The Digital News Transformation Fund (DNTF) has awarded grants to 21 independent publishers in its first funding round, committing R10.5 million to support their digital transformation. The cohort spans legacy community titles, newer digital start-ups and niche outlets across all nine provinces, offering an early view of where South Africa’s independent media is heading.
“South Africa’s independent publications are closest to the communities they serve and best positioned to understand what digital innovation their audiences need. These grants empower smaller newsrooms to experiment, take risks, and build the digital capacity essential for their survival and growth in a rapidly changing media landscape”, Vincent Maher, DNTF Co-Chair.
Projects in this cohort reflect the depth and diversity of South Africa’s independent media sector. They include Currency, an explanatory journalism platform helping audiences make sense of the economy in English, isiZulu and isiXhosa; Grocott’s Mail, which is transforming a 155-year-old newspaper into a digital, community-centred newsroom and innovation lab; Stokvel Talk, building a financial-literacy content and podcast hub around the country’s savings groups; and the Queens Town Innovation & News Hub, which integrates a local newsroom with connectivity and essential digital services for surrounding villages. Collectively, these projects demonstrate a sector that is intentionally multilingual, committed to audio and low-data formats, and firmly rooted in advancing youth development, education, small-business growth and financial inclusion.
Across the 21 projects, community titles are moving from a minimal web presence to genuinely digital-first operations. Longstanding papers such as the Kokstad Advertiser, The Olifants News, Winelands Echo, Highveld Chronicle, and Thaba Chweu News are investing in mobile-friendly sites, newsletters, podcasts, video, and data-driven audience insights, rather than treating digital as an afterthought.
Local language journalism is emerging as a deliberate growth strategy rather than a side-project. Outlets, including Currency, Inkundla Yezindaba, BT News, The Informer, Indaba News & Meer, The Sports Eye News, and others, are publishing in combinations of isiZulu, isiXhosa, Afrikaans, Sesotho, and English to deepen their reach in communities historically underserved by mainstream, English-dominant media.
Formats are also shifting, several grantees are investing in podcasts, short explainer videos, livestreams and WhatsApp-based news updates, with many products designed as low-data services. This reflects the reality that for township and rural audiences, news is often accessed via prepaid data and entry-level smartphones, not uncapped fibre.
A number of projects are deliberately linking journalism with education, money and small business. Youth-focused outlets are working in schools and local sports structures, business-oriented initiatives are building content and services around stokvels, SMMEs and township entrepreneurs. Many publishers in the cohort are testing memberships, clubs, events, and archive licensing as part of their revenue mix, while implementing POPIA compliance, basic data-security practices, and early guardrails for the responsible use of AI in their newsrooms.
“The first cohort gives us a clear, data-backed picture of how independent publishers are adapting to digital realities. We are seeing deliberate investment in multi-lingual content, mobile-first products and audience-centred newsroom practices. The proposed microgrant tier will strengthen this momentum by ensuring that even the smallest newsrooms can take their first steps into sustainable digital operations” – Marietta Lombard, DNTF Board Member.
The first DNTF call for applications attracted 164 proposals, with funding requests totalling almost R163 million. Proposals were assessed by an independent adjudication committee of sector experts against criteria that included public-interest value, audience focus, digital innovation and sustainability, before being submitted to the DNTF Board for final approval.
Insights from this process have informed a proposal for a new micro-grant tier targeting very small and early-stage publishers with limited or no digital presence. The proposed micro-grants would focus on foundational needs, such as website setup, hosting, content management systems, and entry-level digital skills. If approved, the tier is expected to bring an additional 15 to 20 publishers into each funding call and extend digital transformation funding to the smallest community and independent newsrooms. The micro-grant tier is designed to complement the existing Build, Grow, and Engage tiers by creating a pipeline of smaller newsrooms that can later undertake more ambitious digital projects. Full details will be announced once the proposal process is complete.
All approved projects remain subject to the finalisation and signing of contracts. As the next step, publishers will join a kick-off workshop that will guide them through the reporting process, outline requirements, and provide support throughout contracting and onboarding.
The DNTF would like to express its sincere gratitude to the Adjudicating Committee members,Google and the DNTF Board for their continued commitment and guidance over this period and for the next 2 years.
For more information, visit: https://dntfund.org.za/
