The Competition Commission has approved Media24’s sale of its Soccer Laduma and KickOff titles to printing group Novus Holdings.

In addition, Media24’s distributions business, On the Dot, and its country-wide community newspaper portfolio have also been given the green light to be offloaded.

Restructuring plans

Media24 will now proceed with its restructuring plans, which involve closing the print editions of Rapport, Beeld, City Press and Daily Sun, and shutting its SNL24 digital hub.

SNL24 currently comprises five formerly standalone websites in Soccer Laduma, KickOff, Drum, Daily Sun and TRUELOVE.

It remains to be seen how much success – if any – Novus Holdings has with resurrecting print versions of Soccer Laduma and KickOff and whether they have long-term plans to create online versions, presumably renamed, thereof.

In the interim, be sure to bookmark The South African’s soccer pages for the very best coverage of the local scene.

Significant job losses

In June of this year, Media24 announced a major restructuring that, at the time, was reported to mean 400 job losses due to years of declining advertising and circulation.

Important to note, the matter at the Competition Commission did not stop the Section 189 process of retrenchments.

The initial plan included the retrenchment of 66 journalists who create, process and package content for Beeld, Rapport, City Press and Daily Sun. 

However, Media24 later announced that it would no longer retrench those 66 editorial staff members.  

The final publication dates for the very last print editions of Rapport, Beeld, City Press, Daily Sun, as well as the PDF editions of Volksblad and Die Burger Oos-Kaap on Netwerk24, and for SNL24, will be 31 December 2024.

Newspapers dying a rapid death

From January 2025, Daily Sun will operate as a free, standalone website.

In addition, Rapport, Beeld, Volksblad and Die Burger Oos-Kaap articles will live on the Netwerk24 website, while City Press will be available on News24 as digital-only brands.

As reported by The South African website in late August when the Q2 Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) numbers were revealed, it’s clear newspapers – and to a slightly lesser extent magazines – are dying a rapid death.

Read all those scary numbers HERE

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