Two of SA’s best-known magazine publications, Drum and True Love, are said to be on the chopping block and at risk of being closed.
Media24 is said to have failed to disclose this publicly.
Drum and True Love have had a strong black audience and following in the country for decades. Falling print circulation saw the two titles being moved completely online in 2020, but that plan seems not to have borne the fruit expected.
The Naspers-owned media group is selling its media logistics business, On the Dot, and its community newspaper portfolio to Novus Holdings subject to regulatory approvals.
Caxton has made a competing offer for the assets.
In mid-June, Media24 said that it was seeking to close the print editions of five newspapers, transitioning three of them into digital-only brands, placing 400 jobs at risk.
Print editions on the block are Beeld, Rapport, City Press, Daily Sun and Soccer Laduma, along with the digital editions of Volksblad and Die Burger Oos-Kaap and digital hub SNL24.
According to a source, who spoke to Business Day on condition of anonymity, the company has deliberately not disclosed, at least not publicly, that it is also shutting down Drum and True Love.
These titles are part of SNL24. While Media24 had disclosed it was shutting down the digital hub, it had not disclosed this would mark the end of Drum and True Love specifically. Plans for other titles that make up SNL24 — Daily Sun and Soccer Laduma — have been disclosed.
“What many people are not aware of is that SNL24 is pretty much a new website that they created, which housed Daily Sun, Kickoff, Soccer Laduma, and then in March 2023 Drum and True Love magazine came in.
“Throughout the company, not many people knew that Drum and True Love were on a whole new website and no longer on News24.com. The fact that the digital hub SNL24 is now closing, the rest of us can assume that the websites of Drum and True Love are closing.
“And from the section 189 process that’s been going on, it seems the whole [Drum and True Love] team is being retrenched, all the permanent staff.
“The public statements from CEO Ishmet Davidson and the internal communications listed the publications that are set to close. The two publications, Drum and True Love, have not been named at all. It does seem quite purposeful or that they are using the ignorance to their advantage.”
The source said that teams from the two publications found out only when HR sent out the communication and set up internal meetings for whoever is involved in the section 189 process. The Drum and True Love teams have been part of those meetings, but they were not mentioned in public statements made by the company.
“HR told Drum and True Love that they are part of the process.”
A representative of Solidarity told Business Day that the trade union had not received any official communication from Media24 about the closure of Drum and True Love, or a retrenchment process involving staff of the two titles.
That said, the representative did confirm that staff of the two titles had been included in meetings on Media24 employees being retrenched.
When asked, a spokesperson for Media24 said: “True Love and Drum — they are indeed part of the SNL24 hub and also potentially affected by the proposed closure of the hub itself.”
When asked how the mood is inside Media24 at the moment, the source described it as “dour”, with efforts to continue “business as usual” and “people are taking it day by day”.
Media24 has rejected Caxton’s advances, saying that it will not renege on its agreement with Novus.
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