Zimbabwe Newspapers Facts and Figures

Zimbabwe newspapers are not as many as compared to other African countries such as South Africa and Kenya. Newspapers in Zimbabwe are dominated by state controlled publications such as the Zimbabwe Herald, the Sunday Mail, the Chronicle and the Sunday News. In fact Zimpapers, the Zimbabwe government publisher dominates the newspaper market in Zimbabwe.

This is not by coincidence. If anything it's actually by design, government design. Zimbabwe has the most difficult media landscape in the world were private newspapers operate under a cloud of uncertainty and some worrying degree of fear and intimidation.This also extends even to the electronic media were only Zimbabwe TV is the only operator for years without any private competition or alternative voice in that space.

Zimbabwe newspapers that belong to private publishers are in fact a handful at the national level. Two of them are The Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard owned by Mr Trevor Ncube the publisher of the Mail and Guardian in next door South Africa. The other private newspaper is the Financial Gazette commonly known as Fingaz which rumor has it that it's owned and bank rolled by Zanupf linked Gideon Gono the controversial Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

Pictured above is Trevor Ncube selling The Zimbabwe Standard as a way of protesting against threatened media freedoms at a traffic intersection in Harare, Zimbabwe.

The rest of the private newspapers in Zimbabwe were shut down in the last 10 years of deepening economic and political crisis at the behest of senior then ruling party politicians. In terms of circulation, the leading paper is the Herald which is available in most cities in Zimbabwe. The Herald is estimated to have a circulation of about 20 000 readers per day. At its pick before Zimbabwe's problems it is said to have crossed the 100 000 mark. The Zimbabwe Independent had a circulation hovering around 5000 readers per week (excluding pass-on readers).

The following is a summary list of Zimbabwe news papers starting with the one with widest circulation - click to follow the links;

1. The Zimbabwe Herald
2. The Sunday Mail Zimbabwe
3. The Zimbabwe Independentt
4. The Financial Gazette
5. The Zimbabwe Standard
6. The Zimbabwe Chronicle

There are numerous magazines and newsletters published in Zimbabwe. The biggest newsletter is that from the office of the Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai called The Prime Minister with a circulation of over 100 000. The weekly newsletter was vehemently opposed by the government but it could not be stopped due to no requirement by law to register a newsletter in Zimbabwe. The government has a track record of frustrating access to information at the point of registration.
  
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