With as many as one in four South Africans getting their news from individuals rather than organisations, a report looks at these people to understand how they fit into a changing media landscape.

News media in South Africa are staring down the barrel of an existential threat, and the bullet has already been fired. Many legacy brands that we know and still, despite everything, trust, will almost certainly disappear in the next few years.

This won't be news (sic) to you, but people who care about being informed, and who realise how fundamental a functioning free press is to the survival of open societies like ours, will be wondering, what comes next?

What comes next is already here. As of September 2024, about one in four people in South Africa get news from individuals rather than organisations. A recent report from the US-based Center for News, Technology and Innovation (CNTI), in collaboration with Code for Africa (CfA), looks at these individuals, variously termed "news creators" and/or "indie info providers" (and more on those terms later).

The report is entitled "South Africa indie info providers: responding to resource constraints with creativity and collaboration" and has some interesting insights gleaned from a survey of 43 "content producers", and in-depth interviews with 18 of those.

The aim of the report? To understand the backgrounds of news creators, their motivations, relationships with their audiences,...