Zimpapers maintains market dominance

ZIMBABWE Newspapers dominates newspaper markets in Zimbabwe, with the top two slots for daily newspapers in terms of readership, both nationally and in urban areas, and the top five slots for weekly newspapers plus owning the most popular urban radio station, the latest Zimbabwe All Media Products Survey (ZAMPS) presented in Harare yesterday shows.

The survey, conducted on readership and listenership for the fourth quarter of last year, is the first since 2014 to be fully national.

Zamps is the result of a double process to ensure independence.

The organisation that commissions the research is the Zimbabwe Advertising Research Foundation which brings together the entire advertising industry in a way that ensures no sector, let alone an individual corporation, can call the shots.

This foundation is funded by a 1 percent levy on advertising.

Zarf in turn commissions a competent independent research company, in this case Topline Research Solutions, to do the actual survey.

The survey looks at readership, viewership and listnership rather than at whether readers buy their own copy, read the paper at work, borrow a neighbours who even pick up a copy in a doctor’s waiting room.

The objective is to find the hard data and trends that assist advertisers in reaching their chosen markets.

The latest survey includes national data for the first time since 2014, although urban surveys are more frequent.

In the daily press sector, The Herald retains its lead, both nationally and in urban areas.

Nationally, 31 percent of adult Zimbabweans read The Herald, up from 26 percent in 2014, and in urban areas readership rises to 44 percent.

H-Metro, a second Harare Zimpapers daily, has now moved into second place both nationally, with 20 percent of readers and in urban areas with 30 percent although its readership in Harare will be higher.

Among weekly newspapers, The Sunday Mail retains its dominance in first place.

Nationally, it is followed in second, third, fourth and fifth places by Kwayedza, B-Metro, The Manica Post and Sunday News, all Zimpapers titles.

In urban areas B-Metro and Kwayedza switch the second and third places and The Manica Post and Sunday News go to joint fourth place.

The survey showed that in broadcasting, Zimpapers’ radio station Star FM continues to dominate urban listenership, increasing its reach by a point with a 51 percent grip on the market up from 50 percent in the last survey.

ZiFM follows with 28 percent listenership while Radio Zimbabwe recorded a 26 percent grip with Power FM, SFM and National FM bringing up the rear.

Zimpapers’ recently launched a Mutare metro station,Diamond FM, which has made a great showing; managing to attract a 9 percent listenership within its first year of broadcasting.

Zimpapers group chief executive Mr Pikirayi Deketeke said the latest ZAMPS results show that the fully integrated media house is a market leader in the media business.

“As a part of people’s daily lives; we have managed to remain their first choice when it comes to the provision of information. Zimpapers remains committed to being a credible, tried and tested brand when it comes to distributing content through multiple platforms. Most of our products are doing well and growing in terms of appeal to audiences.

“This will never make us complacent though. We will continue to do what we have always done as a corporate;

which is to work hard, constantly innovate and break new frontiers,” he said.

Mr Deketeke congratulated editors in the group and their teams as well as the Star FM and Diamond FM teams for the good showing in this latest survey. checked kachere Herald Reporter Zimpapers has increased its readership and listenership trends, the latest Zimbabwe All Media Products Survey (ZAMPS) presented in Harare yesterday shows.

The survey, which this time covered both urban and rural areas shows that in the daily newspaper segment, Zimpapers publications; The Herald and H - Metro; are leading the pack in readership.

The Herald comes tops with a readership of 31 percent up from 26 percent in the period under review. H - Metro came in second increasing its readership to 20 percent compared to 14 percent in the last survey.

The Chronicle grew its readership to 17 percent from 9 percent in this period. In the weekly newspaper segment, The Sunday Mail leads the pack nationally with a readership of 27 percent up from 19 percent while the Zimpapers’ Shona publication Kwayedza follows with a grasp on 15 percent of the readership market up from 4 percent; showing that more readers are enjoying reading their news in one of the country’s national languages.

B-Metro grew its readership from 5 to 11 percent while Manica Post doubled its readership from 4 to 8 percent. The Sunday News grew its readership from 4 to 7 percent.

Local news continued to be the most popular with readers in both the daily and weekly newspaper sections followed by sports and entertainment news respectively.

In broadcasting, Zimpapers’ radio station Star FM continues to dominate urban listenership, increasing its reach by a point with a 51 percent grip on the market up from 50 percent in the last survey. ZiFM follows with 28 percent listenership while Radio Zimbabwe recorded a 26 percent grip with Power FM, SFM and National FM bringing up the rear.

Zimpapers’ recently launched a Mutare metro station; Diamond FM which has made a great showing; managing to attract a 9 percent listenership within its first year of broadcasting.

Zimpapers group chief executive Mr Pikirayi Deketeke said the latest ZAMPS results show that the fully integrated media house is a market leader in the media business.

“As a part of people’s daily lives; we have managed to remain their first choice when it comes to the provision of information. Zimpapers remains committed to being a credible, tried and tested brand when it comes to distributing content through multiple platforms. Most of our products are doing well and growing in terms of appeal to audiences. This will never make us complacent though. We will continue to do what we have always done as a corporate; which is to work hard, constantly innovate and break new frontiers,” he said.

Mr Deketeke congratulated editors in the group and their teams as well as the Star FM and Diamond FM teams for the good showing in this latest survey.

The last ZAMPS results were announced in August 2016.