DispatchLIVE readership soars to dizzy new height

DispatchLIVE, the Daily Dispatch’s website, has enjoyed record popularity over the past two months, rising to become one of the most viewed news sites in the country, and affirming South Africans’ requirement for reliable and trustworthy news sources.

Before lockdown, the site’s best-ever performance was two million page views.

In March, as the demand for reliable, Covid-19 related news grew, DispatchLIVE’s traffic rose to 5.3 million page views and in April page views exceeded 13 million.

For much of this time, DispatchLIVE was among the most viewed news sites the country, surpassing many of the sites run by national news organisations and far outstripping the performance of other regional news outlets.

This growth came as the lockdown across SA forced a radical rethink of how to interact, do business and deliver essential services with many enterprises and state organs adopting an online-centric approach to reach consumers.

These included universities and schools, which have been exploring digital solutions to deliver education without the risks of direct personal contact.

While most newspapers have continued to print throughout the lockdown, and the circulation of the Dispatch has held up far better than many of its counterparts elsewhere in the country, many consumers opted to go online to seek news.

DispatchLIVE’s editor, Luke Charter, said it was fortunate that the Daily Dispatch had considerable digital news experience, being one of the first newspapers in SA to have embraced online media more than a decade ago.

However, the novel coronavirus pandemic had meant demands had accelerated far beyond initial expectations.

Daily Dispatch editor Chiara Carter said Covid-19 had meant editorial teams worked remotely, many from home, and interacted through a combination of online video calls and group chats to co-ordinate publishing a huge volume of content from around the world every day while still maintaining a strong local presence to cater for loyal local readers.

Carter pointed out that DispatchLIVE was publishing a wad of business news, especially important at a time when the effects of lockdown were battering the economy.

It was also publishing more news from the rest of the African continent, which was too often neglected by SA newsrooms even though SA  was a “melting pot of the African diaspora, with people from across the continent calling the country their home”.

Carter said that as the lockdown eased, along with maintaining its focus on the pandemic, the Dispatch would be posting more content dealing with financial and business advice, as well as think-pieces that explored the key issues of the day.

“Our hard work, made up of late nights, early mornings and the loss of any kind of weekend during the past few months has paid off, and DispatchLIVE has emerged as one of SA’s top-performing news websites,” Carter said.

“We’re embracing the new space and unlimited opportunity that online media and business affords us.

“Our readership is expanding at a frantic pace and we are constantly finding new ways to deliver more news, and faster. More readers are accessing more news online than ever before.”

Meanwhile print media in SA and across the world is under immense pressure. Last week Associated Media Publishing — the SA publisher of Cosmopolitan, House & Leisure, Women on Wheels and Good Housekeeping — closed down after 38 years in the industry.

Staff at several of SA’s largest media houses have had to take large pay cuts to allow the businesses to stay afloat. — DDR

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