THE inimitable Daily News, a sister paper to the Daily News On Sunday, is the only national daily newspaper that is growing in the country.
This fact is confirmed by the in- dependent Zimbabwe All Media and Products Survey (Zamps) for the first six months of 2022 to the end of June.
According to the authoritative re- search, The Herald, NewsDay, The Chronicle and H-Metro all registered declines in readership during this period — with the iconic Daily News once again bucking market trends.
The Zamps report shows that the Daily News is accessed every day by 27 percent of the national news readership (from 24 percent in the second half of 2021), where one of the rivals NewsDay has dropped to 20 percent (from 23 percent), for ex- ample — cementing its position as the fastest growing newspaper in the country since its unlikely relaunch a decade ago.
The report also confirms that the Daily News and the Daily News On Sunday — which celebrated a re- markable 10 years back in 2021, having been shut down unjustly by the government of the late former president Robert Mugabe in September 2003 — are exceedingly influential titles which are hugely trusted by both readers and advertisers.
The two Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) titles are popular in both urban and rural areas, as well as the key middle and upper classes for advertisers. Where the Daily News On Sunday garners a national readership of six percent, one of its rivals, The Stand- ard, is on five percent.
The Financial Gazette, the two publications’ quintessential econom- ic sister title — Zimbabwe’s undis- puted number one business newspa- per — also did well to retain its high net worth following of top business and public sector readers, maintain- ing its slice of the national newspa- per readership at three percent.
Zamps is a continuous local media study that is commissioned by the Zimbabwe Advertising Re- search Foundation (ZARF). Its main objective is to gather data on the Group Editor-in-Chief for Jester Media Services Guthrie Munyuki consumption and usage of different media platforms and commercially produced products. It provides comprehensive information to stakeholders about the audience for all media — both electronic and print — and thus provides stakeholders with an industry-wide, single trading currency for advertisers, advertising agencies and media owners for the buying and selling of media space.
Zamps is currently the only credible bird’s eye view of Zimbabwe’s media sector — with the rest of what is bandied about as “studies” on and “awards” to the industry patently untrustworthy.
Commenting on the latest newspaper readership results, a buoyant Guthrie Munyuki, the Group Editor-in-Chief for Jester Media Services — which also owns the fast-growing independent commercial television station, 3Ktv — said he was not surprised that all of the group’s products continued to lead the market despite the tough operating environment.
“We have been very consistent in our covenant with our valued readers and viewers — where we tell the Zimbabwean story truthfully, impartially and like it is, without any fear or favour.
Indeed, the latest Zamps survey affirms our professionalism which is anchored on honest, fair and credible journalism.
“The strong performances by all our products underlines our winning formula as a group, as well as the dedication, diligence and commitment of all our people in our various strategic business units and departments to excellence,” Munyuki said.
All this comes as the Zamps survey has also confirmed that 3Ktv is now the most watched Zimbabwean channel on satellite.
The report also showed that 3Ktv is more popular overall in Zimbabwe than South African channels which include those under the stable of the giant South African Broadcasting Corporation.
In terms of total television view- ership in the country, the six-decade old State broadcaster, ZTV — which enjoyed a monopoly until 3Ktv launched at the end of February this year — still leads the market with 16 percent of audiences.
3Ktv is in second place at two percent, ahead of Zimpapers’ ZTN at 0,4 percent. On satellite, which is where 3Ktv and ZTN are currently mostly available, ZTV only has a 0,46 percent market share.
