With the South African media industry transforming, a new class of media players is emerging. Jacquie Golding-Duffy reports on the most prominent among them
An eminent group of media moguls is waiting in the wings as the South African media industry goes through a series of ownership changes.
The most prominent among them is New Africa Investments Limited’s (Nail) chairman, Nthato Motlana. Nail owns the New Nation and Sowetan and, together with the National Empowerment Consortium (NEC), is engaged in talks with Anglo American for a 48% share of Johnnic, the parent company of Omni Media which, in turn, owns Times Media Limited (TML).
Another emerging mogul is Primedia Limited chief executive William Kirsh, who is making his mark in media through the establishment of Primedia’s mix of integrated media businesses.
Primedia Broadcasting has linked up with the Mineworkers Investment Company, South African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union and the Women’s Investment Portfolio in a bid for the SABC’s Radio Highveld and KFM.
The parent company of Radio 702, Primedia has six media divisions including, among others, an Internet division, outdoor advertising, specialist publishing and direct marketing.
The group’s market capitalisation is R1,3-billion. A former merchant banker, Kirsh nurtured Primedia, previously Primequity, into one of the major players in the media industry.
Kirsh and Motlana are both keen to expand on their media interests, but while they seem to be the most prominent among the emerging media leaders, many names at other publications, such as Perskor and Caxton, have been bandied about.
Other emerging media players include Oscar Dhlomo of Dynamo Investments, Wiseman Nkuhlu of World-Wide Africa Investments and Moss Mashishi of Thebe’s Moribo Investments — all of whom have made bids for the SABC’s radio stations currently being scrutinised by the Independent Broadcasting Authority.
With a shortlist of potential radio owners, ongoing talks between black consortiums and newspaper houses and the restructuring of the SABC and South African Communications Services, our local media industry is transforming at a rate of knots.
The bid by newspaper houses to cross over into radio broadcasting has swept South Africa’s media industry off its feet.
Cape Newspapers, parent company of the Cape Times and part of the Independent group, has made a bid for Radio KFM, together with Nasionale Pers and others. TML forms part of the Radio Algoa consortium.
Koos Bekker, chief executive of Multi-Choice, is the only local name which has made a breakthrough into the international arena. Bekker has succeeded in engaging with global players in the broadcasting arena where others have failed, says one media observer.
Based in the Netherlands, he has successfully launched M-Net in South Africa and parts of Africa and has made it the leading pay channel in the country. Bekker was the former chief executive of M- Net and is currently a full-time employee of Nethold.
Although South Africa’s media bosses by no means fill the shoes of media barons Rupert Murdoch or Ted Turner, whose multinational empires span print and television, they aim to achieve locally what these men have achieved globally.
Executive chairman of Nasionale Pers Limited, Ton Vosloo, is seen by many in the print media as the closest to a true media mogul, although he is a full-time employee of Naspers.
Born and bred in Uitenhage, Vosloo has newsprint on his fingers, says one colleague.
He rose through the ranks from journalist to editor to managing director and is now executive chairman of Nasionale Pers. Vosloo is also chairman and chief executive officer of M-Net, M-Cell, co-chairman of Nethold in Europe and director of MTN. Colleague and Naspers chief executive of newspapers, Hennie van Deventer, says people marvel at Vosloo’s prowess with words; Vosloo, he says, is an example of ”an editorial hands-on person who is a super businessman”.
However, our local media bosses are often hidden behind consortiums. They remain faceless as they sit on many boards buried in joint ventures and multi- shareholdings with no single man having supreme financial and managerial clout.
Tony O’Reilly, an Irishman and chairman of Independent Newspapers, set the ball rolling towards changing media ownership by taking over the Argus group. O’Reilly is believed to have given President Nelson Mandela an undertaking that he would ensure black empowerment in the media field. He offered shares to prominent black businessmen during the Argus’s unbundling process and major black players entered the arena.
O’Reilly, strangely enough, fits the mould of a media mogul in the South African context because he, like other newspaper magnates in this country, leaves operating details to chief executive officers who manage his newspaper stables and various print interests.