Grubstreet

Social media or social shmedia… Are SA companies on another planet? Take the survey

Here’s a question: Who bans access to Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Gmail and pretty much every other social media or social networking site you can think of? China, you say? Well, you’d be right. But the answer could also be: most of corporate South Africa.
Here at Grubstreet I’m my own boss, so I say that I [...]

The future of SA sports broadcast rights: throwing the baby out with the bath water?

A move by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) to regulate the highly lucrative business of sports broadcasting rights came closer to policy last week as the deadline for submission on Icasa’s “preliminary findings and conclusions” closed on Friday.
The arena for this battle – and don’t let anyone tell you that it isn’t [...]

Tough times on the newspaper street – what the numbers show

04 March 2010

Earlier this week I reported on Moneyweb how SA magazines are feeling the pinch of the recession with the latest AdEX/Nielsen’s numbers showing adspend in those titles from 2008 to 2009. Well, the picture ain’t pretty when it comes to newspapers either. If you look at the chart below (Also AdEx/Nielsens) you can see what I [...]

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Moving and shaking: Lisa MacLeod and Matthew Buckland

02 March 2010

There’s a few movers and shakers out there moving and shaking worthy of a wee blog post. First up, Lisa MacLeod, who was the chief sub and managing editor of Business Day a few years back, has been made managing editor of the Financial Times in London. WHICH IS HUGE!!! And she’s only in her [...]

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Zuma versus Zuma: a tale of two speeches

25 February 2010

This is a little after the fact, but I thought it might be useful to do a visual comparison of Jacob Zuma's 2010 State of the Nation speech compared to his inaugural speech in 2009 following his election as president.

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Sunday paper shake-up: Grubstreet speaks to Sunday Independent’s Mahkudu Sefara

22 February 2010

The Sunday broadsheet market is hotting up, with both Naspers’s Media24 and Independent Newspapers making aggressive plays for more market share. Media24 now has Ferial Haffajee, the highly regarded former Mail & Guardian editor, at the helm of City Press – and the paper is moving upmarket – while there is a definite change [...]

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Sunday paper shake-up: Grubstreet speaks to City Press’s Ferial Haffajee

22 February 2010

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New on Grubstreet: media jobs barometer in real-time

17 February 2010

Here’s something new on Grubstreet: a real-time media jobs barometer of the job ads at the Biz Community website. Biz Community is definitely the premier spot for media and advertising jobs and I check in on it quite regularly to see what’s going in the market. If you have a look at today’s data visualisation of the [...]

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The free lunch is coming to an end

15 February 2010

As publishers agonise over whether to put up paywalls on their websites, one South African newspaper – The Witness in Pietermaritzburg – has quietly but decisively locked down its online content. Existing print subscribers have passwords to access the full online offering and generic content, such as national politics is still free but the message is [...]

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iPad v Kindle battle redefining the rules of publishing – even in SA

08 February 2010

The iPad v Kindle battle shaking up global media and publishing is about to send some waves to South Africa’s shores. Experts say 2010 will be the year the e-book reader comes of age and at the moment there are only two main players in the ring: Apple’s iPad tablet computing device with web, multimedia, [...]

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Newspaper aren’t dead – they’re cooking

05 February 2010

Who said newspaper's are dead. Look at this data visualisation of the world's top 100 newspapers which I knocked together and which tells another story.

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A bright spot for print industry in the recession

01 February 2010

2009 was such a horrendous year for print media, up against the wall because of the fall in advertising revenue and a decline in circulation, that I was surprised and cheered to stumble across a publication that actually succeeded in growing ad revenue. Unless you’re a Business Day subscriber, you wouldn’t have come across Wanted, [...]

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