Digital-first policies in newsrooms have been accelerating rapidly in 2012 and 2013, although the process seems "a bit haphazard and chaotic". This is according to the Wits Journalism's State of the Newsroom report, released yesterday.
The report notes Internet usage in SA has more than doubled in the last three years and this is reflected in news publications' strategies. "In 2012, one in three adults in SA - 12.4 million people - was on the Internet. This was up from 2008 figures, when it was found that one in seven adults used the Internet. At this rate, the figure will be two in three adults by 2016."
According to the report, the top five reasons for being on the Internet are to find information, to socialise, to study, for work or business, and to look for a job. The research showed the Internet was more popular than newspapers and more people used the Internet daily than a newspaper daily.
The 2013 PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Entertainment and Media Outlook shows digital newspaper circulation spending in SA is expected to grow by a compound annual growth rate of 75.2% by 2017. This percentage translates into revenue of R215 million by 2017, compared to R13 million in 2012. PwC forecasts the 2013 digital revenue to be R48 million, compared with R2.629 billion for print circulation revenue.
All the newsrooms included in the Wits Journalism research were grappling with business models and the concept of how to generate revenue from online journalism, says the report. Only the Mail and Guardian has a social media policy up and running, while most other newsrooms are drafting theirs.
Paywalls and mobisites
The report shows the increase in Internet usage has led to an increase in paywalls, with the New York Times model - also known as the metering method - being the most successful to date. "Innovated by the Financial Times in 1997, the metering system provides free access to a sample of articles before a consumer is required to pay."
News paywalls have increasingly rolled out in SA this year, although it began as far back as 2009 when the Pietermaritzburg-based daily, The Witness, became the first newspaper in the country to limit online access.
According to the newsroom report, The Herald was the only newspaper that freely disclosed its figures, at 327 e-edition subscribers. Before the paywall (November 2010) it had 6 158 print subscribers and after the paywall 5 794 print subscribers, equating to a loss of 364 print subscribers.
Other publications such as the Daily Dispatch, Beeld, Burger, Volksblad and Sunday Times, which have also erected metered paywalls on their online editions, declined to comment on their success. In May 2013, BDlive erected a metered paywall and subscribers were required to pay R4 233 a year for the full online paper. In July, this was dropped to a R175-per-month digital subscription fee (R2 100 over the year). It has been described as "the first serious paywall move for South African newspapers".
Smartphone and tablet apps for publications started rolling out in SA three years ago, and this, alongside mobisites, continues to be a significant trend. The Mail and Guardian's mobisite is getting more than a quarter of a million visitors each month, Independent Newspaper's mobisite has between 140 000 and 160 000 unique browsers a month, and Times LIVE has more than 150 000 unique browsers a month on its mobisite.
Mobile users account for 25% of Beeld's audience, 20% of Die Burger's and 36% of Volksblad's online audience. Media24's paid mobile apps on Android and iOS phones and tablets reach an additional 4 100 unique browsers per day.
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