Soul queen of Q2 circulation, Afrikaans titles shine - ABC

“The magazine category appears less volatile as can be seen in the growing number of new titles, and I'm pleased to see many established titles delivering responsible circulation performance and at times choosing to consolidate,” Gordon Patterson, ABC VP, said at the breakfast presentation of the report 56 held at the Gordon Institute Business School (GIBS) in Illovo, Johannesburg.

Soulhas braved the current ‘icy' market conditions, ‘winning' the circulation overall title - a bitter pill to swallow for its rivals.

Surprise package

However, the surprise package of this second quarter is none other than the Afrikaans publications which have outplayed their ‘foes' (English publications), with Sarie scoring 19% growth, Rooi Rose 14% and Leef 10%, among others.

“Somewhat I think the Afrikaans titles' resurgence is both interesting and healthy for print,” Patterson pointed out.

Despite Afrikaans titles' domination, the report however noted that English titles such as Femina and Psychologies have done well under the circumstances, recording a healthy growth of 15% and 5.6%, respectively.

Sadly, the ABC second quarter report shows that Wealth & Health had recorded the largest drop in circulation at 57%, while B2B property magazines expectedly went down by over 23% due to the current economic climate.

Still tracking

Furthermore, Patterson said that daily newspapers have seen a small drop in overall circulation performance, but fortunately they are still tracking the previous year trends.

“Son (daily) recorded the largest growth both in % terms and numerically, while The Sun remains the largest title and coastal titles continued to suffer more than inland titles,” the report said.

In the weekend newspapers category, the report shows that Isolweze has delivered the largest growth both numerically and in terms of % increase, while Sunday Times continues to maintain its position as the largest title in this category despite a 15% decline in copy sales.

The Weekender, however, continued to grow, reporting the second highest growth at 10.69%.

Again, Patterson hailed Afrikaans titles' overall remarkable performance in the newspaper section, saying they seem to have faired better than other language press.

Marginal growth

Only one title, Mail & Guardian, has shown marginal growth (2.17%), through growth in subscriptions, while numerically the biggest decline came from Ilanga, with UmAfrica experienced an 11% loss percent-wise.

Downloads:

• ABC Q2 2009 Presentation by Gordon Patterson, 13 August 2009
  
• ABC presentation by Tony Koenderman, 13 August 2009

For more, go to www.abc.org.za.