The Daily Dispatch is the only paid print newspaper in the country that increased its circulation in 2024.
Though the increase from last year is small — 1.9% — this is against the backdrop of an 18% plunge across the dailies nationally, with dramatic falloffs at some of SA’s best-known publications.
This includes the country’s two main tabloids, where figures are down by about one third — the Daily Sun lost 34% and the Dispatch’s sister paper, Sowetan, dropped 33.6%.
The Western Cape’s iconic two dailies, the Argus and the Cape Times, lost about a quarter of last year's sales each, at 27.7% and 24.9%.
Though the national picture for quarterly figures is better, with eight publications showing positive numbers, the Dispatch is still the only paid-for daily newspaper that achieved both quarterly and annual increases in its circulation across all languages.
It rose 5.3% in Q2 from the first quarter of 2024, way higher than the national average increase of 1.2%.
Daily Dispatch bucks SA’s bleak readership trends
Image: Picture: 123RF/Ruggiero Scardigno
The Daily Dispatch is the only paid print newspaper in the country that increased its circulation in 2024.
Though the increase from last year is small — 1.9% — this is against the backdrop of an 18% plunge across the dailies nationally, with dramatic falloffs at some of SA’s best-known publications.
This includes the country’s two main tabloids, where figures are down by about one third — the Daily Sun lost 34% and the Dispatch’s sister paper, Sowetan, dropped 33.6%.
The Western Cape’s iconic two dailies, the Argus and the Cape Times, lost about a quarter of last year's sales each, at 27.7% and 24.9%.
Though the national picture for quarterly figures is better, with eight publications showing positive numbers, the Dispatch is still the only paid-for daily newspaper that achieved both quarterly and annual increases in its circulation across all languages.
It rose 5.3% in Q2 from the first quarter of 2024, way higher than the national average increase of 1.2%.
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The Dispatch’s Eastern Cape sister paper, The Herald, was the only daily which showed a quarterly increase in double digits, at 13.8%.
The next highest was The Star in Gauteng, at 9.2% (annual drop 16.4%).
Die Burger and Business Day were both up between 6% and 6.5%.
Among the weeklies, the drama was in iconic Soccer Laduma’s plunge of 40.4% from last year. Otherwise the picture was similar, with national declines of 4.4% and 11.9%.
Only the Daily Maverick website’s weekly print offering bucks the bleak trend, with both quarterly and annual increases of 2.3% and 7.2%.
The Mail & Guardian’s quarterly sales were up 1.6% but down 24.8% annually.
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Among weekend papers, the annual drop nationally is 26.3%. Quarterly, it is 8.3%.
The only bright spark comes from the Weekend Argus, which rose 16.7% quarter on quarter. However, annually it is 21.5% in the red.
The Sunday Times is down 34.6% for the year and flat quarterly at 0.3%.
The Saturday Citizen is down 24.9% for the year (-16.6% for the quarter).
City Press is down 22.4% for the year and 7.4% for the quarter.
The hyperlocal community papers are not included here as some category changes during the year have left the results unclear.
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