Cape Town - A popular Cape Town tabloid will soon only be available on a weekly basis.
The Son, a daily Afrikaans tabloid based in Cape Town, will be making significant changes.
This was confirmed to IOL by Media24 chief executive officer (CEO) Ishmet Davidson on Friday.
Staff consultations are currently underway.
“Media24 confirmed that it is considering reducing the frequency of Son newspaper from daily to weekly. The company has started consultations with staff,” he said.
Davidson said the Covid-19 pandemic has heavily impacted this decision as the print industry, already in a fragile state, was hit hard.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the pre-existing and long-term structural decline in an already fragile print media sector, with significant declines in both circulation and advertising.
“For many of our print titles, the benefits of prior interventions to offset the structural declines and keep them on the shelf no longer exist, and they’ve run out of options in this regard,” Davidson said.
He said since the company’s restructuring of its print media operation in July 2020, it has continued to review operations and business models regularly to curtail losses and keep retained titles sustainable in print for as long as possible.
But, the company is moving with the times as the digital world increases.
"At the same time, Media24 is reshaping to further accelerate its transition to an increasingly digital world, and we are operating in a very tough economic climate. Sadly, this can result in unavoidable restructures and potential job losses," Davidson said.
About 20 employees within the editorial and production department of Son will be retrenched.
‘’The planned interventions at Son are expected to affect around 20 staff members, mostly editorial and production. We are fully committed to managing this highly sensitive consultation with compassion while following the process as prescribed by law. Unfortunately, we cannot share any further details until the process has been concluded,’’ Davidson said.
Media24 also rubbished claims that this move was to prop up another of its Afrikaans newspapers.
‘’Media24 also confirms that claims that these changes are intended to “prop up” Die Burger is untrue," Davidson concluded.
robin.francke@inl.co.za
IOL