The world paper famine and the South African press 1938–1955

From the late 1930s the appearance of most of South Africa's newspapers underwent a dramatic transformation. Where previously the front page of a newspaper was only advertising, now news stories and photographs predominated. The style, design and content of local papers, from headline sizes and article lengths to the frequency of feature articles, comic strips and crossword puzzles, were all to change in the space of a few years. Writing styles became more concise, a greater variety of stories were used while photographs became widespread and of a far superior quality