Magazines in South Africa

South Africa’s magazine shelves groan under the weight of their glossy offerings, but finding a quality read here is a pitfall-strewn challenge. There are South African versions of nearly every major title – from Cosmo to GQ to Sports Illustrated – and each clone is unfailingly less interesting than the original. (Not that the originals are all that interesting, mind you.)

• The best place to find information on magazines in South Africa is biz-community.com.

Here is Your Correspondent’s pick of SA magazine diamonds-in-the-rough:

• Poetry: Carapace Magazine.
  Brilliant. A “little magazine” that puts the big ones to shame. Tenacious, read by fierce loyalists, dedicated to molluscana. The editor, Slakkie van der Schyffe, drew SA Blog’s Argus Head. No website; available from Clarke’s Bookshop, among others.
• Literature: Chimurenga.
  Eclectic, African, revolutionary. Available at most bookstores.
• Art: ART SA.
  Avante-garde, slightly too serious given the poor state of “serious” art in SA, and distributed everywhere, including bookshops, CNAs and small newsstands.
• Muckraking: Noseweek.
  Great “bark backed up with bite” publication; fraudsters live in fear of it. See LA’s comment below.
• Students: SL.
  “Young”, “hip”, “happening” and mostly rubbish, bar the occasional witty column.
• Women: Fair Lady.
  Your Correspondent’s Lovely Assistant’s pick, as the least hopeless of the local fodder for women. But really, they’re all hopeless.
• Food & wine: Good Taste
  A nice thick read produced by SA’s Wine of the Month Club. Pity it only comes out six times a year.
• Travel:
  Getaway.
  Mostly ads, but ads can be useful when you’re looking for someplace to go.
• Leisure: Lifestyle.
  An insert in the Sunday Times newspaper, which, in turn, contains food, travel and New York Times supplements. It’s thin, but the writing is reasonable.
• Business: Financial Mail.
  A raw, unschooled version of The Economist – qualities that, counter-intuitively, make it refreshing to read.
• Gossip: You.
  Like the National Enquirer crossed with People. Its sister paper, Huisgenoot (Afrikaans only) is the number-one-selling magazine in South Africa.

Major magazine pubilshing groups in South Africa:

• Touchline Media
  Men’s Health, Runner’s World, Shape etc. Owned by Media24.
• Associated Magazines
  Cosmo, Marie-Claire, O-Mag, etc. Owned by Media24.
• Ramsay Son & Parker
  No central website. Car, Compleat Golfer, Popular Mechanics, Wine, etc.
• Media24, a.k.a. Naspers
  Owns 3/4 of the magazine titles in the country. Under its own imprint: Bride, Home, Woman’s Value, etc.