Tracey Naughton

Introduction

The extent to which the handful of feisty and brave young newspapers of the Eighties helped bring about change has never been measured. What is certain is that they forced change among the mainstream newspapers. That most have been allowed to "¼melt away like snow in the sunshine that seems a permanent fixture of new South Africa" as journalist Franz Kruger once remarked, is a shame.

We stand perched on the threshold of an opportunity to change South African newspapering with the forthcoming Media Development Agency. It could be an exciting tool to bring diversity to (until recently) a hesitant industry. And it will be the key to putting the community back into community media. But the path is filled with pot-holes. Print is not an easy business: it's expensive, controlled by printing and distribution cartels and returns are slow in coming. Good business and management skills will be essential to its success.

The MDA can also be a strong lobbying body to ensure that non-competitive practices are stopped and that diversity and vibrancy is continually monitored. As the section on funding will show, there are many interesting models on the table and while the industry is at the moment developing and Agency of its own, all parties seem to be talking the same language and co-operation should not be difficult to achieve. But first, a look at the industry.

"...the newspaper industry itself often seems to us doom-laden, whether about the vicissitudes of paper prices or convinced of coming obsolescence" - World Association of Newspaper Trends, 1997.

This international depression about print media has not escaped South African shores. The world trend of depressed circulation and diminishing advertising revenue is a local malaise too. While there is room for concern, the doomsday scenarios have proven somewhat unnecessary.

Newspapers are arresting the decline in circulation while niche newspapers display healthy circulation increases in the past year. The latest Audit Bureau of Circulation figures for the period June to December 1998 reveal a total newspaper circulation of 3.1-million daily and weekly sales. Commercial newspapers are now selling at the rate they were in 1992. In 1992, this figure dropped to a low of 1.15 million newspapers. In South Africa, the ten top-selling newspapers are:

Box 1
Sunday Times
Rapport
City Press
Sowetan
The Star
Citizen
Beeld
Die Burger
Ilanga (Zulu)
Ilanga (English)

South Africa's population is growing younger. It is incumbent on newspaper owners and editors to attract younger audiences. Thus the PMA's school newspaper initiative is important as is the strategy of newspaper's like City Press who are using cheeky young writers like Vukile Phokwana to successfully draw in younger audiences.

While one local newspaper company has laid off staff in anticipation of a recession, print media is holding its slice of the advertising revenue pie. The World Association of Newspaper Trends for 1997 discerned a steady increase in ad revenue for newspapers in South Africa. In 1997 (the last year for which statistics are available), revenue from advertising grew by 17 percent. Print enjoys a 45.6% share of the national advertising pie. (1)

Despite the growth of independent radio stations and the introduction of a free to air television channel, advertisers are still showing great support for print and its ability to deliver audiences. The challenge is to convert advertisers into supporting community and smaller commercial print initiatives.

"White control has been substantially eroded." - Clive Emdon: Ownership and Control of Media in South Africa; Media and Democracy in South Africa edited by Jane Duncan and Mandla Seloane.

No research into media diversity would be complete without a look at changing newspaper ownership in South Africa. In the past decade, this ownership has changed completely. White control has been substantially eroded primarily by the sale of a portion of the equity of Times Media Limited to the National Empowerment Corporation via the sale of Johnnic. Johnnic is a holding company hived off into black hands by an Anglo-American sale three years ago.

Below follows a contemporary profile of ownership in South Africa. While the colour of newspaper owners in this country may have changed, it is still a highly monopolised industry. Six groups own 17 daily titles and 11 weeklies. The only newspapers which fall outside their ambit are Daily Dispatch, the Evening Post, Ilanga, Mail&Guardian and the Natal Witness.

Box 3 - [Listed in order of size]

Independent Newsapers

The biggest newspaper publishers on the continent are based in South Africa with its head office in Dublin, Ireland. Owned by magnate Tony O'Reilly, the company owns 14 titles which it bought from the Argus newspaper company in 1993 in a deal given the thumbs-up by President Nelson Mandela who has a close relationship with O'Reilly. The company owns the following titles:

Sunday Independent
Pretoria News
Saturday Star
The Star
Sunday Tribune
Business Day
Cape Times
Cape Argus
Weekend Argus
Daily News
Diamond Fields Advertiser
Eastern Province Herald
Eastern Province Herald Saturday
Independent on Saturday

Since Independent Newspapers bought over the Argus company, it has introduced the Business Report into its morning titles and there is market talk of a similar daily called Sports Report which will take on Sportsday, the title introduced recently by Times Media Limited. In April, Independent Newspapers bought out minority shareholders to take its ownership to 100 percent. Chief Executive Ivan Fallon has said that the group will seek empowerment partners on invidual titles or through its provincial companies in Gauteng, the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Kwazulu-Natal.

Times Media Limited

This company is now controlled by the National Empowerment Consortium through its ownership of Johnnic. TML owns the Sunday Times, Sportsday and half the equity in Sunday World, the Sowetan, Business Day and Financial Mail.

Nasionale Pers

This Afrikaans company owns the weekly newspapers City Press and Rapport and the daily titles, Die Burger and Beeld. Under the hand of its new managing director, Koos Bekker, it has invested in its newspapers to make them serious contenders. At one point, Nasionale Pers was eager to expand its foothold in the English language market, but now seems content to beef up City Press which it owns fully after buying back 51 percent of the equity it sold two years ago to Oscar Dhlomo's Dynamo Investments.

New African Publications

Owned by New Africa Investments Limited (Nail), this company owns half the equity in the titles Sowetan and Sunday World. New Africa Publications falls under the control of Zwelakhe Sisulu who is the director of Nail's media division.

Caxton

This company is owned by the entrepreneur Terry Moolman and his partners. It merged last year with Perskor in a R3.4-billion deal. After selling its shares in Rapport to Naspers, it now owns a string of community newspapers and The Citizen. In April, it confirmed the tenure of Martin Williams as editor; now the market is watching to see whether Caxton will go head-to-head with the Sowetan and The Star in Gauteng or whether its new owners will take the publication national.

BDFM

This company is owned jointly by Times Media Limited and the United Kingdom-based Pearson Group, owners of the Financial Times. BDFM owns Business Day and the Financial Mail, both of which are showing steady growth in circulation.

(2) [End Box 3]

In essence, while the face of media ownership has changed significantly, the base of ownership has not increased significantly. While two major groups controlled most newspapers in the past, ownership is now shared by six major group with Independent Newspapers emerging with an outright monopoly.

The ownership of South African print media is not at all what many had hoped for a post-apartheid media landscape. The dream had been of a range of independently owned newspapers providing a wide range of opinion and coverage. The National Community Media Forum in a paper on the Media Development Agency writes, "An essential step on the road towards constructing a democratic society requires building a media sector that reflects the full range of opinion in society." (3) We haven't done so and need to explore why.

The newspaper business is an expensive one to get into and returns are relatively low. Entry costs are therefore the first deterrent to a wider ownership base. Two major exercises in print media empowerment have come apart. Both Oscar Dhlomo's Dynamo Investments and Eric Molobi's Kagiso Investments have shrugged off their newspaper interests in favour of other businesses. This has stymied a more widespread black ownership in print. Emdon has written that "Press capacity is limited" and also that "Competitive business factors have militated against new black-owned and black-run print media ventures succeeding, particularly in a country where there is a combination of low literacy levels and huge distances which separate modest populations."(4)

Guy Berger says "Distribution networks are historically set up to reach whites in white areas. Pricing is pitched at a white market. Literacy levels in the publications are pitched at a white market. Finally, advertising is geared to the white market¼"(5)

What has happened is that while newspaper ownership has changed, the structure of the industry has not. Printing presses are still limited and there has been no attempt to break the many publishing-printing-monopolies which continue to dominate the industry. This is something which any Media Development Agency will have to consider, but it is unlikely to be given the authority to force the changes. Joel Netshitenzhe of the GCIS says that the new Competition legislation can be used to investigate such monopolies in line with the recommendations of the government-appointed Communications Task Group (Comtask) report.(6) The existing Competition Board did not have real bite: it found that the Argus purchase of Cape Times which gave the group domination of the Cape Town morning market was not anti-competitive. But a whole new competition structure is in the process of being established and will be set up by mid-year. It is a body with which a proposed MDA must have strong links.

"Media diversity is not only about widening the base of people who own the media but also of diversity in content."- Joel Netshitenzhe. Chief Executive, Government Communication and Information System.

A cursory glance at the titles of Independent Newspapers will show that monopolies do not encourage a diverse content. The group is big on the term "synergy" by which it means that it will make greater use of its clout to cut costs and run the newspaper's content like an internal agency. This means that it is likely to create a common pool of reporters on different beats who will supply all titles.

This has happened with its political and business coverage (all of which has been collapsed into Business Report) and there are plans afoot to encourage a similar scheme with some arts reporting as well as sports reporting. It has a medium-term vision to create a Sports Report in similar style and structure to Business Report. This is a common trend internationally but in a country like South Africa, it squeezes tighter the range of opinions available.

The South African National Editors Forum (SANEF) believes the way to encourage diverse content is to diversify newsrooms. Together with other organisations, it has notched up some measure of success in its efforts to change controlling structures in news rooms where the numbers of black and female journalists, sub-editors, executive editors and editors is growing everyday. But the process is so new that it is difficult to measure change at anything but an anecdotal level.

It is into this atmosphere of change that the move toward establishing a Media Development Agency fits. It will be an essential tool toward changing opinion, increasing the body of opinion available and of providing a media source to rural and niche audiences.

"We have made the point," says Netshitenzhe, "that South Africa's electronic media is more vibrant because of diversity which has been introduced. This is not happening with regard to print media and this is a matter of concern". The current situation in print media "impoverishes the discourse," says Netshitenzhe. (7)

"¼[there must be] a range of choices for anyone who wants them. You want a right wing newspaper, there's one for you. You want a liberal one with an emphasis on arts, there's another available. Your interest is in Christianity in the majority communities in South Africa, you can get something. You want a publication specialising in women and sport, that should be there too." - Guy Berger "What criteria for measuring diversity?"

The ideal to work towards is a diversity of ownership, content and choice. Most pundits for an MDA hope that it will re-ignite the exciting flame of independent or alternative media which changed the face of the media in South Africa during the Eighties. Only two of the six regional and national alternative newspapers have survived the changed political times of the Nineties and funding cuts which began to catalyse their demise in the late Eighties. (8)

Newspapers like South in Cape Town and national papers like Weekly Mail and New Nation filled a lacuna in South African reporting. Commercial media was cowed by government and it also practiced a damaging self-censorship which paraded as self-regulation. It failed to reflect the South African reality in any significant way. The cavern it left provided a ready market of curious readers who wanted the real story. Today, that situation has changed. But Netshitenzhe questions the extent. "You do not get a clear picture about the direction in which the country is moving," he says adding "there is sensationalism around areas like crime". Newspapers are not "talking to new markets". (9)

What this suggests is that there is a market available for a new alternative print media. Various thinkers say that an MDA should support existing alternative/independent media and that it can also support new commercial initiatives. Its raison d'etre is not only to fill a gap in the market but to give expression to the constitutional provisions, says a contribution on the topic from the Media and Broadcasting Centre. (10). The constitutional provision it refers to is one which reads that "Every person shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression, which shall include freedom of the press and other media, and the freedom of artistic creativity and scientific research."

The challenge now is to blow life into this constitutional clause. J P Louw of the National Community Media Forum and an employee of the GCIS says "In the community print sector, the number of newspapers has been declining quite significantly." (11) There is no audit of independent community newspapers available, but Louw suggests that between 10 and 20 titles have survived and that these include student newspapers. It is his view that these must be assisted as must other commercial ventures. The Print Media Association has fleshed out quite considerably the types of ventures which will benefit from its Print Development Agency (PDA) These include printers, publishers, publications and small advertising agencies and might be going concerns or start-up businesses. (10)

The PDA will fund ventures to help them become viable, a policy-direction supported by Guy Berger. "¼publications need to show that they do meet some market-related reader demand". It may be, he argues, that "Rural black people may be the most deprived of print media. But by the same token the prospects of producing commercially viable print media for this audience are lower than that with an urbanised audience." (11) There appears to be consensus that while the MDA should strive to make its projects self-sustaining and marketable, it must also fund projects that may be viable but unprofitable and perhaps not even self-sustaining.

"An ennabling support mechanism is a developmental approach to the community media sector¼"National Community Media Forum - Untitled paper on a Media Development Agency.

Introduction

A generic term used to describe a Media Development Agency is an enabling support mechanism. It is a state-sponsored attempt to encourage diversity and it can take on a number of functions. At a primary level, it should be a conduit for funds to independent, alternative and community media. But it should also be a policy-making body with the power to make recommendations to bodies like the Competition Board and one which meets regular with other independent organs like the Independent Broadcasting Authority so that its view of media and media development can be an holistic one.

Shape and form

There are two points of view on the form. The first is that the MDA should be established by statute, funded by parliament and accountable to parliament as are the other Chapter Nine institutions like the Commission on Gender Equality and the Human Rights Commission. This would enshrine its independence and provide for the arms length-from-government relationship which all players say is crucial. The Freedom of Expression Institute says that the MDA should have a regulatory function and that it should have the power to propose legislation.

The second view espoused in the NCMF paper is of the view that the Agency should be a statutory body operating under the auspices of the office of the president. The reasoning behind this is that because the MDA will be a project of the GCIS, it should have the same political authority as does the information system. [It is my view, if I am allowed one, that the contested turf over which the MDA will rule demands that it enjoys the same freedom as the Chapter Nine institutions.]

It must be led by councilors appointed in the same way as the councilors of the Independent Broadcasting Authority. J P Louw says that the MDA will be a form of "¼government intervention. But it's the kind of intervention that does not necessarily take government interest forward". (12) What kind of intervention should it be then? It must be "community-driven" by encouraging communities to kick-start floundering local media and to begin thinking of different forms of homegrown media be it the "wall newspapers" of Nepal which are produced and stuck on walls or "lekgotlas" where the literate read to the illiterate. "The focus should be on addressing the culture of reading and writing." (13)

Areas of work

Funding. It will be a conduit of various types of funding including loans, donor funds and state funds. As such its primary work will be to vet proposals, find under-resourced areas and encourage media in those areas.

• Training. It must provide or access training opportunities for the staff of independent print media. This training should not only be in journalistic skills but should include "¼marketing, advertising, administrative and financial skills". (14)
• Agency. The MDA can act as an agent to secure better reproduction and print deals, for example, for the projects and ventures which it funds. This means that these projects and ventures should in some instances "sell" themselves as a unified group instead of as small individual outfits.
• Research and monitoring. As the custodian and protector of media diversity, it would be up to the MDA to become the country authority on the state of diversity. It must be aware of the constantly changing media landscape and must be the watch-dog on the promises which media companies make regarding diversity. For example, Independent Newspapers is on record as saying it will encourage empowerment partners to buy into individual titles or provincial operations. It would be up to the councilors of the MDA to keep checking in with the company on when this will happen. This means that its role will straddle the monitoring and research into all types of media from the government's mooted news agency, to commercial and independent media.

A primary function of the MDA will be to manage and disburse funds. It has been suggested that the MDA fund community media projects and that it provide loans to small and independent commercial media enterprises.

Its funding must be developmental and must in all ways encourage eventual self-sufficiency. The Film and Video Fund run by the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology provides a particularly good model. It funds only those projects which bring some money to the table. It provides funds for five years in which time the project must show itself to be self-financing.

On the subject of loans, it is felt that loans from the MDA must be made at competitive interest rates and that the pay-back period must be three years. All funding and loans must be accompanied by an element of training and empowerment to ensure that skills are being transferred and that projects are well-managed to ensure no graft, mismanagement and waste, all problems which have beset the community and alternative media sectors.

In addition to transfers from the public purse, the NCMF has also recommended that government departments and parastatals like the Development Bank could sponsor articles on their projects and policies. Running parallel to these funds, the NCMF also recommends that the MDA start an investment arm similar to that of trade unions which will eventually be used to fund its work. (15). This entrepreneurial element is new to South African thinking about an MDA and will take several years to turn a profit. In the meantime, international trends include the use of a tax on advertising revenue to fund such media diversity or a tax on the profits of major newspaper companies.

JP Louw says that the MDA must work toward eventual self-sufficiency and that it should also be the conduit of donor funds. Initiatives like the industry's planned Print Development Agency should be collapsed into this structure as should the Film and Video Fund (currently run by the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology) and the Community Development Trust (currently run by the Department of Communication). (16)

"The Print Media Association needs to move from a regulatory to a developmental position." - The PMA on its Print Development Agency.

Cynics may argue that the PMA saw the writing on the wall and decided to start its own Development Agency before being forced to fund a statutory institution. But since it includes the likes of the progressive thinker, Clive Emdon, it should perhaps be given the benefit of the doubt. Ultimately, the PDA's mission is to expand the reading public and to encourage ventures that will be sustainable.

In 1998, the PMA drew together representatives from government, independent publishers, the industry and the National Community Media Forum to begin thinking about a more diverse future for the print industry by growing new media enterprises which will span everything from printers, publishers, publications and small advertising agencies. It set up a task group which has been meeting regularly to outline its vision and was recently voted enough money to start a small secretariat which will operate from the offices of the PMA in Johannesburg.

Agreement has been reached on a number of areas including its independence and neutrality and its major work. The PDA's major work will be training and not only training of journalists and publishers but of media managers. The PMA says that "We will teach them how to manage small media enterprises." Through such a big brother arrangement, it is hoped that the PDA will be able to secure better printing deals and print slots for independent media enterprises. "We can give them a chance in life," says Brian Pottinger, a member of the PDA task group. (17) He adds that media companies are unlikely to become funders and that what the PDA is likely to do instead is leverage loans on behalf of the new media ventures and projects. It will also consider setting up a niche and focused advertising agency to "collectively derive ad revenue" for the projects it will support.

As suggested above, the proposers of the PDA are taking a very lateral view of what they will fund. Says Pottinger, "It could be a free sheet, a community newspaper, an ad agency, a small printer, a distributor¼there's no shortage of bright ideas out there."(18)

"There must be a place for the nutters," - Hugh Lewin; Director; Institute for Journalism.