Publishers need to rally around print

This is compared to R7 billion for the previous six month period (Jan-June 04). The total advertising expenditure across all media for the year 2004 was an estimated R16 billion according to the latest ABCs.

Despite the various gains and losses for newspapers, magazines and other media profiled in the all media data extrapolation, print remains the biggest challenge. This is in line with global trends, as reported by Bizcommunity.com in January from the World Print Congress in Cape Town (WPC8). But dealing with the issue is a different problem in this highly competitive industry, and the ABC called on print publishers to work together to promote 'print' as a medium, rather than just competing with each other for share of readership. Other media are actually the competition, not rival titles.

The ABC is trying to make the numbers talk for the industry, by looking at data over a five year period and identifying trends for the industry, ie, advertising expenditure - gross, not discounted, and not including freebies or FSIs, (free standing inserts); circulation trends; print trends (magazines vs newspapers); and the influence of other media, ie, cinema and online.

And while the brief presentation by the ABC left many at the breakfast presentation, who had battled Johannesburg's Monday morning traffic in the driving rain for hours to be there, feeling as if the main course had not yet been served (the actual ABC figures for the previous six months), the ABC is to be commended for starting the series of roadshows to add a bit of sizzle to the numbers. The ABC has also assured Bizcommunity.com that it welcomes suggestions from the industry as to what data they would like to see at these roadshows in the future, as the organization works on the data over the next six months to increase reliability and trending.

So while the actual sizzle was the numbers that were not released at the presentation, but later in the day to the actual media owners directly, Daily Sun publisher ????, the indomitable Deon du Plessis, delivered a forthright speech on the "new editor" of today in the context of the Daily Sun's indisputable success among readers. The gist was that the 'niche' is the newspaper of the future.

Total media spend

ABC Board member, Sue Grant, who did the presentation on behalf of the ABC, said total media spend has risen from R3.8 billion (Jan-Jun 2000) to R9 billion over the past five years on all media products, which is a significant increase over that five year period. It is also obvious that more spend takes place in the second half of each year, due to an increase in advertising over the festive season and new product launches for the spring/summer period.

Television has increased faster in its share of the advertising pie, taking a 44.1% slice of the market, leaving 36.4% to Print (down from 40.3% five years ago) and 19.5% consumed by 'Other' media.

"The print industry is under threat," warned Grant, who said this affected the brands that were being advertised.

The main points from the latest ABC for the period July to December 2004, according the ABC, are: