikaans tabloid that closed Gauteng and Free State editions in February 26. SA’s oldest newspaper that underwent a facelift last year 27. Business Times editor 29. Mobile provider offering SMS newspaper function 30. Collective name for Soweto’s community papers 32. Daily Sun’s soccer cartoon 33. Pink paper launched in Abu Dhabi 36. Friday’s intellectual read 37. The cyclist's newspaper 38. SA’s only female newspaper editor 39. Independent’s Zulu Sunday paper 40. A gem of a newspaper 41. Common name for a digital news reader

DOWN 1. Rupert Murdoch’s stock exchange purchase 3. UK Sunday paper gone full colour 5. City Press’s celebrated editor 6. Manhattan’s daily 7. KZN's temperature raising paper 8. WAN held its annual 2008 conference in this city 9. City where fake ads caused an uproar 11. Country with the best press freedom 13. World Association of Newspapers 15. Clark Kent is a journalist here 17. Watergate journos 18. Sweden’s global freebie 19. Sunday Afrikaans tabloid 24. Google’s newspaper remedy 28. Country with the worst press freedom 31. SA’s annual newspaper awards 34. Indian daily from the Daily Mail stable 35. SA’s Indian newspaper

Weather Report Daily forecast: Stormy weather over the Western Cape and Gauteng. The rest of the country can expect fair weather with a few isolated showers.

Weekly forecast: Clear sunny skies for most of the country. The Free State may see a few hailstorms with Gauteng experiencing a few light showers.

Weekend forecast: Gloriously hot and sunny across the country with a few isolated cloud patches.

Virgo: Your attention to the smaller details of the mobile platform you are launching will pay off in the long run. Short term, this will feel like an uphill climb of the worst kind, but if you focus on producing really clever content, you will see returns.

Pisces: Shorter news stories, please. Nobody has the time (or the attention span) anymore to really get through an entire feature article decked in waffle and ruffles, and superfluous sentences.

Aries: You are reporting great circulations, hence advertisers are confident that they Libra: Boy, have you hit the big time. Your paper is making it through the should be spending with you. But what they don’t know is that there is a discrepancy? security guards and boomed off suburbs right into the hands of Yuppie-land’s shopaholics. Your new distribution system is paying off, as are the branded newspaper stands.

in your PMIEs and third-party bulk sales. It’s time to confront the unsavoury character that heads the circulations department before someone finds you out.

Taurus: Your outdated, old-school advertising formats are the reason for Scorpio: Somewhere in the transition from old-school newspaper to new- your poor performance lately. Maybe you should start investigating new ad age tabloid, your paper took a turn towards sleaze. Find your way back to the real news and find a way to blend this with celebville happenings.

shapes and formats. Perhaps you should add sampling to the list of options open to your advertisers.

Sagittarius: An integrated newsroom is carrying your newspaper forward Gemini: You haven’t quite decided if you should hire that young hot shot to with content and platforms that are enthralling readers. The question is: why are you still charging subscription fees online? Thanks to Google, your readers can find the same news stories for free on your competitor’s website.

Capricorn: Stop fretting about the declining investment in your classifieds section. Get your own back by building an online classifieds section, and remember that it should be available for free.

head your new media newsroom. But look at it this way: he knows what Plaxo, Twitter, Facebook and Flickr are. And you don’t.

Cancer: Your recently launched magazine is a fine effort towards capturing the female of the species. But simply throwing a few recipes and fashion tips together is not really going to convince them that you understand them. It’s time to ponder the eternal question: what do women want?

Aquarius: Going hyper-local in your reporting is great. Until you find your- Leo: Your over the top sampling campaigns and competition promos could self dedicating the front-page story to the neighbourhood tale of Mrs Jones’ hip replacement operation.

keep your ad revenues afloat, for now. But if you are not investing in the right training for your distribution staff, this initiative will flop.

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Sport

NEWSPAPER 10 • JULY/AUGUST 2008

Cape Argus Cape Argus has been hung over the year with a bobble towards the end of last year and a falter at the beginning of this year. The Citizen A stayer for the most part of the year, it dropped form for in the last half of the year after it was blinkered.

Cape Times This horse was off the pace all last year, but has found its form and is become becoming a stretch runner this year. Business Day Racing evenly over the last year, this year has seen an improvement in performance going all out from the starting gate. Business Day is definitely on the bit.

Die Burger Too much whipping has led Die Burger to falter at the finishing post and to bolt a number of times, leading to an overall decline in racing ability.

Daily News After this horse was broken down at the beginning of the year, it has now evened out and continues is continuing to run well.

Beeld Too much pulling has led to a slightly off the pace season for in 2007, but it is definitely on the pace again this year. Isolezwe After refusals during April to June, the blinkers came off and it has runran well over the rest of the year and continues to do so.

Son After hard driving over the last year, Son has shown great pace on the home stretch.

Sowetan With little handicap over the racing season, it faltered during from July to September, picked up again but its faltered again at the beginning of this season.

The Star Coming off the pace this year, The Star has improved and can now be considered to be a closer.

Daily Sun Used to being able to romp home, the favourite has been handicapped a few times this year. Daily Sun is was also slightly off the pace at the beginning of this year’s racing season where it spit the bit.

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DAILY NEWSPAPERS – AND AWAY THEY GO Please note that the figures are for paid for circulation and total circulation – which includes third third-party bulk sales and PMIE. Newspaper 10 looked at the performance of each newspaper from Jan-March 2007 to Jan-March 2008.

Jan-March 2008 Beeld Die Burger Business Day Cape Argus Cape Times The Citizen including 15 digital editions Daily Dispatch Daily News Daily Sun Diamond Fields Advertiser The Herald Isolezwe The Mercury Pretoria News Son Sowetan The Star Volksblad The Witness

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Total circulation

98 995 81 090 41 499 52 544 47 325 69 119

105 149 84 545 41 975 70 401 50 621 71 324

31 931 42 207 499 436 8 950 25 978 99 098 36 897 22 784 102 402 129 660 158 124 27 863 22 890

32 194 52 018 499 436 10 138 25 978 99 098 38 916 28 202 102 402 145 173 178 294 28 176 23 187

The Mercury On the pace until the middle of the year, The Mercury ended up bearing out towards the end of the year and is still pulling this season. Daily Dispatch Normally off to a cracking pace, it has bolted a few times over the course of the year although it’s back on the pace for this year’s season.

Volksblad A steady runner the entire year, it faltered a few times at the post. The Herald This old nag was over the top this season, hopefully it will regain pace this year.

Pretoria News Unfortunately, Pretoria News seems to have flattened out over the last year, hopefully it will rest and recover this year. Very slow decline over the entire year.

DFA DFA is a stayer although it seems to be snug and shut-off – perhaps the trainer needs to allow the jockey to whip a little more to get it to pick up the pace this year.

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Sport

NEWSPAPER 10 • JULY/AUGUST 2008

The Citizen Ilanga Langesonto Having started in the middle of the table at the beginning of the year, Ilanga Langesonto’s aerodynamics has have improved with each race. No retirements and a few pole positions have meant it’s climbing steadily up the championship points. A team to watch out for.

Having sorted out its engine, tyres and driver over the last year, it has maintained an excellent steady season, albeit in the middle of the table.

Saturday Dispatch Good all-round car and more confident drivers has have seen Saturday Dispatch keep itself in the points the entire year.

Independent on Saturday

Beeld The last year has been a tumultuous one for Beeld having too many drive drive-through penalties throughout the season. This year, however, it has found some clean air to push itself back up the points table.

Weekend Argus Too many retirements this year has meant an unstable season, but it has pulled back this year to put it back at in the same position as the start of last year’s season.

Nothing spectacular from this team over the last year, instead it has managed to keep its team in the points in every race to keep it gaining points.

Sondag

WEEKEND NEWSPAPERS – F1 Please note that the figures are for paid for circulation and total circulation – which includes third third-party bulk sales and PMIE. Newspaper 10 looked at the performance of each newspaper from Jan-March 2007 to Jan-March 2008.

Jan-March 2008

The Sunday Independent

Weekend newspapers Daily newspapers

Die Burger Die Burger had trouble with graining both in the spring and at the beginning of this year so if it can get its tyres sorted out for the rest of the year, it should see a steady season.

The Saturday Star Hitting the pit wall too many times as well as a lot of grass cutting last year dropped saw it dropping vital points, although it is clawing its way back up the championship table this year.

City Press After a rocky start to the beginning of the 2007 season, the rest of the time it managed to keep out of the gravel trap and pit wall. However, a pole position at the beginning of this year bodes well for the rest the season.

Beeld Die Burger The Citizen (14 digital) City Press Ilanga Langesonto Independent on Saturday Pretoria News Saturday Rapport Saturday Dispatch The Saturday Star Sondag Southern Cross The Sunday Independent Sunday Sun Sunday Times Sunday Tribune Sunday World Volksblad Weekend Argus Weekend Post Weekend Witness The Weekender

A brand brand-new team that started on the scoreboard only in April showed its car and drivers could be a force to be reckoned with despite failing to get any podiums after its initial quarter. It has grabbed some driver and team points back this year.

Paid for

Total circulation

90 112 103 418 4 089 191 579 90 096 51 932 14 698 284 634 25 422 114 546 43 464 11 015 40 606 202 524 424 456 101 909 202 918 24 433 94 818 26 926 29 171 12 120

90 403 105 533 55 448 201 790 90 096 53 999 17 540 301 827 25 452 138 269 43 464 11 015 43 290 202 524 504 193 109 451 203 460 24 469 104 738 26 926 29 924 12 620

A good run over the first half of the year, the car suffered from under steer towards the end of the year although this seems to have been sorted out for the 2008 season.

Weekend Witness With a few flying laps, Weekend Witness has performed steadily over the year.

Weekend Post With cars suffering from drag, tyres from too much graining, Weekend Post has dropped down the points at a steady pace and this continues into this season.

Sunday Tribune Problems in on the chicanes with under bracing braking as well as being stuck behind the safety car a few times has seen the Sunday Tribune go up and down the championship table by considerable amounts.

Sunday Sun Suffering from turbulence after following those on in pole position, Sunday Sun dropped all year until October. A few pole positions and podiums at the end of the year until now has have pushed its further up the points table.

Sunday World Getting its car, mechanics, and drivers in order this year has meant the team has moved steadily up the points table all year and a flying start this year should see a great season ahead.

Volksblad Running near the bottom of the table, it has still managed to keep earn a steady amount number of points every race to hold its own.

Pretoria News Saturday A few stop-and-go penalties mid-year dropped it down the championship points table, but a few great qualifying positions early this year has put it in good stead.

Rapport A huge crash for the team in the middle of 2007 put its drivers out of action for a couple of races. A new team member at the beginning of the year has seen it pull back, although it is still below its points for the same time last year.

Going for the ragged edge all year and a few podiums has seen The Weekender rise steadily up the points table over the last season. Let’s hope it continues with the introduction of new drivers this month.

Southern Cross

Sunday Times Two major crashes put the team out of action through July-September and again January-March this year. However, it still retains holds the number one position.

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The Weekender

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Having improved its traction and torque over the last year, it has moved slightly up the points systemstable.

Sport

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Mail & Guardian After signing a number of strikers over the last year, Mail & Guardian has stormed up the table by scoring an impressive number of wins as well as goals.

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UmAfrika Buying new defenders this year as well as a new manager has kept the team on an even pace this year and in the middle of the table. Expect to see more wins than losses or draws this season.

Son After selling two of its best strikers this year, Son has dropped down the table and could be facing relegation.

WEEKLY NEWSPAPERS – football Please note that the figures are for paid for circulation followed by total circulation – which includes third thirdparty bulk sales and PMIE. Newspaper 10 looked at the performance of each newspaper from Jan-March 2007 to Jan-March 2008.

Jan-March 2008 Ilanga Mail & Guardian The Post Soccer Laduma Son UmAfrika

Paid for

Total circulation

109 694 52 067 45 962 292 701 22 086 35 708

103 694 52 067 46 649 292 701 22 086 35 708

The Post Ilanga After a great start to the season, players sent off in a number of matches meant losing a few matches mid-year. New signings have put the team back up the table.

Keeping possession of the ball during each game and a huge number of goals scored from corners has kept The Post in contention for the championship all year. However, a shaky start to this year with a number of players been being shown red cards has meant that the team is playing below its last year’s standard of last year.

Soccer Laduma Still top of the table, the team has struggled with injuries all during the first half of last year but with its star players back in action, it’s regained its superiority. However, another slew of injuries has meant it has dropped the ball again at the beginning of this season.

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