Johannesburg – The Covid-19 pandemic that has affected thousands of companies globally and in South Africa, has claimed another victim, media company, Media 24.
Media said it is considering the closure of five magazines and two newspapers, outsourcing and reducing the frequency of its remaining monthly magazines, taking two newspapers digital and reducing staff in related support services.
According to a media statement from the company, Media 24 will start consultations with staff today.
“From the earliest days of the pandemic in South Africa, everything we’ve done focused on two main priorities. Firstly, the health and safety of our people, and secondly, business continuity – by implication also protecting employment for as long as possible,” said Media 24 chief executive Ishmet Davidson.
“However, the pandemic has accelerated the pre-existing and long-term structural decline in print media, resulting in a devastating impact on our own already fragile print media operations with significant declines in both circulation and advertising since April. For many of our print titles the benefits of prior interventions to offset the structural declines and keep them on the shelf no longer exist and they’ve run out of options in this regard.
“Even with a return to pre-Covid-19 economic levels, the impact of the pandemic on our print media operations will be unrecoverable. Sadly, we have no choice but to restructure our business now to curtail the losses in our print portfolio and allow us to focus on keeping the retained titles sustainable and in print for as long as possible.”
He added that at the same time, the company is reshaping to further accelerate its transition to an increasingly digital world.
“In a very competitive landscape that includes major international brands, News24 and Netwerk24 are digital news destinations of choice for South Africans. News24 averaged 1.6 million daily unique users for the year to date, 63% growth on the 2019 average. By the end of June, Netwerk24 had almost 67 000 subscribers, up 36.5% on June 2019.”
