Creating sustainable digital media businesses is a challenge for all publishers, especially in Africa. The challenges include limited internet access, high data costs and a market that is not yet ready to pay for online news. All media leaders must look for new ways to generate income and new ways to manage the change. A session organized by WAN-IFRA Women in News (WIN)

The Steady Media membership platform was initially built for Krautreporter, an independent digital magazine launched in Berlin in 2014, funded exclusively by its members and supported by the Krautreporter Cooperative. It is now used by hundreds of small publishers and content creators. To co-founder Sebastian Esser, what triggers people to pay for digital content is often linked to their level of consumption of articles on a site and associated mechanisms: pricing incentives, features aimed at increasing usage, and so on. But convincing someone to pay for membership requires a different kind of understanding of the interaction between a user and a publication.

In 2012, the South African-based Mail & Guardian newspaper covered few health issues. The M&G’s online health section was barely read and buried on the site as a sub-subsection of the news portion. But that scenario has changed drastically. With support from the German government, the M&G launched a health journalism centre, Bhekisisa, in January 2013. That enabled the publication to appoint a health editor and two reporters and also to offer fellowships to reporters at other publications, so they could be mentored when writing health stories. In September 2015 Bhekisisa received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to expand its health coverage to the rest of the African continent. In March 2016, the centre launched its own website and registered as a non-profit organisation that receives and manages funding independently from the M&G. In July 2019, Bhekisisa moved into its own offices — the organisation now operates independently from the M&G and also produces content for the Daily Maverick and News24.

Global trends point to video as a content and revenue driver. What innovative strategies do we need to deliver video for the continent?

Zimbabwe, with a population of 16.7 million, has a mobile penetration rate of close to 100 percent, and an internet penetration rate of about 50 percent. WhatsApp connections comprise almost half of all Internet usage in the country, with the support of mobile network operators who provide low-cost data bundles specific to WhatsApp. 263Chat started its WhatsApp groups in 2014 and uses these channels since 2017 to send its e-paper, first on a weekly basis and now as a daily version. 263Chat News is available for free to users; the operation is ad-supported.

A year ago, the Daily Maverick announced the start of its membership journey. How is it going? Product manager Rowan Polovin will share some of the lessons learned, in a question and answer session with Cherilyn Ireton