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No. 00270 |
May 17-23, 2003 |
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Are national newspapers about to perish?
Have you bought, hired or borrowed a newspaper to day? Well. In Arusha, all of those are possible and that’s why national papers sales are now endangered.Ibrahim Kijazi, Arusha’s Regional Manager for one of the country’s largest news paper and magazine distributing agents, Jayham Limited explains;by Staff Writer QUESTION: Has the culture of newspaper reading really caught on in Arusha at the moment? ANSWER: I can’t say it has, because newspaper sales are still being determined and highly influenced, by occurring events. The recent Gulf war in Iraq for instance, boosted sales of both local and international papers. In short, most people here, still scan the headlines at news stands before committing themselves to buying a newspaper. Q: The reading culture is almost non existent in Tanzania, does that mean even Arusha is no exception? A: Foreign institutions and international organizations have helped to promote local readership habits slightly especially for English papers. Tanzanians are in most cases not very conversant with the language. In fact, that’s why local English papers, like The Arusha Times record high sales in specific areas but still don’t circulate well in remote parts of the region. Even imported magazines like the Cosmopolitan or Readers Digest are usually placed in selected venues only. Q: By now you must have learned alot about the local readership trends among Arusha residents. A: Of course! Here we have three types of newspaper readers: Consistent readers, ordinary readers and event-driven readers. Consistent readers take reading seriously, as they never miss a paper, copy of magazine catching up on every thing. They are almost addicted to reading. Ordinary readers treat newspaper buying as a culture and seem to always have them though not necessarily for reading. Event-driven readers form the majority, scanning papers for a juicy story of some local happenings, they are so excited by big events like wars and political controversies especially during local elections. This third group highly influences newspaper sales. Q: Does that mean that if nothing big or exciting happens, newspaper publishers would pack and fold up their rags? A: This is where consistent and ordinary readers step in to save the day. But here in Arusha, there are other factors that influence newspaper sales and circulation like during high tourist seasons. Foreigners visiting the country love to read about local areas, they also like to know what is happening in their home countries and boost sales of periodical magazines from abroad but especially those dealing with travel. Tourism seasons also put those working in the industry in good positions financially, to buy local papers because the country still has poor money circulation. Q: What about the circulation of international newspapers in Arusha? A: These are only made available on special orders and it is not very often. But for these foreign papers like Financial Times, Herald Tribune, Le Monde and others, being sold by vendors in town, come to Arusha with international travelers aboard airplanes as their in-flight reading materials. These are usually left in planes by the passengers and the airport crew bundles them neatly, then bring them to town and sell the papers to street newspaper vendors. Local vendors have been striking it rich through this papers selling a copy for up to Tsh.10,000. Luckily for them, most foreigners however, don’t mind. Q: As a long time dealer in the paper business, do the local Tanzanian publications have any future? A: Well, take a country like Kenya, everybody there buys his or her own paper regardless of what, Here people still share. One newspaper is normally circulated to about ten people or more. I advise publishers to be taking good care of street newspaper vendors as they can build or destroy a newspaper. There is a new trend in town, where a vendor - instead of selling a newspaper copy, simply hire it out for person to read at a fee of say Tsh.50 or Tsh.100, the same copy can be hired to five people, earning the vendor Tsh.500 or more, better than any commission. He has nothing to lose either, because the unsold copies are sent back as "returns". This trend has very much affected daily sales of newspapers. Q: What about the Internet? A: Internet? That’s going rather too far. Television and Radio stations themselves, are doing their best to cut down local Newspaper sales. The first Gulf War (1991) for instance, was like Manna to local newspaper publishers, as this was then the only media through which, people could follow up the event. There were no local Television stations or even Sets, then. In the recent second Gulf War, people already had acquired TV sets, some with Satellite dishes and followed on the war live, so newspapers this time, had it tough. Local radio stations on the other hand, have this habit of reading the daily papers stories on air, such that, most listeners find no reason in buying the same papers again. |
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Last modified:
May 15, 2003. Webmaster: WDJMallya |
