Digital platforms and revenue generation strategies adopted by Zimbabwean mainstream news publishers

The advent of digital platforms has been associated with the unprecedented disruption of traditional news business models and doomsday prophecies signalling the death of mainstream news publishers. Based on interviews with journalists, marketing personnel, media managers, and media proprietors in Zimbabwe, this article examines the revenue generation and monetisation strategies adopted by mainstream news publishers in the age of platformisation of news production and distribution. It also explores the challenges news publishers face in an economy characterised by hyperinflation, low purchasing power, and stiff competition for advertising revenue. Results show that digital platforms such as X, YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok, and Instagram have become indispensable to news publishers’ routines of producing and distributing news to audiences. Yet, these media organisations struggle to develop sustainable business models to monetise their news work on these platforms. Data also revealed that most social media platforms do not offer meaningful revenue-sharing partnerships to news publishers, exacerbating these organisations’ economic vulnerabilities. It was found that for broadcasters, YouTube offers modest revenue-sharing opportunities, which are insufficient to sustain their daily operations. The findings conclude that in Zimbabwe, digital platforms have no meaningful revenue-sharing partnerships with news organisations. As a result, mainstream news publishers are forced to rely on traditional revenue streams like advertising, subscriptions, paywalls, and licensing fees. But in a struggling economy, these sources are unstable, inconsistent, and highly unpredictable, resulting in an unhealthy media industry in the country.