News24 and Netwerk24 grow subscriptions — raking in R11 million per month
News24 and Netwerk24’s paywall subscription models have been very successful and have helped Media24 to make a strong recovery.
Naspers’ interim financial statements for the six months ended 30 September 2021 revealed that Media24 increased revenue by 64% from $84 million to $129 million year-on-year.
Media24’s growth was driven by increased subscriptions in News24 and Netwerk24’s online subscriptions.
Netwerk24 increased its paywall subscription by 13% to 80,900, while News24 signed up 41,000 subscribers since it implemented a paywall in August 2020.
These subscriptions now contribute around R11 million per month to Media24’s top line, as shown below.
- Netwerk24 – R8.009 million per month
- News24 – R3.075 million per month
The subscription revenue has also helped with Media24’s strong recovery, swinging from a trading loss of $16 million (R251 million) for the reporting period in 2020 to a trading profit of $6 million in 2021.
News24 and Network24 subscriptions
News24 launched its digital subscription service on 8 August, offering subscribers access to investigative reporting, opinions, analysis, and podcasts for R75 per month.
Subscribers can also access magazines and newspapers, including City Press, YOU, Drum, and TrueLove.
Other benefits include posting comments, listening to articles, and sharing subscriber-only articles with friends.
Instead of putting the entire site behind a paywall, News24 opted for a blended model where current affairs, crime, sport, business, and entertainment news is still free.
Many people predicted a decline in traffic following the News24 paywall, but this did not happen.
In October 2020, News24’s readership was 10.9 million browsers and 87 million page views. A year later, News24 attracted 12.2 million unique browsers and 90 million page views.
Netwerk24 — the dominant Afrikaans news platform in South Africa — has shown the power of online subscriptions.
For R99 per month, subscribers get access to online news, digital versions of leading Afrikaans magazines and newspapers, and unique Afrikaans podcasts and videos.
Its vast content library has convinced over 80,000 people to subscribe to its offering, which shows that South Africans are willing to pay for unique, quality content online.