SECTOR 2 The media landscape, including new media, is characterised by diversity, independence and sustainability. 2.1 A wide range of sources of information (print, broadcasting, internet, mobile phones) is accessible and affordable to citizens. With some twenty titles, the total circulation of the national daily press is estimated at about 200,000 copies a day – a figure provided by one of the panellists citing the National Statistics and Demographics Agency (ANSD) and a workshop organised in 2010 by the UNESCO Regional Bureau with players from the sector. On the other hand, this participant mentions certain newspaper publishers with their own printing presses and who give considerably higher figures. However, considering the limited circulation capacity of rotary offset presses (about 20,000 copies per hour for a second-hand machine) and the absence of any audit body able to certify circulation figures, the panellist expresses serious reservations with regard to such claims (sometimes up to 100,000 copies for a single newspaper). Whatever the case, the problem of physical accessibility to the print press becomes more acute in the rural areas or remote urban areas far from the capital than in the city of Dakar (headquarters of most of the major titles) and the large urban areas. A panel member, the director of a publication, admits that “he sometimes drops off only 5 copies of [his] newspaper for a town as large as Louga”.8 The fact is that the issue of the accessibility of the written media is also an economic and financial one. In the view of the panellist concerned, “the costs are affordable, but people do not have the means”. Indeed, most of the Senegalese dailies are sold at a unit price of 100 CFA (about 20 cents of a US dollar). The most expensive dailies (Le Soleil, Sud Quotidien, Wal Fadjri) are sold at 200 CFA (about 40 US cents). Compared to production costs as described by the said panellist, these prices leave the companies a very narrow margin. For example, the newspaper seller receives 30 CFA (0.06 dollars) for each copy sold, not counting paper (about 2 reels for 15,000 copies, i.e. the average circulation of the newspapers), ink, electricity, salaries, etc. In support of this observation, a panellist adds that for the same economic reasons, publishers are forced to limit their circulation. She concludes this part of 8 86 Town situated approximately 200 km to the north of Dakar, the administrative centre of a “département” of more than 357,000 inhabitants (ANSD, SES Louga, 2010). AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER SENEGAL 2013