Morero NkhomoBLEAK PROSPECT: Group says the decision now hinges on approval of proposed sale of On the Dot and several community newspapers to Novus…
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.
Davidson made the announcements of the pending closures of the print titles at a town hall meeting with staff on June 11. In terms of the announcement, the last day of publication for the newspapers was expected to be 30 September.
“Print media globally has been suffering structural declines in circulation and advertising for decades,” said Davidson. “Combined with rising fixed distribution costs, this has had a devastating impact on print operations,” Davidson said in a press statement at the time.
Some of the main interventions announced by Davidson included:
· Ending the print editions of Beeld, Rapport, City Press, Daily Sun, and Soccer Laduma;
· Stopping publishing the digital editions of Volksblad and Die Burger Oos-Kaap;
· Shutting the digital hub SNL24;
· Transitioning Rapport, City Press and Daily Sun into “digital-only brands”; and
· Selling media logistics business On the Dot and Media24’s community newspaper portfolio to Novus Holdings.
Davidson said that Media24 titles in the north of South Africa had been on “life support for a while”.
“Combined losses are projected to amount to R200 million over the next three years. After years of cut-backs, we’ve reached the end of cost reductions to try to save these print operations. We’ve simply run out of options,” he said, adding the time to restore Media24’s business was “now”.
The group’s remaining viable brands will go “fully digital”, which will strengthen the media group’s main digital news brands, News24 and Netwerk24, he said.
Over the past financial year, their combined subscribers grew by 19% year-on-year to more than 200 000. That’s far more than the combined circulation of all our print news titles.
Davidson said that Die Burger and Son in the Western Cape would not be impacted by the changes. Both are “marginally profitable”.
“In addition, Die Burger holds great historical value as the foundation upon which Naspers was built,” he said. – Additional reporting from News24
SARA RAISES STAKES OVER ARTS SURPLUS FUNDS POLICY
TRANSPARENCY:Now the South African Roadies Association files an application for access to key information from the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture…
By Edward Tsumele
The South African Roadies Association (SARA) has raised the stakes in its long-standing row with the National Arts Council (NAC) over the state agency’s policy of accumulating surplus funds meant for art development.
In a new twist, SARA has made an application for the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) to the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture in its bid to unveil the extent of alleged irregularities relating to the accumulation and management of surplus funds policy created by the NAC. The policy aimed to address surplus funds from expired projects. The funds are rolled over to the next financial year and the council arrogates to itself the power on how this money was spent.
SARA, a Johannesburg-based training organisation that skills youth in live events technical production skills, the NPO has requested the following information through its lawyer:
• Copies of the National Arts Council’s application to the National Treasury to retain accumulated surplus funds for the financial years between 2015/16 and 2022/23.
• Copies of the National Treasury’s approvals of the National Arts Council’s applications to retain accumulated surplus funds for the financial years between 2015/16 and 2022/23.
• Copies of the “concurrence of the Minister of Finance” for the National Arts Council or Minister to create the following policies, which relates to “state revenue or expenditure”: expired projects and unclaimed funds policy; and expired projects and surplus policy.
This request apparently emanates from SARA’s contention that the accumulation and retention of surplus funds must comply with Treasury regulations. The organisation contends that policies relating to accumulated funds created by the NAC might be out of line with Section 21(3) of the National Arts Council Act No: 56 of 1997, which provided that: “No regulation relating to State revenue or expenditure shall be made by the Council or the Minister, except with the concurrence of the Minister of Finance.”
In addition, the Section 21(4) of the Act that provided that: “Any regulation made under subsection (2) may provide that any person contravening such regulation or failing to comply therewith, shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months.”
Freddie Nyathela, SARA president, has confirmed that the NPO made such an application through its attorney to the department, under which the NAC falls.
“We have received no response, yet besides an acknowledgement. The application was made on 21 June 2024,” said Nyathela. Last week, the department was approached for comment about SARA’s PAIA application.
In a subsequent response, Mandisa Tshikwatamba, Deputy Director-General Corporate Services at the department, said: “Please note that the PAIA request referred to has only been received this week. Upon its assessment and response to it, a notification will be sent out as response to your enquiry, with guidance on how information in your request will be accessed.
Given that the enquiry dates to 2014/15 if not 15/16, time allowance to next week Wednesday is estimated for a final response.” At the time of publishing, no further comment had been received from Tshikwatamba.
Meanwhile the issue of the surplus funds policy has dragged on for several years. In 2021, the Democratic Alliance wrote to the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa, to request an independent investigation into the matter after two reports revealed that the Policy seems to contravene Treasury regulations and the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).
Mthethwa was subsequently removed from the portfolio early last year after a Cabinet reshuffle without the issue being resolved. The issue persisted into Zizi Kodwa’s tenure as minister of the portfolio and remained unresolved until his resignation recently.
The fund was first investigated by the Business Innovation Group (BIG) in 2016 and again by the Public Protector in 2020 after the head of the South African Roadies Association (SARA), Freddie Nyathela, complained in 2015 that the then NAC CEO, Rosemary Mangope, applied for funding on his association’s behalf without informing him.
Both the BIG and Public Protector’s reports highlighted the Policy has “gaps which render it prone to abuse”, “not transparent”, “unfair and uncompetitive”, “procedurally unfair” and “not consistent with the spirit of the law”. Yet, this Policy has not been repealed.
Mkhwebane’s June 2020 report, while highlighting irregularities relating to the council’s expired projects policy, also found it was inconsistent with the constitution, the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act and the treasury regulations and therefore “procedurally unfair” and “not consistent with the spirit of the law”.
The Public Protector’s report specifically mentioned that although Mangope had no obligation to inform Nyathela of the annual partnership proposal she submitted on his association’s behalf as the Policy did not explicitly provide for it, not informing SARA amounted to “improper conduct” and “maladministration”.
The fact that no effort seems to have been made to review or repeal this policy after the release of the two reports, galvanised Nyathela to continue his crusade against it. – CityLifeArts with additional information from Polity and Mail & Guardian
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