Johannesburg - Print media readership remained largely stable in the final six months of last year compared to the previous 12 months, the latest All Media and Products Survey (Amps) has revealed.
The SA Audience Research Foundation (Saarf), which directs and publishes the survey, said South Africa's print audience was 23.8 million-strong.
The latest Amps for the period July 2013 to December 2013, compared results to the previous survey from July 2012 to June 2013.
The latest survey did not draw data from the small urban and rural audiences, but re-used data from this group measured in the previous survey.
According to the survey, 47.8% of adults read a newspaper.
"Dailies reach 29.8% of all adults, weeklies reach 31.6% and monthlies reach 2.8%," Saarf said in a statement.
"While there were a handful of demographic shifts in newspapers' audience, there were no significant readership changes for any individual newspaper title."
Magazines' average-issue readership also remained stable from the previous Amps. According to the survey, 47.6% of adults read magazines, amounting to 17.7m readers.
More men read newspapers at 55.2%, while women made up 51.8% of magazine readership.
The survey found very little growth in online reading of print media, or via cellphone.
"Only 1.4% of readers are exclusively digital readers."
Television reached 91.7% of adults and DSTV subscriptions grew from 29.2% to 31%.
On radio, the Amps found that there was a shift in listening habits in Durban.
"There was very little change for the radio sector as a whole; the only significant change was an increase of listeners in Durban, which was driven by gains made by commercial stations Ukhozi FM and Vuma 103 FM."
The fact that the small urban and rural database was not updated for the latest Amps could help to account for the lack of significant change in the radio trends, Saarf said.