By Reikhutsitse Malala

SAARF Head of RAMS, Sue Scott, told the gathering that the figures used in the presentation were taken from the Bureau of Market Research's (BMR) population estimates. Despite the debate around the population estimates between BMR and Statistics South Africa. According to SAARF, newspapers The Star; Saturday Star; and Sunday World have witnessed a drastic decrease in readership. From July 2009 to June2010, The Star has went down from 2.5% to 1.7%, whilst its sister publication, the Saturday Star also went down from 1.6% - 1.1% and the Sunday World decreased from 5.9% - 5.1%.

And despite the 2010 FIFA World cup being hosted on our shores, sports magazines such as Kick Off lost readership figures too, with Kick Off dropping from 9.3% to 8.6% in the last 12 months. “This shows that South Africans are reading less and are opting to find information and news elsewhere,” said Scott.

On the other hand, TV and radio are enjoying significant growth of audiences and listenership. SABC1 moved from 73% to 75%, and e.tv increased from 61.2% to 65.4%. Radio stations have also gained listeners. Stations which are got the biggest slice of the pie include 5FM, which has grown from 7.5% to 8.5%; and Radio 2000, from 2.2% to 2.8%.

Online media is growing vastly in other countries, and is also gaining popularity in South Africa. Scott said households are gaining better access to the internet, as the figure moved from 18.0% to 18.6% during this period. Scott added that the majority of people who log on to the internet use it for search engines, followed by email; social networking sites; online banking; music downloads; and reading online news. The statistics also show that cellphone access in South Africa has increased from 69.8% to 73.8%. Scott explained that most people prefer sending 'Please call me' messages and accessing mobile social sites to making calls. 'Please call me’s' have grown in popularity from 50.7& to 55.4%, with accessing mobile social sites increasing from 10.6?% to 12.2%.

Scott ended by stating that advertisers have also decreased their use of ads on bus shelters; buses; shops; and trains, while limiting this outdoor marketing, they are opting for more in-house advertising as well as mainstream media such as TV; radio; print; and online.