ABC Q1 report: Prediction of print's death premature

Print "only" readership is holding its own in the USA, according to a new analysis and, while both digital and mobile continue to grow, in the US research shows that more than half of the newspaper audience - 54% - still read their local paper's news report only in print.

Here in South Africa, according to the report, daily newspaper performance "remains promising as results show consistency with Q4 2013" but is somewhat of a mixed bag... As is magazine performance. While inland circulations dropped unexpectedly, those for Daily Dispatch and Isolezwe jumped - the former by 18% and the latter by 11% on Q4 2013. Weeklies continued their downward trend, losing a further 2.5% on 2013 Q4, while weekend titles dropped only 1.8% "albeit Afrikaans titles faired worse than their English or vernacular counterparts". In contrast, however, local and free newspapers grew over the period with strong growth in particular from the Review Midweek.

Newspapers continue to perform relatively better than magazines.

The report points out that "in respect of the research, we should remember that digital is the new print ink, and not a competitor. The future for print in Africa will be a combination of both written delivery methods."

Download the full report.