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Business Reporter
THE Chronicle has maintained its market dominance in the southern region with a wide readership across the rural and urban divide.
Local news coverage by the nation’s liveliest newspaper pushed its readership up eight percent from nine percent in 2014 to 17 percent last year, latest results of the Zimbabwe All Media Products Survey (ZAMPS) show.
Officials from the reputable research unit were full of praise for The Chronicle yesterday as they presented the study findings at the National University of Science and Education (Nust) in Bulawayo.
“The Chronicle has emerged the best publication with a wider readership in the southern region particularly Bulawayo. It has managed to do so through its wider local news coverage, which accounts for 65 percent,” ZAMPS official Mr Patson Gasura said.
During the period under review, the paper’s local news section also recorded an increase in readership from 46 percent to 65 percent.
ZAMPS results further show that the newspaper’s sports section accounts for 14 percent readership, entertainment six percent, business eight percent, regional five percent while the classified adverts and international sections account for two percent and one percent respectively.
The Chronicle, whose circulation covers largely Matabeleland, Masvingo and the Midlands provinces, falls under the Zimpapers Group.
In the daily papers segment, ZAMPS also indicated that Zimpapers publications lead the pack in terms of readership with The Herald accounting for 31 percent up from 26 percent in 2014.
On weeklies, The Sunday Mail, which is also a Zimpapers publication, retained its first position while The Sunday News, which also falls under Zimpapers, improved its readership to seven percent from four percent.
Our weekly sister publication, B-Metro’s readership also improved remarkably from five percent to 11 percent while H-Metro’s readership increased from 14 percent to 20 percent.
In 2016, Manica Post, another weekly which also falls under the Zimpapers stable, recorded 8,5 percent growth in readership from four percent in 2014.
The survey shows that the general readership of the print media has increased in both urban and rural areas.
In the broadcasting sector, Zimpapers’ continues to dominate through its radio station, Star FM which rules with urban listenership improving its reach to 51 percent of the market from 50 percent.
AB Communications-owned ZiFM was on second spot commanding 28 percent listenership while the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation’s radio stations —Radio Zimbabwe — recorded a 26 percent grip with Power FM, SFM and National FM anchoring the pack.
Zimpapers group chief executive officer Mr Pikirayi Deketeke has said the latest ZAMPS results show that the fully integrated media house is a market leader in the media business.
He congratulated Editors in the group and their teams for the good showing in this latest survey.
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