“We have completed an internal review of our progress against the goals set by the task team and are delighted to report that we have met most of them – and, in most cases, have exceeded them,” says Media24 CEO Esmaré Weideman.

“We believe we are now setting the pace for transformation in the print media industry,” she says. The Report on the Transformation of Print and Digital Media was released by the Print and Digital Media Transformation Task Team (PDMTTT) in September 2013.

The PDMTTT was established by Print and Digital Media SA (PDMSA) – the industry body for South African print media owners – to investigate the state of transformation in the sector and to recommend changes in key areas. These include management, employment equity, skills development, enterprise development, socio-economic development and black ownership.

The PDMSA decided that individual companies should take responsibility for implementing the task team’s recommendations, and Weideman says Media24 “has embraced this concept with vigour”.

“Transformation continues to be a strategic focus area for our businesses as we strive to be at the forefront of change,” she says. “We are proud of the fact that we have met most of the task team targets within two years, in a challenging business environment. We don’t only drive transformation because of the targets set by the task team, but because it is close to our hearts. At Media24 we are passionate about transformation because it makes us a better and stronger company.”

The five key areas which have been addressed are:

Ownership

The PDMTTT recommended that “all members of the PDMSA must individually meet the general scorecard ownership target of 25% plus one or the full 20 points within three years”. Media24 is now 45.8% black owned through black ownership attributable to Naspers and Welkom Yizani – the biggest black economic empowerment share offer in the print media industry, which gives 107 000 black South Africans a stake in the business. Welkom Yizani makes up 15% and the rest flows through from Naspers.

Management control

Media24 has exceeded the PDMTTT recommendation that at least half of board participants must be black, and half must be women. Although the task team set a three-year timeline for this, within two years Media24 has been able to achieve 60% black representation and 50% female representation.

Skills development

The State of the Newsroom South African 2014 Report, published by Wits University, points out that Media24 spent more money on training than any other local media company, including the SABC. Of the R69.65-million spent by the entire industry, Media24 spent R35.7-million. The company spent 70%  of its training budget on black employees. Media24 has also launched an extensive digital media training programme for independent publishers, as recommended by the PDMTTT, by entering into a working relationship with the Association of Independent Publishers (AIP) to provide digital skills to independent publishers across all nine provinces. Media24 conceptualised and designed the courses which aim to meet the needs of AIP members. Media24 also sponsored a group of 12 independent publishers to attend a week-long course in newspapers and digital media management at Rhodes University.

Employment equity

Despite serious cost pressure and a 10% reduction in staff, Media24 has increased the level of black managers on its executive committee from 15% in 2012 to 40% in 2015, with female representation at 47%. Notwithstanding the transformation in the leadership of Media24 it remains a challenge to drive employment equity in the junior and middle management ranks. To this end Media24 has invested in transformative initiatives in talent management and recruitment. One such example is the Apex Future Leaders programme, a two-year executive management programme launched in April 2014 to provide talented black candidates with academic training as well as practical business exposure to prepare them for senior positions in the company. Two are already editors of flagship titles.

Socio-economic development

In response to the TTT’s recommendation that media owners should sponsor digital programmes for (black) learners to expose them to “careers in the digital media space”, Media24 launched the country’s first-ever digital school news network, offering free training to budding school journalists nationwide. Called WeCan24, it is now the company’s flagship CSI project. The initiative offers free training to learners and teachers nationwide as well as a free online school news platform for user-generated content that aims to train citizen journalists around the country. Nationwide roll-out and training began in June 2015 and 266 teachers and 667 learners have received training in line with Media24’s objective of “creating a culture of citizen journalism among young South Africans” and inspiring a generation of young people with integrity, people who are innovative, and informed, to become citizen journalists.

“Two years ago, our commitment to transformation was made clear when we embraced the findings of the PDMTTT. Now we are able to show that we walk the talk,” says Weideman.

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