The Harbinger

Behind the Naspers results

November 27th, 2009

Probing behind the Nasper’s results shows some interesting things: how bad things are in newspapers, how our TV market is changing quietly, and just how big and powerful Naspers is.

Let’s start with the TV market. Multichoice won 238 000 new subscribers in South Africa, taking them to an incredible 2,6-million houses. But it is the continued growth that is extraordinary and it includes 132 000 new households on the Compact offering.

This is going to change the face of South African television, as more and more viewers are lost to free-to-air TV. This has significance for SABC and eTV. Also, every month that passes makes it harder for the new licencees to enter the pay-TV market. The one gap that existed was in cheaper subscriptions, and Multichoice is using the delay in new arrivals to fill this gap. The hurdles to entry go up all the time, making competition less and less likely.

On print, Naspers said the following:”Globally print operations felt the full impact of economic headwinds.” Lack of commas aside, it is interesting that this is the first time in ages that they have not been able to cite the growth of Daily Sun on the upside. “Resilient” was the best they could say about print circulations. Operating profits in print were down 27% in South Africa and 42% in Brazil. Ouch!

Nasper’s market cap was R114-bn today. To give an idea where this puts them in their sector, their nearest competitor in market cap terms on the JSE is Caxton, worth R7,1-bn.

Entry Filed under: Anton Harber, Journalism, Print, TV

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Anton Harber: Media

Anton Harber

Professor Anton Harber directs the Journalism and Media Studies Programme at Wits University. He is former editor of the Mail & Guardian.
Full bio

Department of Useless Information

Among the main results from the World Association of Newspaper’s Newsroom Barometer (a survey of 700 editors and senior news execs in 120 countries) for this year:
- 86% believe integrated print and online newsrooms will become the norm, and 83% believe journalists will be expected to be able to produce content for all media within five years.
- Two-thirds believe some editorial functions will be outsourced, despite frequent newsroom opposition to the practice.
- A plurality - 44% - believe on-line will be the most common platform for reading news in the future, compared with 41% last year. Thirty-one cited print (down from 35% last year), 12% mobile and 7% e-paper. The rest were unsure.
- A majority of editors - 56%- believe news in the future will be free, up from 48% from last year’s survey. Only one-third believe the news will remain paid for, while 11% were unsure. - From Editors’ Weblog

Worth Reading

There is a crisis in trust and communication between the British public and the mainstream media, a new report has concluded. The gulf between public expectations of news provision and the actual nature of articles, which oscillate between esoteric or irresponsible, leaves readers feeling confused and excluded.
The report, entitled ‘Public Trust In The News’ was conducted by researchers from Manchester and Leeds Universities and was published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. - From Editors Weblog

Other writings

Reflections on Journalism in the Transition to Democracy - Ethics & International Affairs 18, no. 3 (2004).

Journalism in the Age of the Market
- Harold Wolpe Memorial Lecture, Centre for Civil Society, University of KZN, Aug 2002

The Untimely Death of SA’s Finest Daily - Sunday Times, May 2005

“Two Newspapers, Two Nations? The Media and the Xenophobic Violence” from Go Home or Die Here, edited by Shireen Hassim Tawana Kupe and Eric Worby (WUP, 2008)

Remarks at Goedgedacht Forum, October 2008

The rise of social network journalism - From The 2009 Flux Trend Review (Macmillan, 2008)

A recent piece by me on the Zapiro cartoon row which appeared in Comment is Free, a Guardian blog.

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