Strong growth for University World News – Africa

Web analytics for the Africa edition of University World News has confirmed a steep upward trajectory in readership traffic recorded since 2018, in part due to it becoming a weekly publication a year ago.

The figures show that readership traffic to the Africa page has increased by 334% during the past three years.

Contributing factors include a revamp of the University World News website and the introduction of a mobile platform. In addition, the University World News – Africa (UWN Africa) newsletter became a weekly publication early in April 2020, at the time when COVID-19 started to affect every aspect of the higher education system in Africa, driving a surge in readership.

In fact, several of the most popular articles in 2020, in terms of the number of hits, focused on the consequences of COVID-19, notably online learning, campus closures and efforts to continue with the core tasks of higher education, including research.

As part of University World News, a publication with global reach that has also recorded significant growth, the African edition’s home page attracts substantial interest from outside Africa.

News from Africa as a region is not only consumed by readers on the continent. While 54% of the publication’s Africa edition home page readers are based in Africa, 24% come from the Americas, 15% from Europe, 6% from Asia and about 1% from Oceania.



Based on data drawn from Google Analytics, the number of users accessing UWN Africa has increased in all African regions, with West Africa – where users have increased from about 74,200 to 160,560 – recording the biggest shift.

Although traffic comes from across the continent, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana are the countries with the biggest number of UWN Africa readers. In several countries, including the top four, traffic doubled in 2020.

Subscribers

In addition to the general growth in traffic to UWN Africa, new subscriptions to the newsletter increased by 29% in 2020 and by more than 100% during the past three years. Subscribers include administrators, professors, researchers and students as well as deans and vice-chancellors.

UWN Africa subscription information confirms the analytical data in terms of where these readers are based. The largest number of subscribers come from the United States, South Africa, United Kingdom, Nigeria, China, Egypt, Hong Kong, Kenya and India.



Institutions where subscribers are based include leading universities such as the universities of Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Lagos, Makerere, Mauritius, Kenyatta, Addis Ababa, Zambia and Cape Coast (Ghana).

Growth factors

Three key factors have contributed to the African edition’s substantial growth: a website revamp with a lean, low-data, mobile-friendly view, publishing twice as often – once a week instead of fortnightly – and additional reader interest caused by our extensive coverage of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on African higher education.

Sharon Dell, editor of UWN Africa until October 2020, who spearheaded key changes, including the move to publishing the African edition weekly, said: “In mid-December 2018, University World News launched its new website which offered a sleeker, more modern interface for the publication.

“Even more importantly for the Africa edition was the fact that the new design offered a mobile-friendly platform for both the homepage and newsletters.

“Because a high proportion of readers in Africa access news via their cellphones, we anticipated a marked increase in readership from the continent. And we were not wrong. Readership numbers started to climb steadily, with a significant proportion of that growth coming from mobile phone readers.”

Becoming a weekly publication

Dell believed that the African edition was in a strong position to grow, but that it needed a clearer identity in relation to the University World News Global edition.

At the time, both editions were published on a Sunday morning, but the African edition only every second week.

“I was concerned that Africa might be losing out because subscribers of both editions were being overwhelmed with too much information,” said Dell.

At the time, a weekly Africa edition had been mooted, but there were concerns about the implications of a weekly production cycle on a small production team and the budget.

“With the advent of COVID-19, you could say that events simply overtook us,” she recalled.

In a matter of weeks, the face of higher education changed as closures of institutions, beginning in North Africa and spreading south, started to take effect and the debates about online learning – its challenges and possibilities – started to emerge.

“Renewed support from Carnegie Corporation of New York opened the door to a new chapter for University World News – Africa and, on 2 April 2020, we launched the first of our weekly Africa editions,” said Dell.

In addition to increasing the frequency of the publication, moving the day of publication to a weekday, Thursday, also contributed to readership growth. Analytical data shows more significant spikes on publication day after UWN Africa moved the publication of the bulk of its news to a Thursday.

With the help of a team of committed journalists across the continent, UWN Africa has valiantly continued to provide updates and insights on the impact of COVID-19 on the higher education sector across Africa.

In fact, one of UWN Africa’s journalists, the North African correspondent, Wagdy Sawahel, was named one of eight category winners in the inaugural African Labour Migration Reporting Awards in 2020.

Sawahel, based in Cairo, Egypt, won the Governance of Labour Migration category for an article about the migration of African health workers to the West titled, “COVID-19 drives medical brain drain – Is it all bad?”. He also won an award in 2019.

A coronavirus hub was launched to house all the COVID-19 related stories for the Global and Africa editions in one place, in addition to a coronavirus Africa hub with all Africa COVID-related stories.

Special reports

During 2020, a significant upgrade to the Special Reports section, also driven by Dell, has resulted in increased attention from readers, data on readership traffic shows.

The more attractive Special Reports section has increased interest from within the higher education sector, including universities, to use this platform to generate interest in relevant issues.

Dell left UWN Africa at the end of September 2020. She is still a board member of the publication.

Considering the way forward

Cornia Pretorius, the current editor of UWN Africa, said the challenge in 2021 would be to sustain the growth set in motion by her predecessor’s efforts.

“Going forward, this will require ongoing in-depth analysis of user data to determine potential geographical growth areas in Africa. There are many countries where we can still grow our newsletter subscribers, readers and visibility,” she said.

“Of equal importance is the editorial effort. Through a variety of hard news and thought-provoking contributions and commentaries from researchers, academics, students and education and science journalists, University World News – Africa – also through special reports and new sections – can continue to expand its readership.”

Johan Naudé, who was appointed as the director of UWN Africa in September 2020, and who has worked as a higher education consultant throughout Africa, said: “There is increasing recognition of the access University World News offers to target markets in higher education, including prospective conference attendees. We are also finding that people value highly the relevant and topical thought leadership provided by our commentaries.”

Brendan O’Malley, the managing editor of University World News, said: “We are very proud of the service our Africa edition provides to higher education in Africa. Doubling the frequency of the University World News – Africa newsletter is a significant upgrade. University World News traffic globally rose by more than 65% in 2020 and University World News – Africa played a very significant part in that.”

Professor Goolam Mohamedbhai, the former secretary-general of the Association of African Universities, a former vice-chancellor of the University of Mauritius and a board member of UWN Africa, said the Africa edition had become an “indispensable source of up-to-date news on African higher education”.

“The decision to shift the publication to a weekly one was, without doubt, a correct one. Africa is one region where changes in higher education are occurring at a staggering rate and it is vital for stakeholders both within and outside Africa to be aware of them. This is precisely what University World News – Africa does,” said Mohamedbhai.

Another board member, Bruno van Dyk, the director of engagement at Afrobarometer, a pan-African research institution, congratulated Dell for driving the changes. “The round-up demonstrates savvy decision-making and excellent growth and progress,” said Van Dyk.