South Africa’s largest media company takes a knock

South Africa’s largest media company, Media24, released its results for the 2025 financial year, revealing a significant decline in revenue and earnings.

Media24 is owned by the global technology giant Naspers, which, on Monday, released its annual report for the year ended 31 March 2025.

Naspers explained that the 2025 financial year was a watershed period for Media24 during which it discontinued most of its printed newspapers.

“Media24 took the crucial, and inevitable, giant leap from legacy publishing into the realm of digitally led news media operations,” Naspers said.

This included closing the print and PDF editions of newspapers at the end of their viable life cycle and divesting both logistics operations, M24 Logistics and On the Dot.

It realigned its media operations to focus on its two major digital news brands, News24 and Netwerk24. These publications lead the South African online news market.

As part of this process, it closed the SNL24 digital content hub, divested from community newspapers and soccer titles, and made Rapport and City Press digital-only brands.

It also launched DailySun.com as a standalone, free-access news website for the middle market in South Africa.

Media24 further consolidated its operations into three divisions, Media, Books, and TV, and realigned its corporate support structures accordingly.

These changes had a significant impact on Media24’s financial performance, resulting in a substantial decline in revenue and earnings.

Revenue declined by 17% from US$175 million (R3.199 billion) in 2024 to US$141 million (R2.577 billion) in 2025. There was a 15% year-on-year decline in rand.

Media24’s adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (aEBIT) took a serious knock. It had a negative aEBIT of US$15 million (R274 million) against a profit of US$1 million (R18.28 million) in the prior year.

It explained that its trading results were eroded by the financial impact of the redesign and an investment in foundation-phase schoolbook submissions.

Media24 said it remains committed to the valuable role it plays in South Africa’s society and democracy, while building a sustainable future for the company.

The company stated that it is focused on making Media24 a profitable digital media business, with a primary focus on content production for news, television, and books.