I love the fact that there are more independent voices emerging in South African media and former Financial Mail hack Duncan McLeod’s new website, TechCentral, is shaping up to be an interesting and highly informative one. Grubstreet speaks to McLeod about striking out from the corporate world to go it alone.

Duncan McLeod.

GILL: What prompted you to leave the security of a full-time job with Financial Mail to set up your own business?

DUNCAN: I’d been at the FM for 12 years and I’d been itching to do something new for a while. I could have gone to work for another print publication, but I was also keen to do something more entrepreneurial. The Internet is changing the dynamics of the media industry, allowing entrepreneurially minded journalists to set up media businesses without the high costs associated with printing magazines or newspapers. We’re only beginning to see the changes the Internet is going to bring to the media industry and I wanted to be involved in that change, and outside the confines of a traditional media company.

GILL: How did you prepare (e.g. research and getting funding) for setting up your own business?

DUNCAN: NewsCentral Media (my company that publishes TechCentral) is self-funded. I wouldn’t have been able to do this without the experience and reputation I built up in SA’s ICT industry over the past decade working at the FM. I have been able to get TechCentral off the ground because leaders of companies in the sector are supporting me from scratch with advertising on six- and 12-month contracts. I sold the vision for TechCentral to selected companies and they have come on board from the start with support.

I am now in the process of signing new advertisers.

Of course, maintaining the strict line between editorial and advertising is very important, and I’m managing that carefully. Advertising does not buy special treatment and my advertisers know that.

GILL: Any regrets?

DUNCAN: None so far. Perhaps my only regret is not having the courage to do this sooner.

GILL: Is it a one-man show or do you employ staff?

DUNCAN: As a self-funded start-up you have to manage cash flows very carefully, so I’m approaching things cautiously. But I hope to hire a journalist in the first quarter of next year. I also desperately need a book-keeper and administrative assistant. But for now I’m happy working 20-hour days. After all, I’m doing it for myself, not an employer, and this completely changes your perspective on things.

GILL: How’s your traffic shaping up?

DUNCAN: Growing nicely every week. I have a set target for month six and I’m on track to meeting that well ahead of schedule. I also have plans to advertise the site and am looking at various options as we speak.

GILL: When do you aim to break even and move into profit?

DUNCAN: TechCentral is profitable from the start.

GILL: What are your long-term plans for TechCentral?

DUNCAN: To build it into South Africa’s leading quality technology news site. I want it to be people’s first-choice destination for technology news and opinion.

I have plans for other websites in the NewsCentral Media stable. For now, though, all my attention is focused on TechCentral.

GILL: What has been the biggest learning curve since you started?

DUNCAN: Learning to use accounting software!  Seriously. I am thick when it comes to accounting but it’s critically important to running a successful business.

It is imperative to have a good accountant who doesn’t mind you asking him stupid questions as you figure these things out for the first time. It’s also important to have the right technology partners, which I have in Synaq and Vox Telecom.

GILL: I’m not sure if you’re using WordPress. Are your technology partners helping with the site’s development or are you hacking code into the wee hours?

DUNCAN: Synaq provides LAMP stack support (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP). Vox Telecom provides hosting on a dedicated virtualised server running Ubuntu Linux and also helps me out with some of the more complex HTML and CSS hacks.

I’m glad you don’t think I’m using WordPress. I am. I played around with Drupal and Joomla before launch but decided that WordPress is ideal for my needs. It’s easy to use, there’s plenty of support for it, and it really has evolved from a blogging platform into a fully fledged CMS.

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