PRESS WARS

The immense contribution of the private press in Ghana to our fragile and young democracy is now taking more meaningful turns in terms or readership.

Five or so years since they were allowed to operate, these papers are presently competing very hard for readership among Ghanaians. In fact, established newspapers like the Ghanaians Times find it hard to attract as much readership as some of the private papers. In Kumasi particularly, it is common knowledge that to obtain your weekly copy of the say the Ghanaian Chronicle or The Statesman, one has to be prepared to purchase the Ghanaian Times as well - the vendors only supply these papers together with the Ghanaian

Times in an "all or none" sort of conditional sale. That is the only way, they claim, they can get people to buy the Ghanaian Times.

In line with the increased readership, three papers in the private sector - The Ghanaian Chronicle, The Statesman and The Free Press - have or are about to increase their frequency of publication. The Ghanaian Chronicle increased the number of issues from once to twice a week last year. This was followed by the launching of the Business Chronicle. And now the paper is getting ready to launch The

Weekend Chronicle - a growing sign of the confidence the paper has gained. The Statesman which is published weekly hopes to start with a weekend publication as well. And The Free Press - a paper which is noted for its extremely anti- P/NDC views is now going to increase its publication from one issue a week to two.

Analysts believe that papers like the Chronicle and The Statesman do enjoy a far wider readership than the Ghanaian

Times. This has led political observers to wonder whether the obstinacy of the government is granting Ghanaians the right to operate private radio and TV stations has anything to do with this trend. After all, radio and TV reach more people than newspapers and the government had hitherto used these means to feed the people with only one side of life in the county - the government's side!