New 24 Of South Africa Is One Of The Top 20 Internet News Outlets In The World!!

Letter from the editor: News24 joins the 100k Club News24. ADRIAAN BASSON, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Dear subscriber, Christmas came in January at News24. This week, we became the newest member of an exceptional global group: the 100k Club. This means we are now one of only 40 digital news publications worldwide with more than 100 000 paying subscribers, of which you are one. We couldn't be more grateful and excited. To recap: in August 2020, we came to you, our loyal readers, to explain why News24 was embarking on a subscription journey. The global economics of media has made it impossible to continue with a business only funded by advertising. In return for your hard-earned money, we promised to up our game. Over the past three years, we have grown our newsroom by almost 40%, appointing senior journalists like Karyn Maughan, Carol Paton, Simnikiwe Xabanisa, and Sikonathi Mantshantsha to bolster our investigative, business and sports journalism. The growth of our subscription business enabled us to give our investigations unit the space and time to conduct their probes, leading to agenda-setting scoops like Jeff Wicks' investigation into the assassination of whistleblower Babita Deokaran and the team's exposés of Deputy President Paul Mashatile's financial affairs. We could open new offices in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape to cover the collapsing infrastructure, unstable politics and declining democracy in these vast provinces. We bolstered our sports department by bringing on board some of the country's finest sports writers in Khanyiso Tshwaku, Njabulo Ngidi and Heinz Schenk. Courtesy of your subscription, we could send Khanyiso to Paris for the duration of the Rugby World Cup (hard life, I know!) and Heinz to track the Proteas at the Cricket World Cup in India. As we move closer to the watershed 2024 national and provincial elections, News24's politics team will be your eyes and ears on the road and in the corridors of power. We will be vigilant to ensure elections are conducted fairly and free of political interference; we will tell you who the paymasters are behind the names and logos on the ballot, and we will grill the politicians about their visions and plans for fixing South Africa. Democracy cannot survive without a free and fearless press. As the largest and most trusted news brand in South Africa, we are committed to continue shining a light on dark places. We are in this together, because we are all #TeamSouthAfrica. Kind regards, Adriaan