Doors to close on Media24 print titles — 800 jobs affected

Citing changes in media consumption with a marked move towards online publications, managing director Ishmet Davidson said structural declines in circulation and advertising for decades, combined with rising fixed distribution costs, had a devastating impact on print operations.

“As a result, our titles in the northern region have been on life support for a while. Combined losses are projected to mount to R200-million over the next three years. After years of cutbacks, we’ve reached the end of cost reductions to try save these print operations. We’ve simply run out of options,” he said.

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Media24 is set to start a consultation process with affected staff, to be completed over the next three months, with 30 September earmarked as the last day of publication for the affected newspapers.

“We anticipate that the proposed restructure could result in at least 400 job losses, with 400 more positions transferring to Novus Holdings with the sale and some roles possibly needed beyond 30 September,” Davidson said. “We also intend reducing our corporate and support services and operational costs in line with the changes made in our business.”

“We are fully committed to managing this highly sensitive consultation with compassion while following the processes prescribed by law and intend to keep job losses – particularly amongst our journalists – to a minimum. Unfortunately, we cannot share any further details until the process has been concluded,” said Davidson.

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Overhaul to strengthen core brands

Changes at Media 24 will include:

• The doors closing on the print editions of Beeld, Rapport, City Press, Daily Sun and Soccer Laduma, as well as the digital (PDF) editions of Volksblad and Die Burger Oos-Kaap, and the digital hub SNL24.


• Rapport, City Press and Daily Sun will become digital-only brands.


• On the Dot, the media logistics business, and the community newspaper portfolio will be sold to Novus Holdings, subject to regulatory approvals.

Novus Holdings owns Maskew Miller Learning and recently concluded the acquisition of Stellenbosch-based AI tech business Bytefuse.

Davidson says the restructuring will allow the remaining viable brands to move fully to digital and strengthen the two main digital news brands, News24 and Netwerk24.

As digital brands, Rapport and City Press will reside at Netwerk24 and News24 respectively. Beeld, Volksblad and Die Burger Oos readers and subscribers can continue accessing news on Netwerk24.

Die Burger and Son still standing

Die Burger, the foundation upon which Naspers was built, and Son in the Western Cape are unaffected. Management said the newspapers had a separate infrastructure that remained viable due to a more concentrated local footprint and were marginally profitable.

“There is no doubt whatsoever that our future is digital. But our digital news services no longer face competition from only other local publishers. Our main competitors now are Facebook, Google, Instagram and TikTok; all of which are well funded and based offshore,” said Davidson.

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Commenting last week, the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) said it was aware of the difficulties associated with the media terrain brought about by advances in technology.

“We hope Media24 and many others facing similar challenges will do everything possible to not only survive but thrive because our democracy needs a vibrant fourth estate,” Sanef said. DM