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Johannesburg - Media24 has launched a national Afrikaans news website, an amalgamation of news from four of its titles, it said on Thursday.
"Netwerk24 offers original, premium content, created by a national network of cross-platform journalists," newly-appointed editor Liesl Pretorius said.
"It services the affluent Afrikaans market and counts an established, paying subscriber base among its users."
The website was expected to attract a national Afrikaans audience of more than a million unique browsers.
The titles were Beeld, Die Burger, Volksblad, and Rapport.
It said because of the successful paywall strategy it had across Beeld, Die Burger and Volksblad, the paywall would remain at R99 a month.
Pretorius would not say how many subscribers Netwerk24 had. She said there had been positive reaction to the decision to charge for digital news.
"Netwerk24 is expected to reach more than 100 000 Afrikaans news consumers per day," she said.
"All current digital and print subscribers will have full access to the site."
The website was already producing original digital-only content and would increasingly do so.
From 1 October, when the newspapers' existing news sites would close, Netwerk24 would be updated continuously, Pretorius said.
