TechCentral has quietly used the first year of its partnership with Publishared to build something bigger than a traditional newsroom commercial desk: a new purpose-built studio designed for video interviews, podcasts and branded content production. For South Africa’s business and technology audience, the move signals a deeper shift in how specialist media houses are monetising trusted reach without blurring the line between editorial and advertising.
The studio will now serve as the home of TechCentral’s best-known audio and video properties, including the TechCentral Show, while also supporting sponsored productions created for commercial partners. In practical terms, that means brands can tap into TechCentral’s audience and production capability in one package, while the publication keeps its editorial operation distinct and intact.
For a local media market under constant pressure to innovate, this is more than a shiny new room with cameras and microphones. It is part of a wider strategy to turn TechCentral into a full-service media and content business for the tech sector, one that can deliver professional production while still retaining the credibility that readers expect from a serious B2B publication.
Michelle Losco, founder of Publishared, said the studio is central to that model. She said the setup gives clients access to “strong production quality” as well as the editorial authority and audience access that TechCentral has built over time in the South African business space. In her view, that combination is what sets the platform apart from generic content shops chasing volume.
The partnership between NewsCentral Media, TechCentral’s publisher, and Publishared was first announced in April 2025. At the time, the idea was to pair TechCentral’s editorial engine with a dedicated commercial team led by Losco, who brings years of experience in South African B2B media. A year later, the results appear to be bearing out.
Readership has continued to climb, according to the company, while advertiser interest has grown alongside it. Brands are increasingly looking for channels where they can reach South Africa’s business and technology decision-makers in an environment that feels credible, relevant and not overly cluttered with noise. That, TechCentral believes, is where its value lies.
The expansion also comes at a time when many publishers are wrestling with the same question: how do you grow revenue without damaging trust? TechCentral’s answer is to keep the lines clear. Duncan McLeod, the publication’s founder and editor, said the partnership was built to preserve a strict divide between editorial and commercial functions from the outset.
He said TechCentral’s readers are senior executives and technology leaders who can quickly spot when a publication starts serving advertisers ahead of its audience. In his words, that clear separation is one of the main reasons TechCentral continues to attract the people it does. For a publication aimed at decision-makers, trust is not a slogan — it is the product.
TechCentral studio strengthens the platform for technology leaders
The launch of the TechCentral studio gives that promise a physical home. The space is being used not only for podcasts and interviews, but also for branded content that is clearly identified and produced to a standard that matches the rest of the site. That approach, Losco said, has resonated with advertisers looking for more than just impressions and clicks.
Brands, she said, increasingly want association with a publication their target market already reads and trusts. In other words, they want to show up where the conversation is happening, not just where traffic is cheapest. For business-to-business marketers, that is a more durable proposition than chasing short-term digital volume.
The studio also adds another layer to TechCentral’s commercial offering. Beyond written sponsored content, the publication can now deliver richer multimedia formats, including polished video interviews and podcast-led campaigns. That matters in a media environment where audiences are consuming more content on the move and where executives often prefer audio and video to long-form text alone.
Looking ahead, TechCentral says year two of the partnership will bring further expansion of the editorial team, more branded content formats and a broader build-out of its events programme. For a niche publication serving one of the country’s most commercially important sectors, that combination could help deepen both audience engagement and revenue streams.
It also reflects a broader reality in South African digital publishing: the companies that win are often the ones that understand their audience well enough to serve them in multiple ways, while protecting the trust that brought them there in the first place. TechCentral appears to be betting that its readers will reward that discipline.
As we reported earlier, the commercial side of media is changing fast, but the strongest brands still rely on one thing above all else: credibility. TechCentral’s new studio is a visible sign that the publication wants to grow without compromising the editorial standards that have made it relevant to South Africa’s technology leaders. For now, that balance seems to be the foundation of its next chapter.