News24, along with other South African news publications, experience big readership decline

South Africa’s top news publications, including News24, Daily Maverick, TimesLive, and Citizen, have experienced a big decline in readership over the last year.

Online media has been suffering globally due to changing readership habits, increased competition, and the advent of AI with zero-click searches.

Many people prefer short-form videos, like TikTok, and social media posts on X or Facebook over long-form articles on news publications.

Another challenge is that people are not keen to pay for online news content, with paywalls chasing readers away.

With the traditional media’s business models under pressure, there is less money to produce content which people like to read.

Additionally, growing concerns about bias, misinformation, and sensationalism have damaged public trust in the news media.

Readers increasingly question whether mainstream or online outlets are credible, leading them to disengage or diversify their sources.

The latest data from Similarweb showed that just five of the top 50 United States news websites saw year-on-year traffic growth in August 2025.

In South Africa, there is a similar trend. The latest IAB South Africa statistics showed that the country’s top news publications are rapidly losing readership.

The IAB South Africa is an independent association representing South Africa’s digital industry and large online publications.

As part of its mandate, the IAB SA provides audited readership statistics for South Africa’s largest online publications.

Its latest data showed that TimesLive, Daily Maverick, and ENCA were the hardest hit, with an annual readership decline of over 50%.

Only two of the country’s top publications showed year-on-year growth: Daily Investor and IOL. However, this growth was not significant.

The table below provides an overview of the year-on-year readership decline of South Africa’s top media publications, based on the latest IAB SA statistics.