R.E.A.P. Club

News of the print media experiencing a 31% annual decline in total classified revenues, and the expectation of an extended recession, the newspapers being at a critical stage were being reported as early as 2008. (See 11 Point Plan to Save the Newspaper Industry)

The 2009 real estate survey, conducted by an independent researcher with the backing of IEASA and Property24 as well as the Estate Agency Affairs Board, confirms that the use of the internet over print media is favoured in South Africa too.

Endorsing the success of online advertising, the threat to the print industry is such that the news mogul Rupert Murdoch is challanging Google saying 'he will remove stories from Google's search index as a way to encourage people to pay for content online'; and that 'newspapers in his media empire – including the Sun, the Times and the Wall Street Journal – would consider blocking Google entirely once they had enacted plans to charge people for reading their stories on the web'.