admin
Herald Reporter
The Herald retains its top spot in Zimbabwe’s daily press with an average of half of all newspaper readers in the last year reading this paper, and more than 70 percent once Chronicle, which republishes many Herald national stories along with community western Zimbabwe stories, is included.
The figures come from the independent Zimbabwe All Media and Products Survey (ZAMPS) done by a professional independent survey company as the result of a tender issued by the Zimbabwe Advertising Research Foundation.
To ensure total independence of the results the foundation is funded by a small levy on all advertising bought through advertising agencies, the levy that is collected from everyone being pooled. The foundation, which includes nominees of all publishers, then puts out a tender for the regular half yearly surveys among qualified independent market research and survey companies, and then publishes the final professional report without amendment.
This multiple process prevents anyone from being able to influence the result. What comes out is what comes out.
The latest survey had a sample of 3000 people being questioned, 53 percent urban and 47 percent rural. The numbers are spread across the country using census results to ensure a proper distribution and the age groups were roughly equal from 15 to over 55.
The actual sample, once the numbers assigned to each geographical area are set, is chosen at random, and there have to be four failures to contact a randomly chosen person to be interviewed before a replacement can be generated, also at random. The results of the survey show that 22 percent of Zimbabwean aged 15 and over read a daily newspaper, with 30 percent of urban residents in this age group and 16 percent of rural residents.
Of these, 48 percent read The Herald in the first six months of this year, down marginally on the 52 percent in the last six months of last year, easily the highest percentage. Another 24 percent read Chronicle, a sister paper of The Herald circulating in the western provinces. Zimpapers publishes both and ensures the national news in the two papers is shared, although editors generate different community news.
H Metro, a third Zimpapers daily but one with a much lighter orientation, hits another 23 percent of readers, giving Zimpapers 95 percent of the daily newspaper market. Second place was Daily News with 27 percent and then there is NewsDay with 20 percent.
Of The Herald readership 56 percent still read the physical printed copy, although this percentage continues to decline as electronic versions continue to increase their readership. Now 30 percent read the paper online.
A new category, WhatsApp, now feeds 14 percent of readers.
The Herald has easily the highest percent of those who subscribe to a daily newspaper online and pay for this, 41 percent.
Besides the daily press, Zimpapers also dominates the weekly press, with the top four slots. The Sunday Mail heads the list with 47 percent of weekly readership, just a whisker below The Herald’s percentage of daily readership, with Sunday News of 13 percent, Kwayedza on 12 percent, B-Metro on 11 percent, The Manica Post on 5 percent and uMthunywa on 3 percent. The also rans are Daily News on Sunday with 6 percent, the Standard on 5 percent, The Mirror on 4 percent, and Zimbabwe Independent and Financial Gazette both on three percent.
Online Reporter