By Charles Lee Mathews. The architecture of South African media is fragmenting, opening up opportunities for a new ecosystem driven by youth entrepreneurship. But this is not happening in isolation. Global holding companies are seeking to play an active structural role in stabilising the sector.
In an interview with MarkLives MEDIA, Merissa Himraj, client president South Africa at WPP Media, framed this responsibility in structural terms. “Global brands and media companies dominate the landscape, and so have an important role to play in ensuring the sustainability of the media ecosystem, even as this is evolving,” Himraj said. *
Blended value creation
Rather than traditional supplier relationships, Himraj pointed to models that create shared value and long-term incentives. “A fixed percentage investment into small to medium-sized (media) enterprises will change the game,” she said. “I think having a stake in anything, no matter how small, means a vested interest in that entity succeeding.”
She suggested that more formalised partnerships between established players and emerging media businesses could be key to unlocking that value. “Having an 18-month rotation would allow more SMEs to have a chance at being in a business incubator,” she said.
While no formal programme has been confirmed, Himraj noted that there is strong intent within the industry to support small businesses, with future initiatives likely to take shape as leadership priorities evolve.
To understand why external support is needed, it helps to understand what broke. According to Alastair Otter, Media Hack Collective co-founder and editor at The Outlier, the sector is still grappling with the collapse of the “scarcity model”.
Media’s sea change
“Right now, we have no idea what the next generation of media looks like, but we do know it doesn’t look like that of ten years ago. We also know that ‘traditional’ media is facing huge challenges and undergoing change. What we do need to do is encourage new players to enter the market to extend the range of voices available to readers and media consumers,” Otter said.
The root of the problem, Otter says, is structural.
“There are many problems with the business of media, but the primary business model problem is the easy availability of news and media,” Otter explained. “Traditionally, news media relied on scarcity and monopoly. When media were hard and costly to produce and distribute, having an audience to present to advertisers was hugely valuable. Scarcity also meant that readers had to pay to access the information.
“Today, there is no scarcity. Readers are able to access most of the information they need at little or no cost, and individual producers often command larger audiences than institutions, making them attractive to advertisers. Individual creators also have significantly lower overhead than the cost of running an entire newsroom.” This inversion has exposed the fragility of legacy revenue streams.
The subscription trap
“The other problem the media faces today is largely financial and is a combination of subscriptions and advertising,” Otter said. “On the subscription side, most publishers are selling low-priced subscriptions because that is what they have always done, and it also feels required by current industry standards. But low-priced subscriptions are premised on large audiences, which very few publishers have today. If you look at the most recent ABC numbers, circulations are often a fraction of what they were ten years ago.”
At the same time, the advertising moat has dried up.
“Advertising is dwindling because, first, audience sizes are massively reduced in many cases, and second, potential advertisers no longer require traditional publishers to distribute their message: they can do this internally or partner with individual creators, often to greater effect. It’s difficult to say exactly how the business model should change, but it does look like the media needs to reinvent itself entirely.”
The youth dividend
That disruption is exactly where the opportunity for youth entrepreneurs sits. Young creators, free of legacy costs and newsroom structures, are well-placed to take advantage.
“There is very definitely an opportunity for youth entrepreneurs now. With the monopoly on media distribution eliminated, anyone is in a position to ‘become media’. What is required is the ability to understand your audience and provide the information they need,” Otter said.
He argues that cultural fluency is now a competitive advantage.
“Many younger entrepreneurs have insights into culture and traditions among people their age that long-standing journalists don’t. They are often also more aware of how to talk to younger audiences. Younger entrepreneurs are also more likely to understand the challenges younger people are facing.”
Make content useful
“New media is about helping the audience improve their lives, understand things better and make an impact; it’s not just about news provision. Youth entrepreneurs have an opportunity to disrupt traditional media through the use of new platforms and new approaches,” Otter said.
However, agility does not guarantee longevity.
“Rather than dismissing small entrepreneurs as lesser forms of media, we should be opening up ways for them to learn from established media, and for us to learn from them,” he said.
“One of the challenges we are seeing is that many individual creators are able to grow an audience successfully and often produce significant revenue. But sustainability is a challenge, and burnout for small operations is real. In encouraging young entrepreneurs, we should also be encouraging them to build around sustainability early on: how to build a team, how to make enough money for an entire team, rather than just focusing on short-term success,” Otter added.
Unlocking the township economy
The opportunity, though, is not evenly distributed. For those working outside major urban centres, structural barriers run deeper than the collapse of the scarcity model. For Shoeshoe Ntsoaki Qhu, CEO of the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA), the key growth lever is the “financial bridge” needed to formalise the township media economy.
“A sustainable financial bridge can be built by shifting investment in media away from a purely needs-based or grant-dependent approach towards funding models that prioritise business sustainability and growth. This includes blended finance, multi-year, revenue-linked funding, and structured support that allows young media enterprises time to build audiences and stable income streams,” Qhu said.
Research suggests that for township-based media entrepreneurs, the biggest barrier is not only capital, but proximity to networks where deals are made.
“There is often a misperception about the quality of township audiences and their disposable income, which discourages advertisers and agencies from engaging meaningfully with them. Township economies are active, diverse, and influential, yet they remain undervalued in formal media-buying decisions,” Qhu explained.
That bridge won’t be built by media alone.
“Public-private partnerships, where public institutions, development funders, and industry bodies have a responsibility to de-risk early stages, while private investors and advertisers are encouraged to recognise media as a viable economic sector, not only a social good. When we speak about media sustainability, advertisers and big business are often left out,” she said.
“There is a need to consider ring-fencing a portion of advertising spend for township- and community-based media, developing simplified contracting and payment systems suitable for small enterprises, and for developmental agencies to support community and small commercial media based in townships and rural areas, to ensure that these businesses are sustainable,” she noted.
A media ecosystem without gatekeepers
As business models are rewritten, the ethical framework is also under strain. The decentralisation of media has created a “wild west” of content, made worse by the rapid rise of generative AI.
“Many senior journalists have lost their jobs due to the influx of social media and the digitisation of news. Now with AI, it will not get any better,” said Glenda Daniels, professor of media studies at Wits University.
Daniels warned that the collapse of the gatekeeper model has consequences for public discourse.
“I would describe the media ecosystem, which contains social media, podcasts, bloggers and influencers, as difficult to negotiate and navigate, as here there is opinion mixed up with some fact, misinformation, disinformation, political propaganda and also hate speech such as misogyny, racism, xenophobia and homophobia. It’s a messy and fluid space in South Africa, much like everywhere else in the world, as social media and digitisation are borderless and unregulated.”
The solution, she argues, is not to stifle new voices but to standardise the rules of engagement.
“There needs to be one big umbrella media code of ethics which encompasses all — broadcast, social media, print and everyone — so that there is some common standard of ethics,” Daniels said.
Despite the risks, she maintains that a broader ecosystem is non-negotiable.
“Diversity in media is good for democracy. For giving people a voice. For kick-starting sluggish economies and creating employment,” Daniels said, adding that training media people on business could help guard against failure. She said that business and government “could encourage more community and local radio stations and train people on small business development and how to start and sustain a business.”
Could legislation reset the media economy?
Qhu goes further, arguing that structural change ultimately requires legislative intervention — not just to govern content, but to actively redistribute power within the sector.
“If I were to draft a Media Innovation Bill for South Africa, I would focus on regulation that actively promotes local media entrepreneurship through the development of South African-owned media platforms,” she said.
“This regulation would link platform development to dedicated innovation funding, ensuring that resources are specifically allocated to support youth-led media enterprises in building, owning, and scaling their own distribution platforms. The objective would be to reduce over-reliance on global platforms, strengthen local ownership and control, and create sustainable pathways for innovation within the media sector.”
Opportunity without support is not enough
The era of scarcity-driven profits is over, and the safety net of traditional employment is fraying. The opportunity for youth entrepreneurs is real — particularly for those able to navigate both the township and the digital economies.
But talent alone is not enough. Without structural support, the next generation of voices risks burning out before it can fully transform the media ecosystem.
* Correction (19 March 2026): Sections of this feature quoting Merissa Himraj have been updated to clarify that no formal media incubator programme has been confirmed by WPP Media.
Charles Lee Mathews is a senior editor to MarkLives MEDIA and a senior writer to MarkLives.com, as well as co-founder of The Writers, a writing consultancy.
