Media24, South Africa’s largest media house, is planning on shutting down at least 5 of its printed newspapers later this year. The newspapers are Soccer Laduma, Daily Sun, Rapport, City Press and Beeld.

As disturbing as this decline is, it’s hard to look an the circulation numbers of the newspapers in question without wondering how it’s taken so long for this closure to happen. Soccer Laduma has declined from a total circulation of just over 317,000 to 40,000. Daily Sun has plummeted from 283,000 to barely over 10,000.

Media24 told staff on 18 June that the closures would put 400 jobs at risk.