The Witness

What The Witness does

The Witness is a digital-first daily newspaper and news platform based in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Founded in 1846, it is one of South Africa's oldest continuously-published daily newspapers and is wholly owned by Caxton & CTP Printers and Publishers Ltd, a diversified South African media conglomerate. The publication employs 11-50 staff and operates under the Caxton local newspaper network alongside sister community titles including Maritzburg Sun, Public Eye, Village Talk, The Hilton Newspaper, and Greytown Gazette.

The product portfolio centers on the witness.co.za news website and includes a digital e-edition platform, a daily print newspaper subscription service, WitnessTV (podcasts and video content), online classifieds, lottery results, and puzzles. The underlying technology is a CMS-based digital news platform with social media distribution across Facebook, X, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp, plus Google Preferred Source integration for organic search visibility. The portfolio is unified under The Witness masthead with all digital properties feeding the main content platform.

Revenue is generated through three streams: print and digital (e-edition) subscriptions on annual billing, display advertising and sponsored content on owned and social channels, and classified/transaction-fee revenue from the online marketplace. Pricing is not publicly disclosed. The primary customer segment is local readers in the KwaZulu-Natal province, with secondary reach to general South African news consumers seeking local, national, and international coverage.

Name

The Witness

Legal name

Caxton & CTP Printers and Publishers Ltd

Website

https://witness.co.za

Company type

Private

Founded year

1846

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Witness is a 180-year-old digital-first daily newspaper based in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, serving local KZN readers with print, e-edition, multimedia, and classifieds products under Caxton & CTP Printers and Publishers Ltd.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Pietermaritzburg

HQ country

South Africa

HQ region

Africa

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Subscription Revenue: The newspaper generates revenue through print and digital (e-edition) subscriptions. The site promotes both 'Subscribe Now' for print editions and 'e-Edition' for digital access.
2. Advertising Revenue: The platform monetizes its digital audience through display advertising and sponsored content on its website and social media channels.
3. Classifieds and Promotions: Revenue generated from classified advertisements and promotional features including competitions and special content sections.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

The Witness is a daily newspaper and digital-first news platform serving KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, founded in 1846. It publishes local, national, and international news in both print and e-edition formats, complemented by multimedia (podcasts, video), online classifieds, lottery results, puzzles, and a network of community newspaper titles.

Product overview

The Witness is a digital-first news platform and daily newspaper operating as a single unified offering with supplementary digital products. The core product is the witness.co.za news website delivering local KZN, national, and international news coverage. This is supported by ePaper/e-Edition digital replicas of print editions, a print subscription service, WitnessTV multimedia content (including podcasts and video), an online classifieds marketplace, lottery results service, and puzzles. The company also operates the Capital Newspapers network of community newspaper brands. The portfolio is unified under the The Witness masthead with no modular platform architecture—all products feed into the main news and content platform.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Witness 180: Special 180th anniversary branding and celebration of The Witness newspaper.

Products and services

• The Witness Digital News Website (witness.co.za) Primary digital-first news platform delivering local KZN, national, and international news coverage in article, video, and multimedia formats for general readers in South Africa.
• Witness E-Edition / ePaper Digital replica editions of the print newspaper accessible online, including regional publications such as Echo Eyethu, Golden Horse Sprint Carnival, Msun, Public Eye, Village Talk, The Hilton, and Greytown Gazette.
• Print Edition Subscription Physical daily newspaper subscription delivering the print edition to subscribers in KwaZulu-Natal.
• WitnessTV Podcasts and Multimedia Video and podcast content platform providing news video clips, multimedia coverage, and audio content including podcasts.
• Capital Newspapers Network Network of local community newspapers including Maritzburg Sun, Public Eye, Village Talk, The Hilton Newspaper, and Greytown Gazette, operated under the Caxton group alongside The Witness.
• Online Classifieds Digital classified advertising marketplace covering employment, vehicles, property, and general listings.

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• uMgungundlovu Economic Development Agency (Umeda)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 8 January 2026Umeda and The Witness newspaper signed a one-year memorandum of understanding to promote investor confidence, economic development, and job creation in the uMgungundlovu district. Umeda recently achieved a clean audit for the 2025 financial year, highlighted as an inspiring milestone for the municipality. The partnership aims to boost economic growth and business development in the region through joint initiatives.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• News24: South Africa's largest digital news platform, operated by Media24. Directly comparable as a multi-platform (web, app, video) South African news publisher competing for the same digital advertising and subscription dollars, though at national scale.
• The Citizen: Sister publication within the Caxton & CTP network. Comparable as a Caxton-owned South African daily newspaper with national coverage and digital presence; its inclusion on The Witness's website footer highlights internal network partnership.
• Sowetan: Established South African regional/national newspaper with a digital edition. Comparable as a legacy South African newspaper brand navigating print-to-digital transition, serving a defined audience segment with subscription and advertising revenue.
• Eyewitness News (EWN): Primedia's South African digital news platform with strong multimedia (video, audio) presence. Comparable as a digital-first South African news brand competing for audience attention through multimedia and breaking news.
• Daily Maverick: Digital-first South African news publication with a strong subscription model and investigative journalism. Comparable as a digitally-native South African news brand competing for paying digital readers and advertisers, with similar multi-format content.
• TimesLIVE: Digital arm of the Sunday Times/Times Media group. Comparable as a South African national news website offering breaking news, opinion, and lifestyle content with subscription and advertising revenue models.
• IOL (Independent Online): Independent Media's flagship digital news property. Comparable as a South African news website offering national and regional coverage with digital subscriptions and advertising, competing for the same KZN and broader SA audience.
• Maritzburg Sun: Wholly-owned community newspaper within The Witness's Capital Newspapers network. Comparable as a Pietermaritzburg-area local newspaper operating under the same KZN community-journalism model.
• Mail & Guardian: Established South African weekly newspaper with a digital subscription offering. Comparable as a legacy South African news brand that has transitioned to digital subscriptions, providing a model for digital conversion that The Witness is pursuing.

Broad incumbents

• Netwerk24: Media24's Afrikaans-language digital news platform. Comparable as a major South African subscription-based digital news property, though targeting Afrikaans readers; a useful proxy for digital subscription benchmarks in the SA market.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/WitnessKZN
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@TheWitnesskzn
• Facebookfacebook.com/WitnessKZN
• Instagraminstagram.com/thewitness_kzn
• TikToktiktok.com/@thewitness_kzn?lang=en
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-witness-newspaper

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries6 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 The Witness