Novus Group

What Novus Group does

Novus Group (Pty) Ltd is a Johannesburg-headquartered, founder-owned media monitoring and analysis company serving corporate communications, PR, and brand-marketing teams across South Africa, Mauritius, and select international clients. Founded in 2014 by Joe Hamman (who also founded the long-running News Monitor service in 2003), the company monitors approximately 3,500 print sources, 205 broadcast stations, one million online sources, six major social media platforms, roughly 190 million blogs, and over 65,000 message boards and forums. Its product portfolio spans Print Media Monitoring, Broadcast Media Monitoring (TV and Radio), Online Media Monitoring, Social Media Monitoring, Analysis Reports, the News Monitor research database, Sponsorship Monitoring, the Press Bulletin portal, a mobile app, and Telegram alerts.

The platform is built on proprietary technology that constitutes the company's principal technical differentiator. Its in-house Speech-to-Text engine, claimed at up to 95% accuracy with Afrikaans and English dictionaries, supports blanket broadcast monitoring across television and radio without schedule limitations. A custom OCR pipeline extracts articles from scanned print publications, and a proprietary search engine crawls global online news. Clients access monitoring data through a web-hosted dashboard with advanced search, exporting (PDF, Excel, Word, CSV), charting, and customizable AVE and sentiment reports, supplemented by Standard and Premium Content Analysis performed by human specialists.

Novus Group operates a sales-led, subscription-based, quote-priced model delivered primarily through direct sales and dedicated account managers. Annual contracts are tailored to client-specified keyword scope, channels (print, broadcast, online, social), and reporting requirements. The firm is privately held, has 51–100 employees, and runs a virtual post-COVID operating model with a centralised telephone presence. Named clients include MTN, SAP, Discovery, British American Tobacco, Mazars, ByDesign, Blank Page Communications, and The Lime Envelope. No external funding rounds have been disclosed and the company has remained independent and founder-led.

Name

Novus Group

Legal name

Novus Group (Pty) Ltd

Website

https://novusgroup.co.za

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Novus Group is a Johannesburg-based, founder-owned media monitoring and analysis company providing proprietary cross-channel coverage of print, broadcast, online, and social media for corporate communications, PR, and sponsorship-tracking clients in South Africa and beyond.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Media Monitoring Software

NAICS

Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910), Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services (5418)

SIC

Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation (7374), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Content Aggregation, Curation & RSS Platforms (BPAMAJAI)

Keywords

• Media monitoring services
• Print media monitoring
• Broadcast monitoring
• Social media monitoring
• Media intelligence platform

Headquarters

HQ city

Gauteng

HQ country

South Africa

HQ region

Africa

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Media Monitoring Services Subscription: Novus Group generates revenue primarily through subscription-based media monitoring services. Clients receive ongoing monitoring across print, broadcast, online, and social media platforms with customizable keyword tracking, email alerts, dashboard access, and analysis reports. Pricing is customized per client based on services selected and monitoring scope.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Novus Group is a South African media monitoring and analysis company that delivers subscription-based monitoring across print, broadcast (TV and radio), online, and social media channels, supported by proprietary Speech-to-Text, OCR, and search engine technology. Its core sellable offerings include Print Media Monitoring, Broadcast Media Monitoring, Online Media Monitoring, Social Media Monitoring, Analysis Reports, the News Monitor historical database, and Sponsorship Monitoring, delivered through a web-hosted dashboard, mobile app, and Telegram alerts for corporate clients and agencies.

Product overview

Novus Group is a South African media monitoring company offering a comprehensive platform of monitoring services across print, broadcast, online, and social media channels. The portfolio includes Print Media Monitoring, Broadcast Media Monitoring (TV/Radio), Online Media Monitoring, and Social Media Monitoring as core products, supplemented by Analysis Reports (Standard and Premium Content Analysis), News Monitor database, and Sponsorship Monitoring services. Additional delivery and access modules include the Novus Group Press Bulletin portal, Mobile App, Telegram Alerts, and a web-based Client Dashboard. The company processes data from approximately 3,500 print sources, 205 broadcast sources, 1,000,000 online sources, and social platforms covering 190 million blogs and 65,000+ forums.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• The News Monitor: A comprehensive multi-publication SA print media database comprising a research facility coupled with a daily email alert system, sourced from mainstream print media coverage in South Africa.
• Novus Group Press Bulletin

Products and services

• Print Media Monitoring Subscription-based monitoring of traditional print publications as well as digital publications, using proprietary OCR technology to identify and extract relevant articles based on client keywords for delivery via the dashboard and email alerts.
• Broadcast Media Monitoring (TV and Radio) Subscription-based monitoring of television and radio stations using in-house Speech-to-Text technology across approximately 205 broadcast sources, supporting Afrikaans, English and Afrikaans/English dictionaries with blanket monitoring independent of broadcast schedules.
• Online Media Monitoring Subscription-based monitoring of online news and editorial platforms via a proprietary search engine, covering approximately one million online sources globally.
• Social Media Monitoring Subscription-based monitoring of X, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, approximately 190 million blogs, and over 65,000 message boards and forums, with customisable keyword alerts and sentiment insight.
• Analysis Reports Analysis reports ranging from basic to in-depth where articles are read and analysed by specialists for tone, sentiment, and topic, available as Standard and Premium Content Analysis products for corporate clients and agencies.
• News Monitor Comprehensive multi-publication South African print media database providing a research facility coupled with a daily email alert system, containing approximately 1.5 million articles sourced from daily and weekly newspapers, community papers, and trade magazines from January 2005 to present.
• Sponsorship Monitoring Systematic tracking, evaluation and analysis of corporate sponsorships, particularly sports events, including logo visibility, stadium and field sponsorship analysis, brand exposure measurement, audience engagement metrics, and financial outcomes reporting for sponsorship ROI.
• Novus Group Press Bulletin Public-facing content hub portal that aggregates and publishes clients' latest press releases, accessible to media and the broader public as an integrated information resource.
• Novus Group Mobile App Dedicated mobile application that delivers time-sensitive media monitoring alerts and content directly to client mobile devices, enabling on-the-go access to monitored media items.
• Telegram Alerts Instant notification service delivered via Telegram that pushes relevant media alerts to clients based on specified keywords and selected media sources for real-time awareness.
• Client Dashboard Interactive, web-hosted client dashboard that carries all monitored media items, with advanced search, export to PDF/Excel/Word/CSV, charting, responsive design, and customisable AVE reports accessible at any time via the internet.

Quantifiable outcome

• Speech-to-Text accuracy of up to 95% for broadcast monitoring
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability7 records

Feature6 records

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Brandwatch: Consumer intelligence platform with deep social media monitoring and analytics capabilities. Competes with Novus on social listening, sentiment, and dashboard-based delivery for brand and PR teams.
• Critical Mention: Broadcast and online media monitoring platform with strong TV/radio monitoring capabilities. Comparable to Novus on the broadcast monitoring core offering and PR customer segment.
• Cision: US-headquartered PR software and media intelligence platform offering media monitoring, distribution, and analytics. Closely aligned with Novus on broadcast/print/online monitoring and PR-focused customer base.
• Talkwalker: AI-powered consumer intelligence and social listening platform covering social, online news, broadcast, and print. Direct competitor on the social listening and sentiment analysis use cases Novus sells.
• Signal AI: AI-driven media monitoring and reputation intelligence platform focused on PR and communications use cases. Closely comparable on the AI-augmented analysis and enterprise PR positioning.
• Meltwater: Global leader in media monitoring and social listening serving enterprise PR and communications teams. Direct competitor across print, broadcast, online, and social media monitoring with overlapping customer use cases.
• BurrellesLuce: Established US media monitoring company covering print, broadcast, online, and social with curated analysis. Comparable operating model combining automated monitoring with human editorial analysis.

Regional players

• Determ: Africa- and Australia-focused media monitoring and broadcast intelligence provider. Most direct regional competitor to Novus in the African market with comparable broadcast monitoring specialization.

Broad incumbents

• Sprinklr: Enterprise customer experience platform with strong social media monitoring and listening modules. Competes in adjacent layer of the same PR/communications technology stack but is a broader platform.
• Hootsuite: Social media management platform with integrated monitoring, listening, and analytics features. Overlaps with Novus on the social media monitoring module within a much broader offering.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/Novus_Group_Ltd
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/novus-group-pty-ltd
• Facebookfacebook.com/profile.php

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Novus Group