In search of the Daily Sun's recipe for success

Abstract

One of the most significant media events of the past decade has been the founding of the Daily Sun, a tabloid aimed at the low-income black market. This newspaper has become the nation's best-selling daily within a year. Through a qualitative analysis of the newspaper, it was found that it concentrates on soccer, sex, horror, personal tragedies and traditional African beliefs (including witchcraft). However, the Daily Sun is not a tabloid in the British Sun tradition: it does not publish pin-up pictures of girls or celebrity scandals. It also carries substantial news and columns which can be described as self-help or “developmental”. The Daily Sun has thus, to some extent, adapted the tabloid genre, which in the past has been equated with one-dimensional scandal journalism. It is argued that although aspects of the Daily Sun may not live up to the ethical expectations of traditional Western journalism, its success in reaching a new market of readers who did not read a newspaper previously must be acknowledged. As such it has created a new public sphere where a section of the population has found a place where some exchange of information and views can take place.