If you’re a South African woman looking for specific advice, say for example on finance, pregnancy or marriage issues, my best advice to you would be to pop into your nearest shop and buy a magazine. Don’t go to the internet – because it’s unlikely you are going to find much relevant local content here.
There doesn’t appear to be a lot going on in terms of women-focused content on the South African web. There is only one – yes, only one – big commercial player to speak of: Media24’s Women24, which draws in a substantial monthly readership of about 100 000, of which around 90% are women.
So one could perhaps draw the conclusion that, in the publishing context, the South African web isn’t a very friendly place for women. Certainly not as friendly as the vibrant glossy women’s magazine sector, which is marked by plenty of choice and fierce competition.
Women24’s business manager Deidre Ingpen agrees that there’s not much in the way of specialised content for women on the local web (in comparison, if you point your browser to the US or the UK, there’s a plethora of big online women’s magazines to choose from).
The Women24 site, now in its fourth year of publishing, aims to speak to women as they go through their various life stages, and incorporates career and financial issues, falling in love, getting married, buying a house and having a baby. The online title was recently repositioned to focus on a younger target market, aged from 25 to 35, and is now primarily aimed at working women typically trying to balance work with home and family life.
But even so, the Women24 website is still heavily reliant on content from the print titles in the Media24 publishing stable. The site draws most of its content from established magazines such as Fair Lady, True love, Women’s Value, Your Baby, Your Pregnancy and Shape.
Republishing or “repurposing” content from print titles on the web is derisively known in online circles as “shovelware”, and is by no means a problem exclusive to Women24. Original content isn’t big amongst many of the world’s online publishers – a problem exacerbated by tight budgets from the fallout of the dot.bomb crash. But it’s a situation all online publishers need to change if they are to draw in more readers and be taken seriously in the world of journalism.
Ingpen recognises this, and says Women24 is now gradually starting to generate its own web-exclusive content, aiming for an 80/20 split between aggregated content and its own, unique content.
To compound things, online advertising is not exactly plentiful in the genre either. Women24 doesn’t attract nearly the same kind of advertising as the glamorous glossies, which are driven by clothes, fashion and beauty product advertising.
It’s strange, because Women24 brings in a substantial audience and boasts a weekly newsletter of 40 000 subscribers. In fact, the site probably accounts for about 10% of the massive Media24 portal website, which now attracts well over a million readers a month.
The reason for this seeming inconsistency? It’s the same old story: advertisers are still wary of the ‘net medium.
Perhaps the recently improved advertising figures and readership statistics from our major online publishers will be the cure to the woeful offering the South African web has for women. In the meantime, Women24 remains the lone pioneering voice.
Matthew Buckland is editor of the Mail & Guardian Online @ www.mg.co.za