Welcome to the Swazi-Media Audience Measurement Survey Newspaper Section

 

 

Introduction   Newspapers are known for their news-assimilation role, they flash out and provide analysis of current affairs. In terms of newspaper advertising, which this page is all about, two main measures of newspaper audience are considered, i.e. readership and circulation. The focus of "Swazi-MAMS Newspapers" was to produce information on newspaper readership in Swaziland. There are many ways of measuring readership. This study used the "average issue readership ( which also can be derived in several ways ). This is basically the number of people who have read some or all of the average issue of a publication.

 

Newspaper readership trends in Swaziland

 

There are about 75.3% (600 000) who read one or more newspapers per week and local newspapers command the highest share of readers.

 

The Times of Swaziland has 542 200 people reading it once or more times a week, The Times Sunday has 371 200, The Swazi Observer has 343 200, The Swazi News

has 317 600 and the Weekend Observer has 116 800. South African newspapers that are read the most in the country are The Sowetan, with 6.5% and the Sunday Times with 3.4%.

 

Newspapers are found in various places within the kingdom of Swaziland. This includes at home, at work, library, school, reception areas, clinics, from public transport, etc. This basically
means there are more people reading only one copy (RCP) – readership-than those actually sold (circulation).

 

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Newspaper readership trends in Swaziland (by administrative districts)

 

The Hhohho district leads with 81.1% of the people within this district reading a newspaper at least once during the week (5-day Cume) or Four-issue Saturday and Sunday Cume. From Manzini district there are 77.5%, Lubombo 74.5 and Shiselweni 65.8%. This trend is constant across all different newspapers, i.e. highest readers being people within Hhohho and Manzini districts.

 

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Newspaper readership trends in Swaziland (by gender)

 

Men read the most amongst the older ages while younger women read more than their male counterparts. Newspaper readership in Swaziland is significantly at its highest within ages 25 to 44 years with the highest newspaper readers being men within ages 35 to 44 years.

 

Generally, more men within ages 35 to 54 years are most likely to read a newspaper than their female counterparts in Swaziland. Younger women within ages 10 to 24 years are likely to read more than their male counterparts as well.

 

The Times of Swaziland is read the most across all age groups with ages 25 to 44 years being the highest. The Times Sunday is the second most read within age group 35 to 44 years, the Swazi Observer competes with the Sunday Times for Cume readers.

 

 

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Profile of newspaper readership groups in Swaziland

 

As mentioned earlier, respondents answered the question to per newspaper readership in a number of different ways. So far a discussion was based on this “mixed” readers. Below 5 groups are established (based on the
newspaper exploratory data collected a few weeks after the initial survey.

Browsers (37.3%)

 

These comprise of those readers who only read for less than 10 minutes per issue. These basically go through the newspaper and then report to have read it. Some of the people within this group tend to read headlines on the street poles or the first paragraphs in a newspaper and report to have read the newspaper.

They are more likely to be young, mostly 15 to 24 years. For those that are old, they are more likely to be within ages 55+ years. A majority of teenage newspaper readers are within this group. There is a relatively equal number of men and women in this group. In terms of education, a majority of them have gone up to high school (or are still at secondary and high school).

They get the newspapers at home hence read it in the morning 6am to 10am or in the evening between 7pm and 12 midnight. This is group is the least likely to buy a newspaper.

 

Selective readers (44.3%)

 

This group is made of those who read an issue for
10 to 20 minutes. These tend to browse through but are more likely to identify one or two articles and read on. After that they tend to finish reading by merely looking at the headlines for the other features/ stories in other sections of the newspaper.

 

A majority of people within this group (53%) falls within ages 15 - 44 years with 25 – 34 year olds
dominating those within ages 35 - 44 years. There is an equal number of men and women. Generally this group is made of people with different educational background,. however a majority of graduates with first degrees are within this group.

 

They get a newspaper from home but are also likely to buy it. They read a newspaper mostly in the morning 10am - 3am and are least likely to read between 3pm to 7pm. This group is also most likely to read from the library more than the other group.

 

Full-content readers (25.5 %)

 

This group is generally known for reading 80 or more percent of a newspaper. They tend to spend 20 to 40 minutes reading. A majority is within ages 45 to 54 years. Here are also those within ages 25 to 34 at a lesser number than the former. They are slightly more likely to be women (26.8%) than men (23.9%).

 

Generally this group is made up of school leavers with tertiary qualifications. They are more interested in news (in their general form) and have no specific section or “article” they like reading. They are generally the highest readers of all the newspaper sections and the main newspaper buyers but do also get them from work and read it between 10am to 3pm and home. They are least likely to read it between 3pm and 7pm.

 

Core-readers (18.6%)

 

This group, takes time reading a newspaper, they spend between 40 minutes to 1 hour. They tend to read a newspaper at home in the evening. It is dominated by older groups 35+, the highest being within ages 35 to 44 years and 64+ years. There are more women in this group than men and have a tertiary qualification. They mainly get the newspapers from home and read between 7pm and their bedtime. They have only two other places where they get the newspapers from besides home, that is, at work (reading it between 6am to 10 am) and from the shops (buy). They are least likely to read between 10am and 3pm.

 

Extremists (27.5%)

 

These are people who tend to read an issue newspaper above an hour from home between 7pm and their bedtime. They are the older groups 55+ and are more men than women. A majority of post graduates fall within this group but there are also different people with different educational backgrounds (although it is mostly those with
out-of-school qualifications). They are the second highest buyers of newspapers after full-content readers. They also do read during midday between 10am to 3pm and least likely to read during afternoon drive between 3pm to 7pm.

 

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