Daily Maverick builds an AI-driven toolkit to strengthen reader support and prove newsroom impact
Daily Maverick is developing a new AI-powered initiative aimed at strengthening the financial sustainability of independent journalism while deepening its relationship with readers. They (Daily Maverick) call it: Revenue360 (Rev360). The project forms part of the 2024 JournalismAI Innovation Challenge — an international programme run by the London School of Economics’ JournalismAI team with support from the Google News Initiative, where Daily Maverick was selected among 35 newsrooms from more than 700 applicants.
The initiative responds to growing pressure on news organisations worldwide: audiences are increasingly fragmented, trust is under strain, income constraints, as well as social media that continues to accelerate the spread of misinformation. While many publishers rely on paywalls, Daily Maverick maintains a voluntary membership model that keeps its journalism free to access. This model depends heavily on Maverick Insiders — a reader community that contributes about 40% of the organisation’s revenue — making sustained engagement and long-term loyalty essential.
Rev360 focuses on strengthening its membership journey from first contact to ongoing participation. One major component is the redesign of the Maverick Insider sign-up page, which currently underperforms. The team is testing a new version against the old, using analytics such as heatmaps and experimentation to identify what reduces drop-offs. The aim is to make joining quicker and more intuitive, while enabling continuous improvements for different audiences and campaigns.
By the way… more on heatmaps and my experience with them below this article…
Another major feature is Daily Maverick Connect, a community platform built on Discourse. Daily Maverick believes membership is not only about payments but about belonging. Until now, supporters could engage with the newsroom, but not easily with one another. The platform aims to unlock the value of that network by allowing members to interact, collaborate and build relationships — from professional connections to shared-interest communities. AI tools will help support moderation and analyse conversations to improve the user experience and maintain constructive participation.
Rev360 also includes an Impact Framework, designed to track how journalism influences society. Its AI-powered “Impact Engine” analyses published work and traces signals of influence such as references in parliamentary records, supporting a more systematic approach to planning for impact and evaluating results. Daily Maverick says this will help guide editorial decision-making, strengthen trust and demonstrate journalism’s value more clearly.
Daily Maverick believes Rev360 could ultimately serve as a blueprint for other independent newsrooms seeking to grow sustainable reader revenue while maintaining public access to quality reporting.
More on heatmaps:
During my time with a company called “Inclusive Solutions”, I had the opportunity to assist and explore the possibilities of what heatmaps could offer companies and individuals. Inclusive Solutions is a provider of technology communications devices, such as the Tobii Eye Tracker, that former rugby player Joost van der Westhuizen was using to operate a computer by just using his eyes when he was diagnosed with ALS. Tobii Eye Tracking technology not only provides communicative devices for people with communication difficulties but also offers the technology to retailers and web developers (for UX).
How it works:
Heatmaps in UX research are visual tools that display combined user activity on a webpage using a warm-to-cool colour scale. They make it easy to see which parts of a page attract the most attention and interaction (hot areas like red or orange) and which are largely ignored (cool areas like blue or green), helping teams spot engagement patterns and usability problems.
UX in action:
In 2016, ABSA contacted Inclusive Solutions to test heatmaps on their newly designed webpage using Tobii glasses. Here is a short video I took on what it could offer. Obviously, the technology has improved significantly since then. But, it was an excellent learning experience for me personally, and I am so grateful that Inclusive Solutions (Ed) took me along.
If you want to learn more about eye tracking and heatmaps, watch the following videos made by Tobii.
Sources:
Daily Maverick Blog. 2025. “Inside Rev360 — how Daily Maverick is using AI to boost community engagement, impact and revenue”. Online as viewed on the 5th of January 2026. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-05-28-inside-rev360-how-daily-maverick-is-using-ai-to-boost-community-engagement-impact-and-revenue/
Kincaid, T. 2025. “AI is powering reader revenue at Daily Maverick”. Online as viewed on the 5th of January 2026. https://www.journalismai.info/blog/ppb3efyx4owsdkasiri2vgue4oyr16?rq=daily
Feature image created by ChatGPT 5.2.