After initially neglecting the Internet, South Africa’s traditional media houses are now investing heavily in the next wave of media: online newspapers.
Most major newspaper groups for the past two years have maintained a virtual presence on the World Wide Web, usually postings of their print stories and searchable archives of previous editions.
But late last year a flurry of activity saw the launch of several news sites characterised by enormous capital investment – Nasionale Pers is rumoured to have invested R25-million in their portal 24.com, while I- Net Bridge reportedly cost R30-million to set up.
Newspapers originally, and somewhat begrudgingly, created an online face to protect the erosion of their print publications. By maintaining a website newspapers demonstrated they were with the digital revolution during the popularisation of the Internet in the last three years.
And now, no longer the reserve of the inquisitive surfer, the Internet is the means of the next financial revolution, ecommerce – the buying of goods and services through the Web.
With portals, a one-stop content site or gateway, becoming the new form of Internet destinations, South African media are scrabbling to assert themselves with local news and content that will keep Web surfers from migrating to the big American and European news portals, such as CNN Interactive.
The changing nature of the Internet has also seen the alignment, usually in joint ventures, with Internet service providers (ISPs). This is partly to gain technical infrastructure and prowess. But also, says M- Web editorial director Bruce Cohen, the projected business model sees content and ecommerce as the main source of revenue, instead of dial-up or connectivity for individual users.
M-Web Interactive – the online content arm of major portal and one of the country’s largest ISPs, M-Web – merged with 24.com earlier this year, forming perhaps the largest news and content operation in the country to date.
Launched last October, 24.com is a massive content site, customised for individual users, with numerous ecommerce spin-offs.
Times Media Limited’s online financial news service, I-Net Bridge, is a joint venture between Business Day, Financial Mail, financial service Bridge, as well as Dimension Data, which owns the Internet Solution, another of the country’s largest ISPs. It is a niche product, aimed at investors with varying levels of financial data at varying subscription rates.
The country’s largest newspaper group, Independent Newspapers, is to launch its own news service soon, called I-News, after getting into bed with Yebo!net, the ISP launched last year by cellular network Vodacom.
The Mail & Guardian’s online newspaper, the Daily Mail & Guardian , is majority owned by M-Web, and with 1,8- million hits per months is still the most read online news service.
Online newspapers were pioneered by former Weekly Mail co- editor Irwin Maniom, who set up the then simple text-based electronic Mail & Guardian in 1994.