The good and bad times for Southern African newspapers

The world is changing, and classifieds are changing the world for publishers as well. Felix Erken, the Chief Executive Officer of Junkmail in South Africa who spoke at INMA/OPA Outlook 2010 conference on Thursday, experienced it with his newspapers.
Felix Erken divided his speech into two parts, with two different timetables. One had only the good times for southern african newspapers noted. The other one, on the contrary – was pointing the times when the market was not really kind to newspapers.

Good times for Junkmail in South Africa:

• 1994 – market leader in carrying classifieds
• 1997 – launched online and being no 1 in the country for many years
• 1999 – launched mobile versions of the sites
• 2006 – uninterrupted growth for 7 years, print online and mobile
• 2008 – record profits both online and print

Bad times for Junkmail in South Africa:

• 1999 – circulation peaked and started to decline
• 2006 – gumtree and other sites launched in South Africa
• 2007 – classified numbers started to decline
• 2008 – website traffic slowed down
• 2009 – global recession

As for main threats to southern african newspapers, Felix Erken pointed out 3 things: Google, social networks, and craigslist.

1. Google changed attitude towards web, as it actually worked. Google ad revenue model worked as well. It changed the way many people have behaved. People started trusting the web more and had higher expetations. Google enhanced the dependence on SEO/SEM. Will Google kill newspublishers’ classified ads business? This film, suggested by Felix Erken, could bring the answer:

2. Social networks. Users distanced themselves from the publishers, nearly saying: leave us alone, who needs a publisher online!. It’s not out medium to control or own anymore. It is a medium, when news, if important, will alone find a group that could be interested in it.

3. Craigslist – free classifieds network which is so popular, that if it was to put Google adWorks on the page it would earn billions of dollars. Free internet classifieds are killing the ones in the papers. And despite trying to compete with it online, by letting the readers have online classifieds for free, Junkmail is losing the battle because Craigslist already is there.

Due to the above, a big decision had to be met in Junkmail. A new model was born: free to view, with ads live, and free trade online. Online, however, will never be dictating the print strategy of Junkmail.

Felix Erken left the listeners with words of advice: Watch, read, listen, and look ahead but always watch your back. Get the basics right: use the right platform, maps, video, and use the strongest assets: brand, and trust.

South Africa has a 47 million population, and about 7 million internet users.

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