Abstract
Community newspapers play a critical role in local communities through public interest journalism, which is an expression of the sector’s service mandate. They provide an intimate account of reliable information about matters that affect local communities directly, thereby empowering readers to make informed decisions about their lives. In the process, this news sector provides a public service and executes one of journalism’s primary goals: upholding democracy.
However, the emergence of COVID-19 in 2020 and the subsequent lockdowns profoundly affected the news media industry, including local news outlets, in South Africa and globally. This study, which focused on the period October 2020 to October 2021, aimed to determine the nature and extent of the pandemic’s impact on the local newspaper sector in South Africa based on the viewpoints and perceptions of employees.
Furthermore, it set out to establish what initiatives were implemented to enhance the sustainability of the local newspaper sector and how these developments affected the fulfilment of the sector’s core responsibility.
The study focused on traditional printed local newspapers typically distributed in towns and suburban areas as a specific sector within the broader South African news media landscape. Based on ownership, these newspapers can be classified as free or paid-for independent or commercially owned outfits that rely heavily on advertising income.
A mixed methods approach was used. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from questionnaires in 2020. These were developed from a literature study that considered other research, identified possible gaps in the field, and contributed to the creation of a theoretical framework to inform the questionnaire. The questionnaire included 35 open and Likert-style questions.
The research population consisted of members of the Forum for Community Journalists (FCJ), a non-profit membership organisation serving the interests of traditional local newspapers. In 2021, based on the results of the study, follow-up data were gathered through structured email interviews with five of the FCJ’s eight regional directors, who also work as editors.
The 2020 questionnaire was sent to a purposive non-probability sample of 169 individuals. A total of 111 (63 Afrikaans and 48 English) people, who at the time of the study worked for 76 publications, participated. The newspapers represented all ownership models, i.e. paid-for corporate commercial (26), free corporate commercial (30), and independent (20), across the nine provinces in South Africa.
Of those who completed the questionnaire, 33% were journalists with 1–30+ years of experience. Some of these participants also worked as sports editors, advertising representatives, photographers, layout artists, sub-editors, and news editors. Most of the participants – 58% – worked for commercially-owned paid-for newspapers.
Focusing on the nature and extent of the impact, the data showed that the restrictive conditions emanating from COVID-19 affected local newspapers in all aspects of their functioning and emphasised underlying, pre-existing fault lines. Some of the immediate tangible consequences of COVID-19 restrictions included salary reductions, decreased working hours, section closures, publishing holidays, mergers, and staff lay-offs.
Underpinning these aspects was a loss in advertising revenue, in some instances reaching 25‒50%. The reduced advertising income shrank the space available for news, the core purpose of community newspapers, impacting staff and the overall operating processes of these publications. The findings showed that corporate-owned commercial papers were the hardest hit. Although there was a recovery in advertising revenue in 2021, one director interviewed indicated in the case of a weekly commercial corporate-owned newspaper in his group that the number of pages decreased from 72–96 pages before lockdown to about 32–40.
Job losses varied from publication to publication and although the data suggested that this was not widespread, nine of the 111 participants indicated that 11–15 people were laid off. The most affected job category was ‘journalist’.
A total of 31 respondents indicated that their salaries were cut by 1–20%, but in some instances salaries were reduced by up to 50% from the first lockdown in March 2020 to September 2020. In total, the salaries of 75 participants were affected. The largest group – 69 out of the 75 – were employed in the corporate commercial newspaper sector. One editor of an independent newspaper indicated that he did not draw a salary for a few months and distributed his income among other employees to prevent job losses.
Sixty participants, mostly in the corporate commercial sector, indicated that their working hours were reduced.
Several departments were closed, notwithstanding ownership models. These included administrative (4), advertising (4), distribution and sub-editing (3), and layout (1). In addition, one marketing section and one financial division as well as a printing press also closed. The closure of advertising sections is a concern given that advertising revenue remains the lifeblood of local newspapers.
Thirteen participants indicated that their offices closed, and employees worked from home. Some newspapers in certain regions merged to cut costs and to be able to continue to serve their readers, albeit as one publication. In some instances, only two papers merged, but in others, up to six publications were combined to create one big newspaper. Like some other measures, the mergers were not permanent. Some unbundled later in 2020 and in one instance a more comprehensive restructuring process was set in motion.
The mergers had positive and negative implications. One negative aspect was less space for hyperlocal news where newspapers from different regions were combined. Readers, indicated one participant, felt they were paying for local news and not regional news. However, in some instances this impact was mitigated with region-specific slip pages. Positive outcomes included cost savings and more opportunities for advertising income because papers covered bigger areas, which supported sustainability.
Another aspect that deserves attention is developments on the digital front.
Editors reported an increase from 10–200% in digital traffic during the period of study in 2020. A news editor of one corporate commercial newspaper indicated 60% growth in unique visitors in one month. According to most of the directors interviewed, the upward trajectory continued in the period October 2020 to October 2021, but it has largely flattened again.
Participants, 88 out of 111, indicated their publications cannot or can only survive to a limited extent as a digital-only publication. Yet, they do think their publications are ready to do so. What emerged from the data is participants’ perception that online advertising cannot generate adequate income to sustain publications. Despite the growth in digital traffic, participants indicated that readers appear to prefer printed newspapers, more so in rural areas with limited internet service. One participant stated that the publication did not have enough digital subscribers to justify a digital edition. A related factor is that not all participants felt equipped, in terms of skills, to generate an online publication.
To mitigate the impact of COVID-19, several stimulation initiatives were pursued, especially during the first six months. These ranged from fundraising through donations, to advertising initiatives (reducing rates by up to 50%, and focus pages), financial aid through national and international initiatives (offered by Google), and opportunities to upskill employees. Overall, the data suggest that these initiatives had little effect. Only five participants indicated that they implemented some plans. One participant reported a one-off contribution from Google.
The findings of the study show that due to several factors local newspapers could no longer offer readers the same volume of news content. Smaller newsrooms and the cancellation of community activities such as school sports and the unavailability of municipal spokespeople, for instance, also affected the news budget. Although some of these effects were turned around by 2021, such as an increase in salaries, staff who were retrenched were not reappointed, which caused a higher workload and subsequently reduced capacity of journalists to cover and produce news. This has a marked impact on local newspapers’ ability to fulfil their service mandate.
Based on the findings, corporate-owned commercial newspapers were affected the most. According to the perceptions of employees, owners did not do enough to support the sector. We acknowledge that corporate owners also battled the financial fall-out of COVID-19 on their businesses, but the perception is clearly that no financial aid was offered to local titles. A question that emerged from this issue is to what extent corporate owners are committed to the journalistic service principle of local newspapers, which is a research topic that should be explored further.
COVID-19 had an impact on local newspapers in South Africa. They could not publish local news at the same level they did before, and this undermined their public service mandate to readers. Although the sector survived COVID-19, it has been weakened. To ensure its longevity it needs enough journalists, advertisers, thorough strategic planning – and support from owners if the newspapers are corporate-owned. The survival of local newspapers cannot be the responsibility of individual editors and journalists. The sector as a whole needs a plan.
Keywords: COVID-19; community newspapers; coronavirus pandemic; local newspapers; ownership models; printed news media; public service mandate; public interest journalism; sustainability initiatives
- The featured image by congerdesign used with this article is available on Pixabay.
Lees die volledige artikel in Afrikaans
Die impak van die COVID-19-pandemie op Suid-Afrikaanse gemeenskapskoerante: ervaring en persepsies