It’s not often that one newspaper will publicly praise the work of its competitor, but we have been impressed on several occasions with the high quality of investigative reporting in the online version of the Daily Dispatch.
It’s not often that one newspaper will publicly praise the work of its competitor, but we have been impressed on several occasions with the high quality of investigative reporting in the online version of the Daily Dispatch.
Perhaps we are being presumptuous saying that Grocott’s Mail is a competitor of the Dispatch, but that is not the point – we are disappointed that a high quality journalism team is being dismantled. The media group that owns the publication has not been specific about the reasons for the latest move, but we can guess that it is because the site is not generating enough money.
Since the advent of online newspapers and news sites – less than two decades ago – people all over the world have been searching for the correct business model to ensure that a news site pays. While some news sites do turn a profit, most don’t.
The tide appears to be turning in industrialised countries where the majority of the population has web access and bandwidth is affordable. Many news organisations in Europe and the United States no longer print hard copies: they publish all their material online. This change will also happen here and in other developing countries, but perhaps not as soon as many of us had expected.
South African newspapers have followed the lead of developed nations putting substantial amounts of news online and it is perfectly possible to keep up to date without ever having to read a print edition. However, the wake-up call that many commentators have disregarded is that only 11% of South Africans have Internet access and the cost of connecting is still relatively high.
Perhaps we should look at the access threshold where online news effectively nudged ahead of their print counterparts in the developed countries. However, the reverse at the Dispatch will probably not cause too many media bosses to rethink their plans for the future because they already have more than enough problems.
The print media is reeling as a consequence of the recession. Almost half the community papers in this country have been forced to close down over the last two years and to make matters worse, the ANC is determined to clamp down on media houses that publish embarrassing articles.
