By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Media24 has agreed to suspend the planned closure of its newspapers City Press, Beeld, Rapport and Daily Sun and the retrenchment of journalists, editors, and other media workers.
The media giant said, that it will not implement retrenchments (or newspaper closures) until the Competition Commission approves its proposed sale of On the Dot and several community newspapers to Novus.
Ishmet Davidson, CEO of Media24 says, “It never was our intention to do so before approval from the relevant authorities since the sale of On the Dot is a direct consequence of our intention to close the affected titles.
However, it is important to note that this undertaking does not include ceasing the Section 189 consultation process related to the affected newspaper titles. As we have said on numerous occasions, we intend to comply with the relevant regulatory and statutory requirements.”
A merger review by the Competition Commission could be lengthy, especially if a third party opposes it.
Capital Newspapers and Caxton indicated in widely placed press advertisements two weeks ago that there should be no early closure of Media24 newspaper titles until the merger transaction comprising the sale of On the Dot to Novus and the linked title closures have been approved in their entirety by the competition authorities.
This would signal a reprieve for the press and allow Caxton and Capital Newspapers to oppose the proposed transaction.
Media24’s financial results for the year to March 2023 paint a picture of a company in trouble: revenue down to $217m, a 16% year-on-year drop, and trading profit at $7m, a 59% free fall from a year earlier.
Even then, the group said News24 averaged 9.1-million daily unique page views in the period, while Netwerk24 saw 5.7-million page views. During the election week, these generated close on 105-million page views combined. This peaked at 21.9-million for News24 and 5.8-million for Netwerk24 on a single day, a company record.