Possible closure of Media24 titles' sad day for media diversity'
Media Monitoring Africa's William Bird has described the announcement by Media24 of the possible closure of several magazines and newspapers as a sad day for media diversity in the country.
The company announced the possible closure of five magazines and two newspapers on Tuesday, mainly due to the impact of coronavirus on an industry that was already struggling before the pandemic hit South Africa.
Media24 says around 510 staff members are expected to be affected, with a proposed reduction of close on 660 positions out of a total staff complement of some 2 900.
Bird says the announcement by Media24 is not surprising, as several other publications have also been closing down.
"It is really a sad day for media diversity, but it is not to say that they are closing the newspapers per se, but in this instance, it seems they are moving them to be digital-only.
"Which I guess in the long term they probably going to be okay but it is always a tough thing for people in small towns who don't have access to the media," says Bird.
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Bird says the media in the country is caught between a rock and a hard place because they have to move online, but a lot of their audience is not there and digital does not generate revenue.
"No that sense the future does not look at all bright, against that though at this moment, in this crises, the media is an essential service declared so by government which I think important.
"The media are not just there for a nice thing to have, they fulfil an essential service for our democracy to help us understand what is going on.
"So we do have to find alternative ways of funding the media to make sure that they can survive because without quality journalism we cannot have a democracy," he says.
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