Almost all the newspapers’ sales are down year-on-year in the latest ABC figures (for the second quarter of 2009) but it could be a lot worse. Most drops were in the single digits and, frankly, a drop in circulation in recession is to be expected as newspapers control their circulation more tightly (i.e. they minimise returns to do with away with unnecessary wastage and concentrate supply to the most productive outlets).

Another trend emerging from the latest figures: afternoon papers such as the Cape Argus seem to be taking a bit of a hammering, probably because most readers are buying only one newspaper a day. The Argus reported 60 394 daily sales, dropping from 70 033 the same period in 2008 but if you take out the 12 000 odd papers that went to third-party bulk and print media in education (PMIE), it’s real circulation is really at about 50 000.

Other daily paper movements worth noting are the Daily News that dropped frpm 50 439 to 40 861 (about 3 000 papers are bulk and PMIE) and the Sowetan from 137 038 to 130 049 (about 16 000 of which were PMIE and bulk).

Congrats to those holding steady or who showed an increase: the Daily Dispatch in East London (31 151 in 2008; 31 195 in 2009 with only 400 bulk sales), the Diamond Fields Advertiser in Kimberley (10 017 in 2008; 10 241 in 2009 with only 700 PMIE) and the Daily Son (103 906 in 2008; 120 201 in 2009 with no bulk or PMIE).

Of the weekly papers, the Mail & Guardian (50 078 in 2008 to 51 166 in 2009 with 1077 bulk), the Post in KZN (46 612 in 2008; 46 758 in 2009 with 8 bulk) and Business Day’s The Weekender (12 643 in 2008; 13 995 in 2009 with 662 bulk) are all holding steady or showing a slight improvement.

Of the weekend papers, the Independent-owned Isolezwe ngeSonto is really the star of the show. This Zulu-language paper in KZN rose from 42 489 in 2008 to 52 295 in 2009 with only 14 bulk while Media24′s weekend Zulu paper, Ilanga Langesonto, also improved from 82 583 to 84 381 (no bulking or PMIE!) while UmAfrika owned and run by veteran journalist Cyril Madlala (and comes out on a Friday) dropped from 31 586 to 27 819 (no bulking).

Other notable movers in the weekend category were: Sunday Independent (44 854 in 2008; 36 799 in 2009 with 1 944 PMIE); Sunday Tribune (108 733 in 2008; 96 970 in 2009 with about 5 000 bulk and PMIE), Sunday World (200 922 in 2008; 181 173 in 2009 with no bulking or PMIE), Weekend Argus (104 010 in 2008; 94 737 in 2009 with more than 10 000 PMIE ) and the Saturday Star (132 266 in 2008; 120 462 in 2009 with more than 18 000 PMIE). All these paper are Independent-owned.

Media24′s Sunday Sun also did well, rising from 209 501 in 2008 to 212 461 in 2009 with no bulking or PMIE.

When it comes to the magazines, well that was pretty brutal. I’ll be drilling into those figures for you today and will put the post up first thing in the morning. Good night and good luck to you all.

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