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) is available and affordable to
citizens.
Print media
There are 22 daily and 25 weekly major urban newspapers in South Africa and a
number of regional and community newspapers.
The dailies are: Beeld, Die Burger, Business Day, Business Report, Cape Argus, Cape
Times, The Citizen, Daily Dispatch, Daily News, Daily Sun, Daily Voice, Diamonds
Field Advertiser, The Herald, Isolezwe, Kaapse Son, The Mercury, Pretoria News,
The Sowetan, The Star, The Times, Volksblad, and The Witness. The largest dailies in
terms of readership (All Media Product Survey 2009) are the tabloid Daily Sun
(14 per cent penetration of adult population, mainly in Gauteng province)), The
Sowetan (4.7, distributed in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces), The Star
(2.5, primarily in Gauteng) and Isolewze (2.4, in KwaZulu-Natal).
The weeklies include: City Press, Independent on Saturday, Isolezwe nge Sonto, Mail
& Guardian, Post, Rapport, Soccer Laduma, Son, Sunday Sun, Sunday Times, Sunday
Independent, Sunday Tribune, Sunday World, and Weekend Post. The largest weeklies,
all of them national newspapers and distributed nationwide, are the Sunday Times
(12.6), Sunday Sun (8.3), City Press (6.5), Soccer Laduma (8.7), Sunday World (5.9)
and Rapport (4.5).
Online publications are: Independent Online, News24, Mail & Guardian, Online
Business Day, SABCnews.com, Die Burger, The Times, Business Report, Finance24,
NetAssets, Moneyweb (including Politicsweb), Financial Mail, ITWeb, BizCommunity, PR Newswire and The Media Online.
A new daily New Age is expected to be launched in September 2010. The paper
was initiated by Essop Pahad, the former minister in the presidency of the Thabo
Mbeki government. It is financed by the Gupta family, industry tycoons who made
their fortune since their immigration from India in 1993 starting with the multimillion computer company Sahara. They are associates of members of the Zuma
family in an increasing number of business ventures. According to reports the
New Age, which will be printed in the Berliner format of a narrower than normal
broadsheet, will have a print-run of 170 000 copies and be sold for R3.50 (US$
0.50) – compared to R 6.20 for a copy of the Cape Times, for example. It is difficult

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AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER SOUTH AFRICA 2010

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