South Africa has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world and big news stories to tell. Despite hardship, one news outlet has the support of 17k paying members, aiming for 100k in the next five years
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Digital media outlets in Africa, Latin America and south-east Asia have a big impact despite working with low resources, the recent Inflection Point study by Sembra Media, Luminate and Centre for International Media Assistance found.
One of the standout examples is South Africa's The Daily Maverick, whose recent investigation of the health minister Zweli Mkhize led to his resignation. Their journalism is important in a country with lots of economic and political challenges and readers recognise that. But in a society that grapples with one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, asking readers to pay for news is not simple.
Yet, they have managed to get 17,000 sign-ups to the membership programme Maverick Insider since it was launched three years ago. It operates on a pay-what-you-can model, acknowledging that a hard paywall would deny readers access to critical information. But this is crucial revenue to fund its journalism. The publication now wants to attract 100,000 members in the next five years.
In this week's podcast, Styli Charalambous, CEO of The Daily Maverick talks to us more about how they plan to continue growing their membership despite the difficult economic situation.
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