Newspapers
The history of newspapers in South Africa dates back to 1800, when the governor of the Cape Colony initiated the publishing of the government-controlled Cape Town Gazette and African Advertiser. The first privately owned newspaper, the SA Commercial Advertiser was published in 1824, with Thomas Pringle and John Fairbairn as editors. The first Dutch language newspaper, De Zuid Afrikaan, was published in 1830, the first African language newspaper, Umshumayeli Wendaba, in 1837 and the first Afrikaans language newspaper, Die Afrikaanse Patriot, in 1876.
The current newspaper industry is in a fairly healthy state. According to a South African Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) survey in 1996, there were 36 daily and weekly urban newspapers in the country — 29 in English, four in Afrikaans, two in Zulu and one in Xhosa. The dichotomy between demographics and publishing languages can be explained by different literacy levels, the widespread popular use of the English language, as well as South Africa's history of censorship, which curbed the development of a culture of newspaper readership. There are also a large number of free (advertising-funded) local and community newspapers in several different languages. An estimated 1.3 million newspapers are sold in South Africa daily.
There are several independently-owned newspapers, most notably Mail & Guardian, however the majority are owned by four large publishing groups: Avusa, Naspers, Independent News and Media, and CTP/Caxton.
Read more about this topic: Media Of South Africa
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