The Namibian remains the people’s paper

THE Namibian remains the voice of the people, Namibia’s best selling and most trusted newspaper.

These findings were revealed this week by Media Metrics Namibia’s annual survey of 2 400 Namibians, over the age of 16, from all 14 regions.

In addition, The Namibian continues to grow and prints up to 35 000 copies, Mondays to Thursdays, and up to 66 500 on Fridays. On 1 November The Namibian printed 65 000 copies. That day the paper sold 16 926 copies through its network of vendors on Windhoek’s streets alone. Its previous record was 16 457, recorded on 8 March 2013.

In 2012 the paper enjoyed an average return rate of only 8,13%. Fifteen percent is considered a healthy return rate. Its circulation is on a par with South African papers like the Cape Times, The Argus, Die Burger and Pretoria News.

The Media Metrics researchers found that despite more people having access to and using the Internet more often, 22.5% comparing to 17% last year, newspapers, especially The Namibian, are still regarded as a trusted news source.

At least 57,1% of those surveyed said they trust what they read in The Namibian, compared to 12,7% for New Era and 7,3% who trust what they read in the Afrikaans daily, Republikein.

Over 55% regard The Namibian, established in 1985, as the voice of the people, with 9,6% giving it to the weekly Informante, and 9,0% bestowing New Era with that honour.

Over 34% stated that The Namibian is the best place to look for job vacancy adverts. Over 27% said they preferred New Era and 15,4% job seekers turn to Republikein for adverts.

The Editor of The Namibian, Tangeni Amupadhi, said he was delighted with the results of the survey.

“The challenges for the print media are massive but it is gratifying to know we keep improving. We aim to maintain the legacy of the paper while ensuring it remains more relevant to our audience,” said Amupadhi.

The Namibian remains the only Namibian newspaper whose figures are fully audited.

The popularity of daily papers in Namibia has remained steady. In 2009 23,5% was an average issue reader (AIR) of a daily paper while 25,4% read at least one daily newspaper on the day or one day before being interviewed for the survey.

An average issue reader of a publication is a respondent who has read or paged through any copy of the title under consideration within a period before the interview which is no longer than the issue period of that title. Furthermore, the respondent must have read or paged through that issue for the first time within that period.

Weekly and monthly publications have been suffering a steady decline from 2009. In that year 38,8% of the population could be regarded as an AIR of a weekly. This year only 24,5% have read a weekly paper during the issue period at the time of the survey.