Sanef proposes Journalism Sustainability Fund to Business Leadership SA

Source: © Pexels Pexels Sanef recently proposed its Journalism Sustainability Fund to Business Leadership SA reports Media24

Reported by News24 which states that the meeting was attended by Naspers, Discovery, Capitec, Nedbank, Old Mutual, Remgro, Hollard, Bowmans, TFG (Foschini), Allan Gray, Unilever, BDO SA, MultiChoice, AB InBev, Momentum, MTN, and the Minerals Council SA, along with several other BLSA members.

Sanef has been investigating different mechanisms to support journalism for at least two years and News24reports that Sanef’s chair Nwabisa Makunga confirmed the planned fund to them.

"We firmly believe that, notwithstanding our industry challenges, the work of journalism in this country is a public good," says Makunga.

"Be it investigative journalism, community media and the daily information ecosystem, we believe it cannot be left to the vulnerabilities of ever-changing revenue models."

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Intervention to safeguard public interest journalism

In the article, Makunga expresses Sanef’s deep concern for the financial state of SA media in general.

This, he says, is evidenced by the shutting down of several newsrooms and publications as well as constant retrenchments of journalists and media practitioners due to revenue challenges across the journalism landscape.

"As such, we decided to make and support various interventions to safeguard public interest journalism and to promote access to information.

“The Journalism Sustainability Fund, which we are in the process of establishing, is one such intervention.

“It is modelled along similar funds in various parts of the world aimed at supporting journalism,” says Makunga in the article.

The fund will aid with the loss of newsrooms and publications but also produce public-interest journalism.

“This is to help those that produce public interest journalism, and which subscribe to ethical regulatory bodies such as the Press Council and the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of SA (BCCSA),” states the Media24 article.

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R100m capital targeted for first year

To access the fund, companies will have to show their financial needs as well as a commitment to diversity in media.

A pilot of the fund, he says, will be launched in early 2025.

While the article says Makunga declined to disclose how much the fund planned to raise, News24 “understands that Sanef is targeting an R100m capital raise for the JSFund in its first year”.

The proposed structure of the fund would include an oversight board, a fund manager and a funding committee.

The fund manager would be responsible for the JSFund's daily operations, while the funding committee would make decisions on the selection of grant recipients, based on the strength of their applications and funding criteria.

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Sanef is approaching corporates and philanthropic organisations to support the fund.

While it has not approached the government, the Forum states in the News24 article that it” strongly encourages it to promote independent media sustainability in various other ways, including through advertising revenue, support of community media through available avenues, and the promotion of access to public interest information”.