Caxton’s The Citizen has embarked on an incredibly bold – and high-risk – move that has got publishers and editors throughout the country talking and it’s bound to shake up the Gauteng newspaper market.

As of January 1 this year, The Citizen dropped its cover price 33% from R4.50 to R3 and took its advertising rates down by about 20%. The cover-price drop comes after the paper’s “Freaky Friday” campaign in October and November last year, when a cover-price drop on Friday street sales saw a surge in circulation.  In October, when the Friday cover price was R3.50, there was a 10% increase in sales. The November cover price of R2.50 netted the paper a 25% increase in sales.

This, says  The Citizen’s publisher, Greg Stewart, was evidence that there was price sensitivity to the cover price. On dropping the paper’s ad rates, Stewart says: “We look at media inflation and circulation every year and we made the decision this year that, in fact, we can’t be bullish with rates. First of all, look at what’s happening in the market place and, secondly, look at what’s happened to circulation. Some of the advertisers have responded very positively and have increased their ad spend with us.”

The Citizen is the only newspaper in South Africa to drop their ad rates this year, says Virginia Hollis,  joint managing director of The MediaShop media-planning firm, though some made the increase conservative.

This is a remarkable turn of events and clearly an aggressive long-term strategic push to gain market share in Gauteng, the paper’s core market. It will also see the paper go after readers of Avusa’s The Times (which is delivered free to Sunday Times subscribers) but particularly Independent Newspapers’ flagship daily, The Star… TO READ THE REST OF MY COLUMN, WHICH APPEARS AT MONEYWEB EVERY MONDAY, CLICK HERE.

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