Time Media Group has announced that it will be launching a news wire service at the end of March 2015, around the time the South Africans Press Association (Sapa) is scheduled to close its doors.<\/p>\n
The news follows an announcement last week, that Naspers news group, Media24, would be launching its own news wire service in April.<\/p>\n
According to TMG, the newswire will be sold externally under the Rand Daily Mail brand as the RDM News Wire. The company’s print news team will provide copy for the wire, it said.<\/p>\n
The service will offer “by-the-minute coverage of breaking news from seven bureaus as well as from hubs covering parliament, sport, local government, business and the courts,” TMG said.<\/p>\n
The wire service will be managed by former Sunday Times editor, Ray Hartley, and edited by Juliette Saunders and Dominic Mahlangu, the group said.<\/p>\n
“We are going to get our top journalists involved and supplement this with a team of reporters who will chase the news,” said Hartley.<\/p>\n
TMG said that its news service will “serve the growing commercial demand for credible, independent and accurate news feeds,” as well as its own online publications and newspapers.<\/p>\n
On Friday, 5 March 2015, Media24\u2019s digital division, 24.com, announced that it will be launching a news wire service in April called News24Wire.<\/p>\n
The wire’s national reporting team consisting of 16 people is being built by veteran editor and News24 editor-in-chief, Andrew Trench, and will be a resource for the country\u2019s press, for free.<\/p>\n
The team will be led by Sapa\u2019s news editor Fienie Grobler, will provide breaking news from around the country, and the wire will be supplemented with copy from the Media24 stable.<\/p>\n
In February, the African News Agency (Ana) was the first newswire service to be established ahead of the Sapa closure.<\/p>\n
The group, headed by founding CEO Chris Borain, was established by Sekunjalo chairman, Iqbal Surve, and Pan African Business Forum executive chairman, Ladislas Agbesi, among others.<\/p>\n
Sapa announced in February that it would be liquidated as a non-profit company, and that it would close its doors on 31 March.<\/p>\n
Media24 to launch Sapa-replacement news service<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n