Media24 CEO Ishmet Davidson (left) and chief financial officer and the new interim CEO, Raj Lalbahadur. (Supplied/ Media24)
Ishmet Davidson will retire as CEO of Media24 and as a director, with effect from Monday next week, the company announced on Thursday.
Current chief financial officer, Raj Lalbahadur, has been appointed as interim CEO.
Davidson, who has been CEO since October 2018, will remain on as an advisor.
He joined the group in 2012 as head of community newspapers, becoming head of its news division two years later. The media distribution company On the Dot and Media24’s magazine division were later added to his responsibilities.
“Although I look forward to my retirement, I’m sad to be leaving Media24. The company has always been at the vanguard of exceptional journalism as well as business and media innovation, and able to adapt timeously to the ever-evolving media landscape,” Davidson said.
During his tenure as CEO, Ishmet has returned the company to financial stability while also steering the ship through very choppy waters, said Media24 chair, Prof Rachel Jafta.
“Some of the highlights include his outstanding leadership and management of the business during the Covid-19 pandemic, his commitment to establishing a sustainable business model for quality journalism in a digital landscape, and leading the charge against the devastating and unscrupulous onslaught of big tech on the very core of news publishers.”
READ | Google, not government, has brought SA media ‘to its knees’ – Media24 CEO
Davidson appeared before the Competition Commission earlier this year to argue that companies like Google have abused their market dominance to unfairly profit off of the news content produced by local publishers.
Lalbahadur joined Media24 in 2007 as CFO for Educor after previously working for the SA Revenue Service as well as in the petroleum and paper-manufacturing industries. After holding various positions in the group, he was appointed as its CFO last year.
“I am humbled and honoured by the board’s confidence in me. We find ourselves on the cusp of major transformation – not only for Media24, but the industry at large,” Lalbahadur said. Jafta said the recruitment process would start in “due course”, having regard for the immediate proposed restructuring priorities.
“Our main priorities at this stage are a smooth transition in the leadership without any disruption to operations, and managing the application for and ruling by the Competition Commission on the proposed restructure (sale of On the Dot, the community newspapers and Soccer Laduma/Kick Off to Novus, and the intended closures of the print newspapers – Beeld, City Press, Daily Sun and Rapport – and the digital hub SNL24).”
In June, Media24 announced a major restructuring that, at the time, would have resulted in up to 400 job losses due to years of declining advertising and circulation. The company is closing the print editions of Beeld, Rapport, City Press and Daily Sun, and will shut its SNL24 digital hub. The media group is also selling its media logistics business On the Dot, its community newspaper portfolio, and Soccer Laduma to Novus Holdings.
The company later announced that it would no longer retrench 66 journalists who create, process and package content for Beeld, Rapport, City Press and Daily Sun.
The On the Dot deal still needs to be given the go-ahead by the Competition Commission, which will investigate whether it is likely to “substantially lessen or prevent” competition in SA’s media market. This, however, does not stop the Section 189 process over retrenchments.
Media24 also owns brands like Huisgenoot, YOU, Jonathan Ball Publishers, and NB Publishers.
Through its digital news brands, including News24 and Netwerk24, it reached 9.1 million average daily unique page views in the year to end-March. During this period, Media24 saw its revenue fall by 7% in rand, reporting a trading profit of $1 million.
*News24 is part of Media24
