About Briefly.co.za - South African News

Briefly News is a South African digital media and news platform that was founded in 2014. It is one of South Africa’s largest news and entertainment websites by audience and one of the top-earning brands on Facebook in Africa.

Briefly News is a part of Legit (ex-GMEM), a digital media holding operating in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and worldwide. Other news projects include Legit.ng, TUKO.co.ke, YEN.com.gh and Sportsbrief.com.

Being a member of the UN Sustainable Development Goals Media Compact, Briefly News’ mission is to make South Africans more conscious by creating life-changing news.

Briefly News covers current affairs, entertainment, human interest and women empowerment news in South Africa and internationally.

Briefly News History

  • Aug 2023: Briefly News wins African Excellence Award while being recognised Global News Platform of the Year 2023 for publishing life-changing news that maintain the truth and comply with international journalistic standards.
  • Aug 2023: Rianette Cluley, Briefly News Editor-in-Chief, takes part in WAN-IFRA conference to spread the word about AI usage in modern newsrooms based on the Briefly News successful case.
  • June 2023: Briefly News becomes a member of the International News Media Association (INMA) alongside New York Times and Washington Post.
  • March 2023: Briefly News partners with Meta to highlight the impact of digital communities in solving problems in Africa through the ‘I Am Because We Are’ campaign.
  • Jan 2023: The road so far - Briefly News boasts 1.9 million followers on Facebook and an average monthly audience of 10.6 million.
  • Dec 2022: Briefly News launches a Women of Wonder special project writing about a group of 21 women who reached great heights in politics, business, the public sector, culture, etc. The project reached about 4 million people across all platforms.
  • Jul 2022: Briefly News and Gift of the Givers enter a partnership to warm South Africans in need.
  • Jan 2022: Briefly News successfully launches new content directions covering news on Women Empowerment and Cars & Tech.
  • Feb 2022: Briefly.co.za is recognised as one of the most-visited websites in South Africa based on total monthly traffic.
  • Jul 2021: In a case study, Facebook mentions Briefly News as a successful African news and entertainment brand.
  • Mar 2021: Briefly.co.za becomes a UN Sustainable Development Goals Media Compact Member. Briefly News pays special attention to coverage of life-changing human-interest stories alongside Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes in consultation with the UN.
  • Dec 2020: Briefly News doubles its audience within one year. According to IO Technologies, Briefly News had over 134 million total pageviews in 2020, almost doubling the 70 million pageviews in 2019.
  • Oct 2015: The first posts on Briefly News Facebook page are published. Since then, 1.9 million readers have followed our page.
  • Dec 2014: A free, data-saving and convenient Briefly News App released for Android users. Over 500 000 users have installed the app to date.
  • Dec 2014: Introduction to the News Media Market - Briefly News is founded.

Contacts and address

General inquiries: contact@briefly.co.za

Director/chief editor: Rianette Cluley

  • Tel: +27 67 281 3584
  • Email: rianette.cluley@briefly.co.za

Sales/advertising: Amy Le Roux

  • Tel: +27 72 109 6979
  • Email: amy.leroux@briefly.co.za

Address: Central Office Park, Unit 4, 257 Jean Avenue, Centurion, Gauteng, 0157

Registration no: 2022/421308/07

Corporate site: Advertising solutions in SA

Briefly News Team and Masthead

Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief

Rianette Cluley
Rianette Cluley photo

Rianette Cluley is a Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief who joined the Briefly News team in 2016. Rianette has 15 years of experience in journalism, having previously worked as a journalist and photographer for award-winning local-community publications in the Caxton & CTP Publishers and Printers group, namely the Highway Mail, Northglen News, Queensburgh News and Witbank News.

In 2023, she attended JournalismAI Academy for Small Newsrooms powered by the Google News Initiative at The London School of Economics and Political Science.

Head of Desk (Current Affairs)

Lebogang Mashego
Lebogang Mashego photo

Lebogang Mashego joined the Briefly News team in 2021 and runs the Current Affairs desk.

She holds a BA degree from Rhodes University, majoring in Journalism and Media Studies (2017). Lebogang has over five years of experience in journalism.

Lebogang is the recipient of an International News Media Association (INMA) Elevate Scholarship, which is supported by the Google News Initiative (GNI).

Head of Desk (Entertainment)

Sibusisiwe Lwandle
Sibusisiwe Lwandle photo

Sibusisiwe Lwandle is the Head of Entertainment at Briefly News.

She holds one Bachelor of Arts (BA) and one Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree from the University of Cape Town and the University of KZN respectively.

She has over 10 years of experience in journalism, having worked in print, online and broadcast media.

She has worked at Independent Media and 1KZNTV and has contributed columns to the Washington Post.

Head of Desk (Human Interest)

Maryn Blignaut
Maryn Blignaut photo

Maryn Blignaut is Briefly News’ human interest desk manager. She obtained a BA in Communication Science in 2016 and joined the Briefly News family in 2017.

Maryn has six years of experience in journalism. She passed AFP Digital Investigation Techniques course (Google News Initiative).

Co-lead Editor (Women Empowerment)

Kauthar Gool
Kauthar Gool photo

Kauthar Gool is the Women Empowerment editor. She joined the Briefly News Team in May 2022.

She holds a Master's degree in Public Relations and Communication Management from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). Kauthar graduated with her first Master’s in April 2022 and obtained her B.Tech in Journalism from CPUT in 2019.

She is currently studying towards a Master of Arts in Journalism at the University of Stellenbosch.

She has around five years’ worth of hard and soft news experience as a blogger, feature writer, health and education reporter and technology journalist for various South African publications.

Co-lead Editor (Women Empowerment)

Trisha Pillay
Trisha Pillay photo

Trisha Pillay is a human-interest writer at Briefly News. She completed a BA degree in Journalism at the University of Johannesburg (2010) and a BA Honours in International Politics at UNISA (2022).

Trisha joined the Briefly News team in 2023 and has worked at Newzroom Afrika, ENCA, and The Citizen newspaper. She is an award-winning journalist with over 12 years of experience in broadcast and digital media.

All Briefly.co.za journalists, editors, reporters and content creators.

Briefly News on social media