Daily Maverick, a respected online publication, has shut down for 24 hours to highlight the market failure in journalism, where the economics no longer work to support its production. The online publication claims that most of the public and business community still don't appreciate the full extent of the news media crisis and its urgency. The shutdown aims to highlight what will happen if journalism does not receive the support it needs from the business community, the public, and policymakers. Journalism urgently needs financial support and policy reform to improve the environment in which it is asked to protect democracy and serve the public's information needs.
Daily Maverick estimates that South Africa has lost 70% of the media workforce in the past 15 years. The shutdown is not something they ever wanted to do, but their effort today is in the hope that they will never have to do it again. Before the pandemic, job losses were estimated at 50%, and since then, there have been more closures and retrenchments, which could mean up to 70% of their colleagues have left journalism since 2009. Local metro news has been especially hard hit, now barely existent, and one only needs to review the state of our cities to see how service delivery failure is enabled by zero accountability journalism.
Daily Maverick has never had to retrench any staff, but there are entire regions in South Africa with little to no editorial coverage, meaning there are municipalities throughout the country with absolutely no independent accountability measures. The job that local newspapers should have been doing to report on local institutions has been destroyed. This shutdown is not about Daily Maverick; it’s about every legitimate newsroom in the country that needs public and corporate support.
The shutdown is not about Daily Maverick; it’s about every legitimate newsroom in the country that needs public and corporate support. The response is hoping that today’s shutdown will highlight the role journalism plays and the value it delivers in South Africa. As a public service, journalism has been instrumental in exposing State Capture, removing corrupt officials, and retrieving billions of rands for the State. Democracy cannot survive without journalism; good journalism is good for business.
To avoid the meltdown, there needs to be direct financial support from the public and the business sector, as well as improving the environment in which journalism operates by enacting legislative support and incentives. Legal and tax incentives to bolster journalism, such as VAT exemptions on reader revenue contributions, advertising rebates to make it more appealing for businesses to advertise on news media sites, and donations to news media could be tax-deductible, regardless of PBO status. Another approach would be to allocate a percentage of the recovered funds to the whistleblowers and legitimate newsrooms that have worked to ensure this outcome.
If journalism collapses, South African democracy collapses. Without journalism, corruption and crime will continue (and grow) completely unchecked, municipalities will fail, roads will explode, buildings will burn, water shortages and contamination following the electricity crisis, and businesses will struggle to survive the rising costs of a failed state. Taxes will increase to offset a shrinking revenue base, and a 1% GDP growth rate will be considered stellar.
HAS SHUT DOWN
For today, 15 April 2024
Without Journalism,
our democracy and economy
will break down
Journalism helped save South Africa
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