"The local coverage gap extends across all seven countries: Across the seven countries surveyed, coverage was concentrated at the national and international level, while hyperlocal and local reporting averaged just 5% of outlets—never exceeding 7% in any single country, and falling to just 3% in Kenya and Ghana. This gap holds even in countries with otherwise broad topical or geographic reach, pointing to a structural blind spot rather than a country-specific anomaly. Media outlets across the region appear built to serve national and global audiences, but not the information needs of specific towns, neighborhoods, or rural communities.
Publishing concentration in colonial languages: English is the primary publishing language for 64% of surveyed outlets, while French accounts for 28%. Indigenous African languages are far less represented. This suggests that many digital native outlets are positioned to reach national, urban, and educated audiences, but may be less accessible to communities that primarily use local languages. Expanding Indigenous-language digital media could help widen access to public-interest information and strengthen inclusion.
Women remain underrepresented in media leadership: Only 36% of surveyed organizations have at least one female founder. This points to continued barriers to women’s ownership and leadership in the digital media sector, especially when compared to other markets. This pattern matters because founding teams often shape the identity, editorial priorities, funding networks, and leadership culture of digital news organizations. In our previous research we found significantly higher representation in other regions, with at least one woman involved in starting 54% of surveyed media in Latin America and 58% in Europe; approximately 20% of ventures in those regions were started exclusively by women.
Most digital media operate as for-profit entities: For-profit organizations account for 64% of respondents, while nonprofit and hybrid models make up smaller but significant parts of the ecosystem. This reflects the importance of advertising, commercial services, and other market-based revenue sources. At the same time, the presence of hybrid and nonprofit models shows that many outlets are combining public-interest missions with multiple revenue streams. This is especially important in markets where advertising revenue is limited, donor funding is uncertain, or audiences have low willingness to pay for news.
A vibrant but unevenly resourced sector: Taken together, the findings show a sector that is vibrant, diverse, and increasingly influential, but also unevenly resourced. Digital news organizations are creating new spaces for public-interest journalism, civic engagement, cultural expression, and accountability reporting across the seven African countries analyzed. However, their growth is shaped by wider structural conditions, including internet access, mobile connectivity, regulatory pressure, press freedom, advertising markets, and the strength of legacy media. Supporting this ecosystem requires more than recognizing its growth. It requires investment in sustainability, leadership diversity, local-language innovation, digital safety, audience development, and enabling policy environments for independent journalism." (Executive summary, page 4)