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Cape Town - In what will no doubt be seen as a sign of the times in the South African publication landscape, Junk Mail Publishing will cease to print the Cape Ads and the Durban edition of its classifieds paper.
The company announced that it will print the last editions of the papers on March 12 as it focuses its business on digital operations.
"It's time for us to evolve with our growing customer base and continue to invest in our digital offering in these regions. Our digital platforms are strongly positioned and we lead in the niche classified market segments," said Felix Erken, managing director and co-owner of Junk Mail Publishing.
Print publications in SA have taken a hit as circulation begins the long slow decline.
According to figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), newspaper circulation in the country declined by 3.7% - with just 29.9% of that figure representing actual sales - and 7% subscriptions.
Crowded market
Around 62% of circulation in SA lies with free newspaper publications, the ABC results show.
For magazines the situation is even more dire, with an 8.6% drop in circulation and free publications making up around 62% of circulation.
"The online classified industry is evolving and just as customers have migrated from print to online, future customer transitions will be from web to mobile," said Erken.
Newspapers are in decline. (Duncan Alfreds, Fin24)
Internationally, Juniper Research reports that mobile e-commerce sales amounted to $1.5trn in 2013, and are projected to hit over $3.2trn by 2017.
But the online market for classifieds in SA is a crowded one. Gumtree, owned by e-commerce giant eBay, is the most popular website in the country and OLX is running an aggressive TV campaign for the online platform.
Also, social media channels like Facebook are increasingly courting small businesses to the massive 1.3 billion strong global audience on the network.
The company says that there are 50 million active Facebook users in sub-Saharan Africa and many businesses are converting to Facebook marketing because of the promise of sales.
Digital-only
"We are seeing more and more African SMEs embrace advertising on Facebook because it drives sales. At Facebook, we are delighted to play a role in small businesses' growth stories," said Aidan Baigrie, sub-Saharan Africa head for Facebook.
In the meantime though Junkmail will continue to print in Gauteng, but Erken hinted that as those subscriber numbers decline, the company may eventually be a digital-only property.
"Print is still strong in the Gauteng region but we are gaining more digital users every year and our print editions in this region will inevitably cease as the demand from customers subsides."
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