The 2025 edition of State of the Newsroom takes a detailed look at the possible impact of artificial intelligence on the news in South Africa, what’s happening now, and the changes newsrooms will need to make.
We also ask media experts what they think the future holds for public interest journalism in the country, and look at the donor funding crises facing media initiatives.
> Click here to download the report.
Report editor Alan Finlay is joined by co-founder of The Continent Sipho Kings and founding director of Develop AI Paul McNally for the online launch.
“I think we’re nowhere near concerned enough about this moment [in journalism], and how AI is owned by very powerful people and companies that have a different incentive structure to us. We’re going into that world thinking that we can somehow shape it when we probably can’t. We’re not concerned enough about information integrity vanishing. The people who make the most money in this world benefit from that power dynamic. Most journalism is going to die in this decade; it’s accelerating. However, there are journalists and news leaders across the world who are obsessed by this issue. We will solve it – maybe in pockets, maybe in silos – and then scale that, because too many people need information. It is too valuable a resource not to supply it, and for there not to be a business model there.” — Sipho Kings.
Watch the full webinar below: