Media24, one of SA’s largest news publishers, continues to bleed money, reporting a 60% widening in losses in the last financial year. This result gives a picture of the publisher’s first full-year performance following a huge round of job cuts in 2024 (2025 financial year). It also underscores the immense pressure being felt by South Africa’s established news publishers. The Naspers unit, which operates primarily under the News24 and Netwerk24 brands, said it “restructured, moving from a print to a digital-first business, leading to a decline in legacy revenue and investment costs in upgrading technology”.In 2024, Media24 embarked on a major reconfiguration of its business in the pursuit of cutting expensive and loss-making legacy print businesses and infrastructure, in favour of a leaner structure that favours the capital-light dynamics of digital publishing. As part of the effort, the group announced a strategic shift that put 400 jobs at risk as it sought to close the print editions of five newspapers, transitioning three of them into digital-only brands.Media24 also hived off its media logistics business On the Dot, and its community newspaper portfolio, to Novus, subject to regulatory approvals. Competition authorities approved Novus’ bid to acquire those assets in the latter part of the year. In the 12-months to end-March 2026, Media24’s two main units, News24 and Netwerk24, saw a 4.4% rise in paywall subscribers to 221,872 from 212,473. The company has not disclosed how many paying customers it would need to be sustainable.Revenue for the full year fell 28%, from $141m to $102m. The adjusted loss before interest and tax position came in at $16m from a loss of $10m in the prior year. In local currency, revenue fell by 27%. The company now publishes several magazines and two newspapers.“We consolidated operational divisions into three verticals (Media, Books and TV) while reviewing the suitability of our technology architecture for a digital-first business,” said the company. To claw back its losses, the unit is launching the first of its “differentiated product ranges” — access to The New York Times content for subscribers to all its main digital publishing platforms.In addition, the company is implementing a new content management system, “more suited” to its digital publishing model. As with the broader Naspers and Prosus stable, led by CEO Fabricio Bloisi, Media24 is also looking at how it can capitalise on AI technology.The Naspers subsidiary is in the first phase of personalising content on both News24 and Netwerk24, as well as building a tool for “AI-driven contextual advertising”.Media24 says it generates 6.5-million average daily page views across its digital platforms, down from 9.7-million in the prior year. This is according to data from Google Analytics and the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Media24 ended the period with 1,194 employees, including permanent and temporary workers.Business Day