Splitting hairsThe days of the Merry Bulker are over |
Sunday Times is still a culprit of bulking. Without it, it has the most to lose.
Bulking, the practice of selling copies of your publication to a third party for them to give away - or not - will soon be back in the spotlight in South Africa.
Once it was mightily fashion-forward - especially bulk deals to disadvantaged schools that newspapers could count as circulation and trumpet as helping to improve literacy. That was until Media24 came along and rained on the parade with its magazine scandal - in which bulking was at the heart - in late 2007.
The Media24 scandal revealed that its staff were using bulk deals to inflate sales figures, adding a few digits here and there to the third-party sales and were caught out when receipt for the sales could not be verified.
Media24 hung its head in shame and fired the wrong-doers but bulking continues gleefully nearly two years after the event, which is not to say it is fraudulent. Because of the 2007 calumny, I'm sure the reconciliation of bulk deals is strictly policed but advertisers would do well to ask a few questions of their favoured titles, for example, how many of the bulk-deal papers or magazines are actually being read and are these people in one's target audience?
And there in lies the problem: There's no way to really tell. I'm sure the papers handed out on aeroplanes are read by the bored travellers with nothing better than the in-flight magazine to divert them. You can also generally rely on them being reasonably monied.
However, unless the good children of Thokoza are the preferred buyers of your products, best you get your marketing manager on the blower to find out how many of the papers in which you took that pricey full-page ad are earmarked for what is called "PMIE" - print media in education.
Bulking was back in the spotlight in the UK last week when The Guardian announced rather sanctimoniously that in the interest of transparency, it was stripping out its 12 000 bulks, which make up 4% of its monthly headline sale, while its sister paper, The Observer, will strip out 20 000 copies, 5% of its headline sale.
In July Media24, the wiliest of our media companies, stole the march on everyone else and announced that its advertising division would strip out third-party bulk and PMIE from the circulation figures of its Sunday papers so that advertisers could focus on core circulation. The five papers are the Sunday Sun, City Press, Ilanga Langesonto, Rapport and Sondag.
This is, of course, a load of public relations hooey as anyone can ask their media planner - or the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) - for a breakdown of sales figures that separate the third-party bulk and PMIE out from core circulation. It has been thus since the beginning of this year but Media24 is clearly determined to remind advertisers of it and, why would that be?
Probably because its arch rival on a Sunday, Avusa's Sunday Times, has the most to lose - especially if Media24 takes City Press upmarket under new editor, Ferial Haffajee, previously the editor of the Mail & Guardian.
So what do the latest ABC figures (for the second quarter of 2009) that came out last week tell us about bulking?
The Sunday Times' third-party bulk sales were 46 628 and its PMIE was 62 627 - that's 109 255 of its 504 175 average weekly sales and 22% of its circulation.
That's a little alarming when you're paying top dollar for the privilege of advertising in "The Paper for the People". How many people exactly, you should be asking, and who are they?
The Sunday Times is not alone in the bulking department. For instance:
1. Among the Avusa titles, the Sowetan's third-party bulk sales were 2 935 and its PMIE were 12 944 - that's 15 879 of its 130 049 average daily sales and 12% of its circulation.
2. At Independent News & Media, the Saturday Star's third-party bulk sales were 1 700 and its PMIE were 18 216, which is 19 916 of its 120 462 total daily sales and 17% of its circulation. The Cape Argus' third-party bulk sales were 1 845 and its PMIE were 10 905 - 12 750 of its 60 394 total sales and 21% of its circulation.
3. Media24 is bulking but far less than the other media houses. The Daily Sun and Sunday Sun, for instance, has no bulking or PMIE sales within their respective circulations of 501 734 and 212 461. Rapport had 15 114 PMIE sales (5%) of its 305 769 total sales while City Press had 10 536 (6%) of its 185 145 total circulation. Neither had third-party bulk sales.
The irony is that if the Sunday Times stripped out its third-party bulk and PMIE sales, it would still be the stand-out market leader on a Sunday, with 400 000 circulation. But then advertisers would insist on lower rates, a frightening prospect for the flagship Avusa brand that must be carrying a lot of fat in these straightened times by virtue of the fact that it is one of the few papers in the country that hasn't retrenched staff this year.
It is also doubtless carrying the cost of its daily sister paper, The Times, which does not appear to have much advertising and according to the latest ABC figures sold - wait for it - 2 373 daily papers. The rest (139 595 papers) went free to Sunday Times subscribers.
The days of the Merry Bulker are, however, undoubtedly over. South Africa's media and advertising worlds will soon catch on to what is happening in the UK and Media24 is well positioned to prod us in that direction.
There's very little the Sunday Times can do to find 100 000 sales while its news content is weak so best the paper starts managing the expectations of the Avusa board.
*Gill Moodie spent 14 years as a salaried hack in print media in South Africa and the UK before escaping to the blogosphere and freelance journalism. She is the publisher of Grubstreet http://grubstreet.co.za/ in between unpacking and packing the infernal dishwasher and bringing up a four-year-old with attitude.
Intraday
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