Media24′s Afrikaans newspapers announce paywall, digital first strategy
Soon readers of the three Media24 Afrikaans language daily newspapers Die Burger, Beeld and Volksblad, will have to pay for the privilege to read news in their home language. They announced the arrival of a paywall, a new tablet app and the imminent arrival of new look websites for all three papers on their sites this morning. The paywalls will take effect as soon as the new websites come out of beta.
April 1, a day in which the mainstream media plays tricks on readers by publishing/broadcasting stories that ranges from the plausible but untrue to the improbable, and disguises fiction as news, is always an interesting alternative measure of media zeitgeist. Of course, post WMD and the Iraq war and Rupert Murdoch's incarnation of The Galactic Empire, the more cynical amongst us could be excused for feeling many news days offer little more than Ground Hog Day meeting April Fools.