Daily Maverick Has Shut Down

To quote their entire FAQ on this:

help.dailymaverick.co.za

Why is Daily Maverick doing this?

Until now, we’ve failed to appropriately convey the urgency and severity of the crisis that journalism is facing, and its impact on society. We have many data points that support how bad the crisis is but it’s not clear to enough people how the c...
help.dailymaverick.co.za help.dailymaverick.co.za

Why is Daily Maverick doing this?​

Until now, we’ve failed to appropriately convey the urgency and severity of the crisis that journalism is facing, and its impact on society. We have many data points that support how bad the crisis is but it’s not clear to enough people how the crisis impacts democracy and our attempts to revive our economy.

Democracy decays quickly when journalism dies, which in turn allows poor governance and corruption to leech off the economy. Big problems need bold solutions and it's clear we need to get the message across at scale.

Newsrooms across South Africa have been retrenching staff and closing down leaving a journalism vacuum in metros all over South Africa. In response to this, Daily Maverick needs to grow our footprint with journalists on the ground to adequately serve South Africa. We need policy changes, big business involvement and support from the public in order to do this.
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help.dailymaverick.co.za

Why specifically the shut down, couldn’t a different approach have worked?

We have tried to highlight the state of the crumbling journalism sector to our readers, in discussions with business leaders and in suggested policy changes to government. It didn’t work. We needed to do something that we have never done sin...
help.dailymaverick.co.za help.dailymaverick.co.za

Why specifically the shut down, couldn’t a different approach have worked?​

We have tried to highlight the state of the crumbling journalism sector to our readers, in discussions with business leaders and in suggested policy changes to government. It didn’t work.

We needed to do something that we have never done since we launched in 2009; something that was drastic enough to highlight the crisis to the public. Shutting down Daily Maverick is not something we ever wanted to do. Our effort today is in the hope that we will never have to do it again.
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help.dailymaverick.co.za

How bad is it really?

Before the pandemic, job losses were estimated at 50%. Since then there have been more closures and retrenchments that could mean up to 70% of our colleagues have left journalism since 2009. We only need to see how quickly our democratic inst...
help.dailymaverick.co.za help.dailymaverick.co.za

How bad is it really?​

Before the pandemic, job losses were estimated at 50%. Since then there have been more closures and retrenchments that 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 with it. 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.
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help.dailymaverick.co.za

Is Daily Maverick in crisis?

Not yet. We have never had to retrench any staff thanks to a lean working model. However, we currently cannot grow our newsroom to counter the effects of the losses of other newsrooms. There are entire regions in South Africa that have littl...
help.dailymaverick.co.za help.dailymaverick.co.za

Is Daily Maverick in crisis?​

Not yet. We have never had to retrench any staff thanks to a lean working model. However, we currently cannot grow our newsroom to counter the effects of the losses of other newsrooms.

There are entire regions in South Africa that have little to no editorial coverage - that means that there are municipalities throughout the country that have absolutely no independent accountability measures in place. 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 Daily Maverick and every other legitimate newsroom in the country in need of public and corporate support.
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help.dailymaverick.co.za

What response are we hoping for?

Our hope is 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, the removal of corrupt officials, and the retri...
help.dailymaverick.co.za help.dailymaverick.co.za

What response are we hoping for?​

Our hope is 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, the removal of corrupt officials, and the retrieval of billions of Rand to the State. Democracy cannot survive without journalism, and good journalism is good for business. We have listed the various ways individuals and businesses can support us and the wider journalism community on our website.
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help.dailymaverick.co.za

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 ...
help.dailymaverick.co.za help.dailymaverick.co.za

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 for example VAT exemptions on reader revenue contributions - be it a paywall or a membership model like we have.

Advertising rebates to make it more appealing for businesses to advertise on news media sites. Tax-deductible donations…

Considering the billions of Rand of misappropriated funds that have been recovered to the state through investigative journalism, a simple approach would be to give a small percentage of funds recovered to the whistleblowers and legitimate newsrooms that have done the work to ensure this outcome.
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help.dailymaverick.co.za

Is it only South Africa/Africa experiencing this 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 more developed countries. It is made worse ...
help.dailymaverick.co.za help.dailymaverick.co.za

Is it only South Africa/Africa experiencing this 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 more developed countries. It is made worse by the effects of State Capture and how some newsrooms have been compromised by rogue owners.
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help.dailymaverick.co.za

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

If journalism collapses, South Africa 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 shorta...
help.dailymaverick.co.za help.dailymaverick.co.za

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

If journalism collapses, South Africa 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 struggle to survive from the rising costs of a failed state. Taxes will increase to offset a shrinking revenue base and a 1% GDP growth rate will be a stellar outcome.

There will be no accountability, mis- and disinformation will fill the void to catastrophic effects. The list is long and scary.
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Worth every penny to support Daily Maverick. They have been instrumental in bringing ANC corruption to light and their decline in the elections, even if few of the ANC are actually in jail.
 
I like the DM, but this tatcic is a bit Drama Queen to me.

It reminds me of the time the Vrye Weekblad's print issue had a completely black front page.
 
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Also, ALL JOURNALISTS won't just quit. That is just the dumbest thing I have read today. Where there is money to be made and family to be fed, things will continue as usual. They might strike for a while, worst case scenario. Like the Hollywood teapot strike. Also if Maverick closes the doors, their article writers will just go somewhere else.
 
The Free Radical said:
The issue I have with them is they are playing an active role in politics, and with a clear left of spectrum bias.
Their editorial staff should rather contest elections because they are political activists, and not fair and impartial media pundits. They hide behind the words 'democracy' and 'diverse speech', but that's just a thin veneer to advance their radical agenda.
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You may perhaps have heard of an American lot, called fox news.
It is a virtual shrine and place of assembly dedicated to the worship of a politician called Donald frump, or something.

The readers comments section is an absolute treat.
People often refer to "dumb Americans".
The comments section has a collective of what one could refer to as "best of breed" as far as dumbness goes.
 
The Free Radical said:
Correct.

People are now plugged into social media for a broad spectrum of news and opinions.
Legacy media increasingly doesn't reflect broad public opinion, but the narrative spun by its corporate special interest group sponsors, or politically biased news room editors.
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Ironically, the likes of Twitter are just aggregators of traditional media content. Otherwise all you get is fake news which is very rife on SM. Musk is a fine one to talk when he's a consumer and purveyor of fake news.
 
The Free Radical said:
The issue I have with them is they are playing an active role in politics, and with a clear left of spectrum bias.
Their editorial staff should rather contest elections because they are political activists, and not fair and impartial media pundits. They hide behind the words 'democracy' and 'diverse speech', but that's just a thin veneer to advance their radical agenda.
Click to expand...
Sorry to burst your bubble but there is no such thing as impartial reporting, anyone saying there is pulling the wool over your eyes. Reading and understanding different viewpoints is an important part of growing up and interrogating your own political viewpoints. If it's too much for you block them and stay in a filter bubble
 
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