MONEYWEB: You remember Sandra Gordon, the former chief executive of Sesani.
DAVID SHAPIRO: She was with Primedia as well.
MONEYWEB: Correct. Well she joins us now because she’s just started a media company, and in fact is launching a publication called The Media. Sandra, your company’s name is Wag the Dog. SANDRA GORDON: I think it’s self explanatory. It’s what we intend to do, I suppose. MONEYWEB: Which dogs do you intend wagging?
SANDRA GORDON: All those in the media sector and the nice ones as well.
MONEYWEB: Sandra, tell us about this company that you have put together. Are you going to be focusing on print media?
SANDRA GORDON: Alec, good question. What my partner and I have done is formed an investment company, which we’re investing in a number of entities. We’re rather self-indulgently looking at the two areas I really like the most. And one of them is the media. I have a passion for print in particular, and this is the first start for that. And we have investments as well in a strategic communication business, which we launched at the same time. The Media will our first journal and probably the only one for probably a year to 18 months, while we bed it down and develop it properly.
MONEYWEB: It’s a tough time to launch any publication, and particularly one that is so narrowly focused.
SANDRA GORDON: I think the very reason that it is narrowly focused makes it less tough. I know that advertising is probably in its worst recession for two or three decades, and a lot of the consumer publications in South Africa and indeed in the world are struggling. The joy of having a niche publication is you’re able to control your production costs while at the same time spending any savings on very good editorial, and you have a limited and focused target market to reach. So I don’t have to print 100,000 in the vain hope that I’ll sell 5,000 on the shelves.
MONEYWEB: Sandra, you built up a publishing business in the past, sold that on, if I’m not mistaken, to Primedia. There’s not a whole lot of that left in Primedia now. Have you been able to, or are you able to look at some of the pieces perhaps?
SANDRA GORDON: I’m not sure that I particularly want to, to be honest, Alec. I’m very happy doing this. It combines my love of publishing with my love of the media industry. And I think there’s a gap and I’m really enjoying I’d forgotten how much I’ve missed being back in the hurly-burly of the media.
MONEYWEB: So if you’re going to wag all those dogs, it presumes that you’re going to be quite a big dog yourself in time.
SANDRA GORDON: As long as not the female version, I’ll cope with that Alec.
MONEYWEB: Sandra, are you really looking to build a substantial business here, or are you just having fun?
SANDRA GORDON: I’m having fun and building a reasonable business that I’ll be happy developing and running, and making some money at the same time. That’s a win-win for me.
MONEYWEB: Would you ever sell to another big publishing house? As you did in the past?
SANDRA GORDON: No, I don’t think so.
MONEYWEB: Sandra Gordon with her new product, or her new operation called Wag the Dog. Isn’t that a lovely name for a company, David?
DAVID SHAPIRO: It comes after the movie, I think, Wag the Dog, I think which is also about a media company I think to do with the President of the United States.
MONEYWEB: David, that was PR big difference.
DAVID SHAPIRO: Oh, PR, OK. Not a great movie buff.