South African City Press newspaper ends print version after 4 decades

South African City Press newspaper ends print version after 4 decades

By Mark Ogagan

After four decades of being a regular Sunday newspaper in South Africa, City Press is fully moving to the online platform and doing away with a print version.

According to the company, they have decided to end the print version of the paper to embrace the digital future and amplify the newspaper’s reach.

City Press printed their final edition on Sunday.

In the meantime, some of the staff are facing a new reality, and have expressed their feelings.

One said, “Since my first day here I’ve been preparing for this, it is s digital agent as much they want to stick to newspapers and want to feel income in their hands, this has been coming in a long time. It is not a much of a shift for me because I have been working on the digital side since joining.”

“It’s kind of exciting and sad moving away from print because we are used to getting the paper on Sunday and see your byline there,” said another.

“I’m old school, I grew up reading a newspaper, I want the feel and smell of it,” an old staff offered.

The newspaper was established in 1982 as the Golden City Press by James R. A. Bailey and the South African Associated Newspapers (SAAN) group. The following year, “Golden” was dropped from the newspaper’s name. SAAN later withdrew from its partnership with Bailey and the newspaper ran into financial difficulties.[citation needed]

Nasionale Pers took over the publication of the newspaper as well as its sister publications, Drum and True Love & Family, on 1 April 1984.

In June 2024, Moneyweb reported the newspaper would cease print in October. Media24 declined to comment. A month later, Media24 announced it will suspend the planned closure until the Competition Commission approves of its plan to sell newspaper distribution company On-The-Dot to Novus, which was the reason behind the paper’s planned shuttering.