Six months ago, Our City News launched as a news outlet ‘for the people of Joburg’. Its mission is to spotlight the City of Johannesburg, probe what is going wrong, what is going right and what this means for cities. The voices of ‘Johannesburgers’ are “front and centre”.
As a project of the Henry Nxumalo Foundation, Our City News runs a non-profit newsroom. In six months, says executive director of the Henry Nxumalo Foundation, Anton Harber, it has “published 112 stories, all with visuals, and 21 videos by our Joburg Speaks team of young video journalists.
“These appeared in multiple outlets, including Sunday Times, The Citizen, News24, Daily Maverick, Sowetan and EWN. We have built our website and newsletter and developed a social media presence. In fact, we recently hit a high note when one of our TikTok videos of the water protests got 1.6 million views.”
It’s an irony of the modern media age that for-profit news platforms are able to use non-profit Our City News’ content at no cost. “Stories are provided at no charge, because frankly, few newsrooms are able to pay for it. We are starting now to try and build sponsorships to generate revenue,” Harber explains.
New media model
Of course, they needed backers to who shared their Let’s Fix Joburg vision “and were prepared to experiment with us on a new media model”, says Harber.
“Fortunately, business is seeing the importance that good, local coverage can play in addressing the City’s issues. We were very fortunate that Asisa (Association of Savings and Investment SA) gave us the seed money.
“And then the key was building a strong team, which I believe is the source of our strength. Good journalism is the foundation!”
As Harber says, the aim of Our City News is to “get as diverse an audience of Joburgers as possible. This is a new and different media model, so we are trying different things to see what works”.
Joburg Speaks
To do this, Our City News employs five journalists – two senior, “two less senior” and seasoned editor Sbu Ngalwa. Through its Joburg Speaks project, Our City News was able to recruit 20 graduates for training as video journalists with a specific brief of amplifying the voices of Joburgers, says Harber.
“We kept them in a classroom for a few days of basic training, and then sent them out on jobs under close supervision and mentoring. You can see their work on our You Tube channel. We now employ four of them on our team, full-time. So you can see that nurturing new, younger voices is very much part of our mission,” he says.
He adds, “They are all graduates, though with different degrees and different levels of video skills. Some of them had been dabbling in content creation, but we are converting them into fully-fledged journalists. We were amazed at the quality of their work; they also injected different, fresh perspectives into our operation.”
Six months in, what have they gleaned about what Joburgers are interested in?
What NOT to cover
“It is early days, so we are still trying different things. Naturally, people are keen to know about issues impacting their daily lives, such as water and potholes.
“And they are particularly keen to read about those who are doing something about it, whether they are organising their communities, protesting or rolling up their sleeves to fix it themselves. But this is a big city with lots happening, so our toughest issue is what NOT to cover,” Harver says.
While the journalists were out covering their beat, Harber and Ngalwa set out to make contacts and spread the word about the project.
“Sbu Ngalwa, the editor-in-chief, and I met or communicated with the editors and they were enthusiastic from the get-go. They all suffer from shrunken newsroom syndrome, and recognised the gaps in their local coverage, so they were keen to get the copy,” Harber says.
The complete package
“We deliver a complete edited package – with pics, videos and graphics – to make it as smooth as possible for them. One thing I have noticed is that some outlets are doing more City coverage themselves – so I think our work is having a run-on effect.”
Our City News is a start-up, one testing a new model of journalism. It is up, it is running, but where to ultimately?
“This year is dedicated to building audience and cultivating different revenue sources,” Harber responds. “Clearly, the local government elections will be a major story, and we will push hard to ensure Joburgers can make informed, thoughtful decisions on how to fix the City.
“If we make an impact in Joburg, this model can be expanded to other cities”
