The free lunch for the big news portals is coming to an end as there’s pressure on them to bring in the bucks.

I discovered recently that the man who uttered that famous phrase, "Information wants to be free", said immediately afterwards that information also wants to be expensive.

How fascinating is that? It got me thinking about what I’m prepared to pay for online and that’s what my weekly Moneyweb column, Splitting Hairs, is about. I’d be interested to know what you guys would be prepared to pay for.

Fortune magazine recently did a catch-up interview with Stewart Band, the guy who said those famous words, which is also well worth a ponder.

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Doesn’t it just piss you off when the traffic cops do road blocks in rush hour?

I’m a law-abiding driver and believe the traffic cops should do more of this but, for Pete’s sake, why in rush hour? (And yes, even little old East London, where I live, has a rush hour).

Why not hold them outside of peak traffic times more often and on a regular basis throughout the year instead of doing one big campaign once a year, which is essentially for public relations.

Well, I’ve got news for the powers that be in the traffic department. Your PR gig ain’t working. We’re not blind. We can see people breaking traffic rules all the time all year round and you guys are seldom to be seen.

Even my four-year-old daughter once remarked thoughtfully while we were on the road: "There’s not many policemen, are there? Not like Mr Plod."

East London is in the grip on one these pointless campaigns at the moment and its the source of much unhappiness and stress on the roads. Well, Grubstreet has laid its hands on the road-block schedule for this month (it runs till Juky 31).

So, good people of Buffalo City, this is my TGIF gift to you. Read it, have a chuckle and either leave work at 2pm today or pencil in a nice early restaurant dinner (and I can recommend the quattro cento pizza at Grazia’s)  overlooking the ocean before you head home. Mind the driver only has one cleansing ale though.

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A lot is said about the different leadership styles and personalities of former SA president Thabo Mbeki and the man who tossed him out and became president, Jacob Zuma.

Mbeki is seen as an aloof, international stateman, disconnected from domestic issues and his constituency while Zuma is regarded as a man of the people with a more down-to-earth style more concerned with basic issues than global affairs.

Grubstreet crunched two key speeches of the two producing a Word Cloud showing the emphasis on ideas and words within the two speeches. The speeches we chose were Mbeki’s famous "I am an African" speech from 1996 and Zuma’s inauguration speech from May 2009 which also received favourable commentary.

 Comparing the two in this way is quite fascinating. Are they as different as we think?

Give the visualisations a couple of moments to load once you have clicked on them.

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It’s sure hotting up in Media Land as The Guardian reports that Independent News & Media is trying to extend its financial freeze (for the second time) and that it is using proceeds from the sale of part of a shareholding in an Indian newspaper to pay off the €15m working capital facility that the company secured from its banks when the "standstill"  was first struck in May. Read The Guardian story here.

I’m no financial guru (I do have calls out to a couple and will update you later) but this sounds very, very bad to me. Does this company have any cash flow if it’s selling assets to cover its operational costs?

Meanwhile, Business Day reports that Moeletsi Mbeki, the brother of Thabo, says he would love to lay his hands on the Independent’s SA operations but denies having approached Caxton to put together a potential offer. The paper also reports that Black Management Forum leader Jimmy Manyi told them: “There are many black investors who will be interested in buying the Independent’s local assets. There is no shortage of black investors out there.” Go to the story here.

The Independent’s SA newspapers include The Star, Pretoria News, Cape Times and The Mercury.

I have been pouring over the Independent’s annual results for the year to 31 December 2008 as much was made in response to my weekly Moneyweb column in the comments of the profitability of the Evil Empire’s  SA operation. Now this a layman’s perspective but here goes:

The SA operation is a good earner with excellent margins. It brought in 69.1m euros in operating profit after exceptionals for the year ending Dec 31 2008.  The UK operations (chalking up a loss of 205.4m euros) was an absolute dog and Australasia and Ireland brought in some bucks but their margins look quite low.

My question is what kind of multinational is this that its South African operation is one of the best performers?  We are a tiny media market and then there’s the vagaries of the rand. Surely this in itself tells us the company is in big trouble?

Anton Harber pointed out yesterday on his blog that the Independent have been putting off some massive capital expenditure in SA (in the form of the aging Sauer Street press and its building).

I couldn’t help but notice from the annual results that the exceptional items bill for SA was the lowest of the 4 geographical regions (3m euros).

I think if an attractive offer or two came along, the Irish will consider it gratefully and who knows what Denis O’Brien hopes to achieve out of this but he has said he’s not sentimental about keeping loss-making titles going? 

I also discovered from the results that the Independent empire has been in deep shit since last year. After exceptional items, the company as a whole made a loss of 159.4m euros for 2008 compared with a profit of 195.7m euros in 2007.

Click here to download the company’s 2008 results. The breakdown by region start on page 67. Let me know what you think, guys!

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Now here’s a sign of the times. The Media Online reports today that a Chinese language newspaper has been launched in Botswana that will gradually be circulated throughout other African countries.

Much is made of the  Geel Gevaar and it’s true China cares not one jot for human rights but they are a  rising  superpower and it’s interesting to watch the balance shift.

Moneyweb ran an interesting piece a couple of weeks back about the increasing number of Chinese nationals doing business in Zimbabwe but the best insight I’ve had recently into China and its economic and political future is from a book published last year called "The Dragon and The Elephant" by David Smith, the economics editor of The Sunday Times in London. 

In the book, Smith looks at the future of the Chinese and the Indian economies. Of course, it’s complex stuff but not the doomsday  some would have us believe.

Yes, China is a huge economy and still growing, Smith says in the book, but it also has fundamental weaknesses such as it’s banking system, which is so up the pole that few multinationals are keen on being listed in China and that’s why the Shanghai stock exchange of little consequence.

Another point Smith made in the book was that he thought it perfectly acceptable — in fact desirable — for developing economies (such as South Africa’s) to protect their industries against cheaply made Chinese imports (think of our textile and garment industries) until the country is able to compete globally on a more equal footing.

David Smith has a blog, which is excellent for those with a basic understanding of economics.

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Three things you need to read today

3. And, if like me, you feel you know all you need to know about Madiba and didn’t read a word of all that gushing over Mandela over the weekend, have a read at Denis  Beckett’s piece at Moneyweb on why collective hero worshipping smacks of monarchy without a crown. That’s Denis’s phrase — not mine though I wish it was. I love that.    
Technorati Tags: media, newspapers, Independent, Tony O’Reilly. SABC, Nelson Mandela

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Five things you need to read today:

The Mail & Guardian have a great pot pourri of interesting stories amid all the gushing over  Madiba  today:

1. The demand for swine flu antiviral drugs has brought about a shortage of that divine curry spice, star anise.

2. A fascinating Q&A with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone.

3. SABC3 looks set to make a R76-million loss because they ordered to broadcast  the ICC Twenty20 World Cup last month against the wishes of station boss Pearl Luthuli.

4. An in-depth look at the lobby group behind Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe’s bid to become chief justice.

And Moneyweb have a transcript of a very interesting analysis by Alec Hogg on the business figures (Graham Boustred among them of course) interracting with the media.

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One has to wonder what will happen to IOL if the newspapers of the Independent group are sold off separately, which is looking increasingly likely as the Irish parent company, Independent News & Media, has asked Deloitte to be on standby as the administrator in the event that the firm fails to restructure its debt.  Read the story at Accountancy Age.

This is required by Irish insolvency law in case the debt talks fail and one Irish-American news organisation is reporting that sources say the company is unlikely to make the deadline of July 24 (by which time they have to refinance a 200-million euro bond — or probably face bankruptcy). Read the story at Irish Central.

It is unlikely that the SA operation will be snapped up in its entirety as it will come with a hefty price tag and the Competition Commission would be unlikely to approve an existing media player buying the whole shebang.

There will, however, be much interest from Caxton, Media24 and particularly Avusa, which is hemmed in to Gauteng and the Eastern Cape,  in buying some of the Independent newspapers that include The Star, Pretoria News, Cape Times, Cape Argus and Durban’s The Mercury and Daily News. But what will happen to IOL?

The new owner of the Cape Times or The Star, for instance, will want its content feeding its own operation so I presume this will spell the end of IOL, which has shaped up to being a reasonably successful entity and something of a pioneer in SA. I wonder how all the back content will be disentagled from the the IOL archive — maybe the tecchies out there could speculate? 

Personally, as an Internet user I’m not overly keen on these big news portals. Except for News24, which is a handy translation service from the group’s excellent Afrikaans titles, I’m often irriated by IOL as I can’t get a handle on what each newspaper is serving up, on its feel and its character. I would like to dip in and see Joburg through The Star’s eyes, for instance, and Cape Town through The Cape Times’s eyes. Looks I might get my way.

While we’re in Media Land, somethings clearly afoot at Avusa, as suggested by the pledge by the Sunday Times that accompanied the  "Hi there, I’m here to serve you" story by the new public editor, Thabo Leshilo, on Sunday. 

Mention was made "of preparations to merge our print (Sunday and daily newspapers), online and mobile platforms" so we’ll see what comes of that.    

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So a British soccer journalist for The Guardian newspaper has posted a blog saying she is terrified about coming to SA for the World Cup next year because of the high crime.

Louise Taylor’s post is bound to get patriotic hackles up (and there are reams of comments on the blog) but she does have a point. Read the blog here and see what you think.

It seems to me perfectly reasonable that a foreigner would be nervous about coming to SA and this journalist is no ignorant chop.

She’s done her research and this is what her fears are based on. Just like when I read about Colombia, I think to myself:  “Jeez, that sounds so dangerous. I don’t ever want to go there." Well, Colombia and South Africa have pretty much the same rate of murder and violent crime — and now we know that the cops in SA are fiddling the crime stats to suppress the reporting of violent crimes.

And Taylor’s not going to be here as a tourist sticking to the main routes but as a working reporter, she will have to be all over the place chasing the story. As a freelance journalist who must work alone these days (rather than with a photographer) there are many story ideas I just shelve as it won’t be safe for me to pursue them.

As an ordinary citizen, I wouldn’t walk across the park (about 200m) next to my house by myself as you never who’s lurking in the bush and there’s only one beach in the whole city I go to by myself or with my young daughter during the week as it has full-time security and life guards.

So Louise, I have this advice for you from a fellow female hack who happens to be a South African: Bring yourself a large, imposing male photographer because unless you know where you’re going or are sticking to the suburbs, South Africa is very dangerous for lone women.

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News pics are the order of the day today on the SA Interweb:

1. A radical flash flood hit Camps Bay in Cape Town on Sunday and blogger Seth Rotherham at 2Oceans Vibe has beat the big boys on this with his pics and tale of witnessing it first hand. Click here for his post and pics and here for more.

2. And the Diepsloot riots over the weekend in Johannesburg (sparked by confusion about whether the area will be cleared to make way for a sewage pipeline) had the pix guys out there snapping away. The Times and IOL have got the best galleries though both seems a tad on the slow side. Nevetheless click here to go to The Times gallery and here to go to IOL. 

The Times also have a comprehensive story on the origin and progress of the riots here.

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