Digital news traffic across Africa is declining sharply while media influence is proving more resilient, according to the RANKED 2026 Report launched in Lagos on 23 April, with industry leaders warning that the traditional model of measuring media performance by page views is no longer adequate in an era defined by artificial intelligence and fragmented audience behaviour.
The report, produced by communications firm SquirrelPR, covers 13 African countries including Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt, Rwanda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, DR Congo, Senegal, Tunisia, Côte d’Ivoire and Morocco, making it the broadest geographic scope the annual report has taken on since its launch. One of its most striking findings is a 26.2 percent drop in total digital news traffic in Nigeria, where visits fell from over 1 billion in 2024 to 769 million in 2025, a decline attributed largely to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) generated search summaries that answer user queries before they reach a publisher’s website.
Delivering the keynote address at the launch, Keni Akintoye, Chief Executive Officer and Lead Strategist at KT Communication, said influence has evolved rather than declined in this environment. He said discovery now happens through AI summaries, algorithmic feeds and aggregated platforms, meaning visibility no longer automatically translates to relevance. Akintoye said the most important question for media organisations is no longer how many people visited, but who is trusted enough to be referenced and relied upon.
At a panel discussion titled Winning the Digital Attention War, industry leaders reinforced that argument. Múyiwa Mátuluko, Chief Executive Officer of Techpoint Africa, said media organisations must prioritise depth and relevance over scale. He noted that specialised platforms targeting defined audiences are gaining stronger engagement and long-term value compared with generalist outlets chasing mass traffic.
Rasheed Bolarinwa, Head of Brand Marketing and Communications at Polaris Bank, said brands are increasingly directing marketing budgets toward platforms with stronger audience credibility, shifting focus from impressions to outcomes including conversion and trust. From the newsroom perspective, Olufemi Ajasa, Online Editor of Vanguard, said credibility and quality journalism remain central to relevance even as audience habits evolve.
Panellists also cautioned African media organisations against over-dependence on global platforms, urging the building of direct audience relationships through newsletters, communities and proprietary channels. They called for future editions of the report to expand into the creator economy and to incorporate trust signals and verified analytics alongside traffic data.
The RANKED 2026 Report frames the current transition as a shift from content distribution to influence design, where long-term performance will be determined not by reach alone but by a platform’s ability to shape conversations and sustain audience trust.
