A democratised market: Development of South Africa's daily newspapers 1990 - 2006

Abstract

The article looks at the development of the South African daily newspaper market between 1990 and 2006. The leading interest is to find out whether the market was able to develop from its apartheid-trenched roots, and in which areas the market is still influenced by its specific past. The market determinants, namely participants, growth, entrance barriers, distribution, readership, economic and editorial concentration, will be scrutinised over the 16 years. The relevant political, economical and legal background and the transformations taking place in these areas will be articulated. The data will reveal that by growing more and more, especially since the turn of the century, the market enables itself to break free from its old structure. This is mainly due to the successful introduction of new papers which break with the traditional orientation of South African papers towards a wealthy readership and thus win new readers for the product newspaper in general.