Abstract
For the past two decades, mainstream legacy newspapers across the world have been reeling from a deepening financial and economic crisis that has disrupted the industry, closed hundreds of newspapers, and resulted in the retrenchment of tens of thousands of media workers. The crisis has deprived the newspapers of vital revenues from businesses that usually advertise in these newspapers and of modest income from readers who buy printed copies of newspapers.
The growing economic pain of the newspapers has been blamed on a variety of factors. These include the 2007-2008 global economic meltdown that closed many businesses; the advent of the internet, digital and social media which opened up the media landscape to hyper-competition and deprived the newspapers of both advertisers and audiences; and the entry into the news market of global technological platforms such as Google and Facebook, which have been accused of taking up most of the advertising revenues that previously went to the newspapers. However, the newspapers themselves are perceived by several media analysts to have failed to adequately respond and adapt to profound and fast-moving social and technological changes. And when the global health pandemic of COVID-19 struck the world in 2020 and shut the economies and businesses of every country, the sustainability of legacy newspapers suddenly morphed up into a more urgent financial crisis that threatened to upend their centuries-old business of newspapers and journalism.
This multi-case, qualitative study was conducted between February 2020 and May 2021. It sought to gain nuanced insights and understandings into how four South African legacy newspapers were responding to increased competition for the attention and revenues of audiences and advertisers in the era of digital and social media. The study entailed conducting semi-structured interviews with four independent media scholars and analysts who had previously worked as either journalists or business executives for newspapers in South Africa or in Southern Africa for at least 10 years. It also involved interviewing 19 South African media business executives such as chief executive officers, editors-in-chief, as well as senior journalists, with each of these required to have had at least 10 years of newspaper work experience. A purposive, non-probability sampling was used in selecting participants who, because of their work experience, were considered to be adequately knowledgeable about the research problem and the research questions.
The study’s findings reveal that the four newspapers urgently need to (1) reconceptualize and adapt both their business models and strategies to survive economically and financially; (2) offer original, high-quality, exclusive investigative journalism that counters misinformation and disinformation which analysts say are being disseminated by sections of social media and are contributing to the death of legacy newspapers; (3) embrace digital transformation while preserving ‘old’ business models that work to fight off intensifying competition for readers and advertisers; (4) focus on identifying and serving niche markets of audiences; (5) search for new and diverse revenue streams beyond advertisers, and increasingly focus on relying on audience revenues for the newspapers’ survival; and (5) use frequent audience research to intimately understand the rapidly-changing needs and wants of readers who are increasingly deserting print to embrace digital and online news platforms, which are offering news content largely for free. With the emerging Fourth Industrial Revolution predicted to bring additional competitors for the print media sector, this thesis concludes that the four newspapers need to rapidly implement the reforms identified in this study or die as a result of becoming irrelevant to audiences.
This study extends long-standing media management theorisations and understandings of how successful traditional newspapers should operate by showing that newspapers that thrive not only produce credible high-quality news content for their audiences but simultaneously attract highly committed and active readers, business and social partners who will support the newspapers beyond and above the financial bottom line. This partnership requires newspapers to create new, intimate and innovative partnerships and relationships with audiences. These partnerships significantly increase a newspaper’s societal role and place in a world where transparency in people’s governance by nation states and organisations – ironically hastened by the advent of digital and social media – have become increasingly critical strategic and tactical tools for media firms that seek to do business with divergent stakeholders, who have raised their voices to demand a more active role and stake in shaping the news that they consume and in how this journalism portrays a world outlook which the stakeholders themselves regard as making better sense and meaning to their lives and work than in the past.
Key words: newspapers, business models, business strategies, digital and social media, niche markets.