African News Dimension (AND), a start-up media company, is launching a news service for the continent on 1 September 2005. Ralston Smith, CEO of AND, says the network will focus on providing video content, as well as audio, photographs and copy for sale through its website (www.andnetwork.com).
Smith has pumped R1-million of his own funds into the initiative over the last eight months, and currently has eight employees working under him.
‘Contrary to many people’s first impressions, we are not a news agency or a news wire service. We’re a content provider,” he says.
According to Smith there are two main factors that differentiate AND from similar initiatives that have failed in the past. Firstly, he says, AND will sit behind the local media on the African content.
‘What I mean by that is freelance journalists and news organisations [contributors] will submit their content to the AND network. There will be a strict authentication process—once they are trusted providers of news their content will go unedited into a central database, which will be viewed by news buyers.
‘All news providers will retain the copyright to their work at all times and will be paid 15 percent every time their work is published.”
Smith says because the database will not be edited it will hold no political position. But it will, he says, focus on providing news from an African point of view to the rest of the world.
The second differentiating factor, Smith says, is that news organisations will be able to buy unedited content as soon as it is written. The only delay will be from the time news happens to the time it is filed. News buyers will pay US$49 a year to view the database, and pay to publish content on a pay-per-use basis.
There will be a free-to-view section on the website which will show content younger than 24 hours old. Smith says unedited content will go through AND editorial policy before it is published. The free-to-view site will also display the headlines of the content being filed in the database.
A news editor has not been appointed as yet, although Smith maintains AND will have an editor in place by 1 September, who will most likely not be South African. Smith adds that AND has identified over 2,000 journalists from across the continent who will be invited to register before the launch.
Russell Norton, South African Press Association deputy editor, says the idea is a novel one. However, he says the site will have to begin selling news before there can be a gauge of whether it’s going to work.
‘The question is whether AND will get the content and have the resources to provide the news,” comments Norton. ‘Many news organisations don’t want unedited content, so AND will have to be able to supply clean copy where it’s needed and take calls at odd hours. If the SABC were to request a story or want to clarify something at 6am, then AND would have to be able to do that.”
Ease of access for the readers and news buyers is also going to be a key, Norton adds.
AND has currently signed agreements to supply IOL and ISI Emerging Markets with news.