Daily Maverick is recognised worldwide for its innovative and successful membership programme, Maverick Insider. But in a shock tactic, the 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.

It says most of the public and business community still don’t appreciate the full extent of the news media crisis, or its urgency.

 

“We have failed to communicate the severity of the crisis and the impact it will have on key institutions and our economic prospects. Today’s 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.”

It estimates that South Africa has lost 70% of the media workforce in the past 15 years.

In a communique, Daily Maverick explained its actions:

Why, specifically the shutdown, couldn’t a different approach have worked?
We have tried to inform readers and business leaders about the state of the crumbling journalism sector and suggest policy changes to the government. It hasn’t worked.

We needed to do something we have never done since we launched in 2009—something drastic enough to highlight the crisis to the public. Shutting down Daily Maverick is not something we ever wanted to do, but our effort today is in the hope that we will never have to do it again.

 

How bad is it?
Before the pandemic, job losses were estimated at 50%. Since then, there have been more closures and retrenchments, which could mean up to 70% of our colleagues have left journalism since 2009.

We only need to see how quickly our democratic institutions have declined in lockstep with journalism and how our economy has lagged behind other African countries.

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.

 

Is Daily Maverick in crisis?
Not yet. Will the industry has suffered through massive disruption, Daily Maverick has never had to retrench any staff. However, we cannot expand our newsroom to counter the effects of other newsrooms’ losses.
There are entire regions in South Africa with little to no editorial coverage. That means 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.

What response are you hoping for?
We hope 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. Our website lists ways individuals and businesses can support us and the journalism community. We hope today’s effort sparks more conversations and, importantly, action.

 

What else needs to happen to avoid the meltdown you’re describing?
Aside from direct financial support from the public and the business sector, we need to improve the environment in which journalism operates by enacting legislative support and incentives. Journalism is a public good that benefits all of society and should be supported and funded, in part, through subsidies, incentives and rebates.

Legal and tax incentives to bolster journalism, such as VAT exemptions on reader revenue contributions — be it a paywall or a membership model like ours. Public contributions to news media should be tax deductible.

Advertising rebates to make it more appealing for businesses to advertise on news media sites. Donations to news media could be tax-deductible, regardless of PBO status.

Considering the billions of rands of misappropriated funds the state has recovered through investigative journalism, 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.
Other legislative measures we could take are outlined here.

Global crisis

This is a global crisis, with many countries experiencing similar contractions to ours. However, it is much worse in the “Global South,” where the pandemic hit our economies and our news media harder than in more developed countries. The political environment also contributes negatively to the situation in many of these regions.

In South Africa, it is made worse by the effects of State Capture and how rogue owners have compromised some newsrooms.

 

So what if journalism collapses? What happens if there isn’t an adequate response?

If journalism collapses, South African democracy collapses.

Without journalism, corruption and crime will continue (and grow) completely unchecked. Municipalities will fail — even more. We’ve already seen roads explode, buildings burn, and water shortages and contamination following the electricity crisis.

Drivable roads and street lights will become fond memories, 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.

There will be no accountability, mis- and disinformation will fill the void to catastrophic effects. The list is long and scary.