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Business Reporter—-
Zimbabwe Newspapers continues to dominate media space with all newspapers and its radio station gaining readers and listeners this year, according to the latest independent survey by the Zimbabwe Advertising Research Foundation, and the company topping the tables in the daily newspaper, weekly newspaper and radio station markets. The Herald is read by 41 percent of adult urban Zimbabweans, up from 39 percent last year.

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Since 65 percent of urban adults read at least one daily newspaper, this means that 63 percent of daily newspaper readers read The Herald. The percentage of urban adults reading at least one daily paper rose from 61 percent to 65 percent.

The Sunday Mail retains its similar dominance for the weekly market, with its readership growing from 34 percent to 38 percent of adult urban Zimbabweans. And StarFM is now the top radio station, having overtaken Radio Zimbabwe and Power FM over the past year. The survey found 36 percent of adult urban Zimbabweans listened to the station in the four weeks to being questioned.

According to the latest Zimbabwe All Media Products Survey results released yesterday, The Daily News and News Day are a distant second to The Herald in the daily market at 25 percent of potential readers each while H-Metro, Zimpapers’ tabloid title, is almost on the same level at 24 percent, an improvement from 23 percent.

The Chronicle also recorded significant growth from 13 percent to 17 percent.

In the weekly market, Zimbabwe Newspapers had the top five slots. After The Sunday Mail with its 38 percent of potential readers came B-Metro with 14 percent, Kwayedza with 9 percent, The Manica Post with 10 percent and Sunday News with 6 percent. The Standard was the first non-Zimpapers title to make the rankings, in sixth place with 6 percent of potential readers.

In both daily and weekly markets the percentages of percentages of potential readers and the total of all titles exceeds the percentage of adults who read at least one paper because some people read more than one. While presenting the survey results yesterday, Topline Solutions founder Mr Patson Gasura said this year’s research was restricted to urban areas due to funding constraints.

He said a multi-stage stratified sampling technique was adopted for the study. “In this survey, sampling was done sequentially across two or more hierarchical levels, such as firstly at national level, secondly at district level, thirdly at ward level, fourthly at household level and ultimately within household level.

“The primary purpose of conducting the study is to provide valuable national data for both media and product consumption, which will help marketers understand, more effectively, their customers in relation to media and product usage,” said Mr Gasura.

A total of 1000 respondents were considered for this study drawn from urban areas in the 10 provinces of Zimbabwe. On newspaper sections, local news realised a massive growth in readership sitting at 88 percent from 63 percent of last year. Readership of all weeklies during the period increased to 61 percent from 51 percent of the potential market.

On regional press, Umthunywa came second in this category but its growth remained flat at two percent during the period. Southern Times came fifth in the same category also recording flat growth at one percent year on year. Television subscriptions to Dstv during the period went up to 43 percent from 40 percent of the previous year.

Internet access slightly grew to 44 percent from 43 percent while Google came up tops in the internet websites accessed. Star FM deputy general manager Mr Piwayi Dzuda expressed gratitude towards Zimbabweans and all the stakeholders who have contributed towards the success and growth of the station.

“This is a huge milestone for the company and I want to thank Zimbabweans and the StarFM team, partners, clients as well as our shareholders for making this milestone possible. “The real job begins now as we have to keep our feet on the paddle and not slacken because everyone wants to be number one,” said Mr Dzuda. Star FM spokesperson Mrs Beatrice Tonhodzayi said there is nothing that tells of a radio station’s success and growth more than the number of people who listen to it.

“The station’s 2015 theme of ‘taking radio to the people’ had endeared brand star fm to the people and the station would continue with it so that Zimbabwean audiences continued to own their radio station of choice,” she said.