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They circulate more than 8 million newspapers and reach about 24 million readers each month. That’s the combined strength of the 250-odd independent publishers that print newspapers in disadvantaged areas across the country.
It’s a growing sector, and local publishers are playing an important role in the communities they serve and in the media sector as a whole.
This is especially so after the completion of a large-scale training programme run by Media24 for the Association of Independent Publishers (AIP) with funding from the Fibre Processing and Manufacturing (FPandamp;M) Seta. These publishers are now better equipped to deal with the move towards digital publishing, a challenge for publishers globally.
The programme has been hailed as a huge success by Deputy Minister of Communications Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, who recently told a gathering of parliamentarians, the AIP board, management teams of the FPandamp;M Seta and Media24 that the training project was a model for future growth.
“I would like to applaud all three partners for developing this comprehensive training programme,” said Ndabeni-Abrahams. “This partnership shows that by working together much more can be accomplished for the advancement of South Africans.”
The recipients were about 200 independent publishers – all AIP members – and the programme of Seta-accredited courses was run over six months, exposing publishers to the latest thinking in online journalism tools, from social media to audiovisual production.
FP&M Seta chairperson Sipho Ngidi said funding the training programme was the very reason Setas were established.
“The job of Setas is to increase competitiveness in each sector of the economy through training ... This programme has served that purpose,” he said.
The Seta identified the programme as one of strategic importance as the media sector tries to adapt to new digital formats and audiences move online. Ngidi said there was no quick fix in skills development and the Seta was keen to continue this partnership over the longer term.
The general manager of Media24’s news division, Ishmet Davidson, said the training reached publishers in all of South Africa’s nine provinces.
“This is a big step for our industry. It’s the first time the mainstream media has partnered local publishers on such a large scale for skills transfer. Media24 wants to see community media flourish. A healthy and diverse media sector is a good-news story for all of us,” said Davidson.
The drive is part of Media24’s investment in skills development for independent publishers and is central to its initiative to actualise proposals from the print and digital media transformation task team
