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1,530 journalists in South Africa (September 2026)

1,530 journalists are on file in South Africa, 1.2% of the 127,602 on file. 506 are reporters and 490 are editors.

Source: JournalistLabs, September 2026

Updated 2026-09-15

1,530 Journalists on file
506 Reporters
490 Editors
0.97 Editors per reporter

South Africa has 0.97 editors on file for every reporter. Across the whole file it is 54,548 editors to 46,013 reporters. Source: JournalistLabs, September 2026.

Roles

RoleJournalistsShare in South Africa
Reporters 506 33.1%
Editors 490 32.0%
Anchors and presenters 417 27.3%
Correspondents 41 2.7%
News producers 40 2.6%
Other editorial 20 1.3%
Critics and reviewers 12 0.8%
Columnists 4 0.3%

Source: JournalistLabs, September 2026.

Beats

271 of the 1,530 journalists on file in South Africa carry a beat word in their title or headline. The shares below are of those titled rows.

BeatTitled journalistsShare of titled rows
Sports 93 34.3%
Politics 27 10.0%
Business 27 10.0%
Economics 16 5.9%
Finance and markets 16 5.9%
Entertainment 16 5.9%
Culture and arts 10 3.7%
Technology 10 3.7%
Science 8 3.0%
Foreign affairs 7 2.6%
Investigative 7 2.6%
Climate and environment 5 1.8%

A share is printed only when the country's titled rows reach 40. Source: JournalistLabs, September 2026.

Outlets in South Africa

OutletTypeJournalists in South AfricaAll journalists on file
SABC Broadcasters 1,021 1,043
ETV Broadcasters 103 333
SuperSport Broadcasters 89 116
Mail & Guardian Newspapers 45 48
Bloomberg Online outlets 18 1,785
News 24 Online outlets 14 104
The Times Newspapers 9 504
Wildearth Broadcasters 7 8
AFP Wire agencies 7 865
Broad Media Online outlets 6 6
team5pm Online outlets 6 18
Financial Mail Sa Newspapers 5 5
CNN Broadcasters 5 1,030
Content Lab Broadcasters 5 5
The Herald Newspapers 5 66
Reuters Wire agencies 5 710
Associated Press Wire agencies 4 1,057
24.Com Online outlets 3 4
BBC Broadcasters 3 3,935
Cornell Daily Sun Newspapers 3 83

Ranked by the journalists on file whose own profile is in South Africa, which is not the same as the outlet's country. Source: JournalistLabs, September 2026.

Cite this

JournalistLabs, 1,530 journalists in South Africa, September 2026, https://journalistlabs.com/journalists/country/south-africa/.

Base: 127,602 journalists on file. Method: https://journalistlabs.com/method/.

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