While newspaper, broadcasting and telecommunication infrastructure services have been seen as essential since the start of the national lockdown in March, community newspapers have experienced an additional burden.
As non-essential businesses have had to shut down during this period, community-based newspapers have been experiencing a loss of advertising revenue, as regular advertisers no longer have the income to sustain additional costs.
The Rising Sun – Chatsworth has been providing critical information to the people of Chatsworth and surrounding areas for 35 years, according to the group editor of the publication, Mr Vivaga Thambiran. This newspaper is now experiencing severe pressure in advertising revenue.
A copy of the Rising Sun – Chatsworth, distributed on 21 April (during lockdown) PHOTO: Kirthana Pillay
The Chatsworth-based newspaper forms part of a group of Rising Sun publications that are distributed weekly to a combined total of approximately 1.1 million readers in many other areas around KwaZulu-Natal. About 52 000 people depend on the Rising Sun – Chatsworth as a source of news.
“The Rising Sun is a sought-after newspaper, by many people, including those who don’t live in the Chatsworth or Shallcross area, for the advertisements of retailers,” said Mamta Thakersee, a regular Rising Sun reader.
The publication gets delivered to readers for free and thus their revenue comes purely from advertising.
Businesses that are not buying ad space during this time, include hardware, retail and food outlets and colleges, according to Kubaran Thambiran, an advertisement salesman at the Rising Sun – Chatsworth.
Readers have noticed a marked decrease in the amount of advertisements in the newspaper. “The papers are actually so thin. It’s [smaller] than it used to be,” said Thakersee.
Anchor tenants keeping Rising Sun afloat
As the Rising Sun group gets its income solely from advertising sales and receives no sponsorships, they are highly dependent on so-called essential-service tenants who are operating during the lockdown period. These tenants are able to pay for weekly adverts in the newspaper.
“Because of this lockdown, we have been hit hard, but nevertheless, all the butcher shops, chemists and supermarkets are still our anchor tenants. So, we’re not breaking even. But it’s keeping us afloat,” said Thambiran.
Some Caxton Local Media publications completely shutting down
The Rising Sun – Chatsworth, although autonomous, forms part of the Caxton Local Media group, which supports the newspaper in an advisory role. “They [Caxton] always support us, but we are self-autonomous. We work independently, but we are part of the group,” said Thambiran.
The Queensburgh News, also based in Durban South, forms part of the Caxton Group as well. Unlike the Rising Sun, the Queensburgh News has had to cancel some of its scheduled publications during lockdown.
“While many of the newspapers in the Caxton Local Media group will continue through lockdown, the publication of this week’s Queensburgh News has been cancelled in part, due to a loss of advertising and also due to the need to limit staff movements,” stated the paper, via their Facebook page on 6 April.
On 21 April, Spark Media, a division of Caxton & CTP Publishers and Printers, stated on its webpage that Caxton would also be temporarily suspending the majority of its Gauteng newspapers during the initial two-week extension of the national lockdown.
During the start of lockdown, Spark Media was initially distributing papers with run-on press, or in-paper advertisements, as they were no longer able to print advert insert, however, they recently changed their course of action.
“Over the first three weeks we realised this wasn’t sustainable for the extended lockdown period, so we had to stop printing the majority of our Gauteng papers.” Said Brigette Simonsz, trade marketing manager at Spark Media.
Bigger online presence
The implementation of the national lockdown has, however, made it possible for local newspapers to expand their online activities and readership. The Rising Sun has had the opportunity to “alternatively, go big online,” according to Thambiran.
Screen capture of the Rising Sun Chatsworth’s website
Although their online presence has improved, the paper strives to maintain its weekly door-to-door deliveries. “We’re taking precautionary measures. They [distributors] have gloves and they’ve got masks,” said Thambiran.
MAP: Google Maps image of Chatsworth and some of the surrounding areas in which the Rising Sun – Chatsworth distributes their paper.
– Kirthana Pillay