Introduction
In post-1994 South Africa, democracy is alive and well. This is in part true because the South African government is respecting freedom of speech, even though it may sometimes criticize the accuracy or professionalism of some journalists or titles. South Africa's Constitution also protects freedom of speech.

As with other sectors in South African society and economy, news outlets (print & media) has gone through dramatic changes since 1994. Newspapers consistently endeavor to broaden readership across racial lines and have mostly been very successful in doing this. The racial composition of editorial staff has also dramatically changed.

Newspaper types & ownership
The country has a number of dailies, Friday, Saturday & Sunday publications. Most are published in English and Afrikaans. The Afrikaans print media is dominated by Nasionale Pers (National Press), while Tony O'Reily's Independent media group has taken over the Argus group in the late 90's and now dominate the English print media. Most major titles fall under one of these two groups but there are some independents.

As in other countries, most tabloids tend to be aimed at the uneducated working class (e.g. Sowetan & The Sun). The broadsheet dailies dish up day-to-day news and feature limited in-depth articles (Beeld*, Burger*, Star*, Pretoria News*, Cape Argus*, etc.). The Friday and Saturday publications tend to be more in-depth providing round-ups of the weeks news and a fair but of in-depth reporting (Mail & Guardian*, Weekend Star, etc.).

The Sunday papers Rapport*& Sunday Times* hover somewhere between being in-depth and ridiculously sensationalist. Of the two papers the Sunday Times* (English) is probably the better offering. For readers with a strong international interest a nice feature of the latter is an insert with a selection of articles from the New York Times each week. The Sunday Independent* is a pretty good in-depth read.

City Press*, a Sunday paper, is an interesting case given South Africa's history. While the paper is aimed at the black market (black readers), it is owned by a large Afrikaner establishment company - Nasionale Pers. It is the third largest title in South Africa with a readership of 2.5 million (2001 figure).

Titles (excluding a host of smaller titles)

• Beeld* - Afrikaans daily distributed in Gauteng, North-West, Limpopo, Mpumalanga & KwaZulu-Natal
• Burger* - Afrikaans daily, Western & Eastern Cape editions
• Business Day* - English business daily
• Cape Argus* - English daily based in Cape Town
• Cape Times* - English daily based in Cape Town
• Citizen* - English daily tabloid distributed in Gauteng, conservative-leaning publication
• City Press* - English Sunday paper aimed at black readers, third largest by readership in South Africa
• Daily News* - English daily published in Durban
• Daily Dispatch* - English daily published in East London
• Herald* - English daily based in Port Elizabeth distributed in the Eastern Cape
• Mail & Guardian* - weekly, published nationally of Fridays, good & critical in-depth reporting
• Mercury* - English daily based in Durban
• Natal Witness* - English daily based in Durban
• Pretoria News* - English daily based in Pretoria
• Rapport* - Afrikaans Sunday paper distributed nationally
• Sowetan - Daily tabloid published in Gauteng, main readership base is in Soweto
• Star* - daily published in Gauteng
• Daily Sun / Son - English & Afrikaans versions of the same trash daily tabloid
• Sunday Independent* - English weekly published on Sundays
• Sunday Times* - English Sunday paper distributed nationally
• Volksblad* - Afrikaans daily distributed in the Free State, based in Bloemfontein