There are two monolithic players – each with well over a million readers – sitting at the top of the online publisher rankings. Media24 have about 1,8-million and IOL about 1,5-million monthly readers, worldwide.
Then there are a group of online publishers largely between the half-million and 200,000 reader mark, represented by M-Web, Ananzi, iafrica.com, SuperSport and Mail & Guardian Online; and then a group of niche sites below the 200,000 reader mark represented by Moneyweb, SABC, ITWeb, Creamer Media, Career Junction and others.
On closer inspection, one company is clearly dominating the top half of the rankings. Two Naspers properties, Media24 and M-Web, sit in the top three positions. Another Naspers company, SuperSport, appears in position five. The group also recently acquired another website in the rankings, Tiscali. And then if you add M-Web’s shareholding in the Mail & Guardian Online – a distant cousin a few times removed sitting at position seven – the group is looking very dominant indeed.
Particularly noticeable is the underperformance of Johnnic’s online properties. Johnnic, as one of the country’s biggest media houses, surprisingly doesn’t have a single site in the top five. The Sunday Times site, its flagship publication and South Africa’s biggest newspaper, is at position eight in the online rankings. The combined online listing of Business Day and Financial Mail make an appearance at position 14.
Unlike Media24 and the Independent group with IOL, Johnnic does not have an umbrella online property that pulls its content brands together. This has probably been the company’s big strategic mistake, allowing it to fall behind its competitors.
It’s all a bit confusing as to why Johnnic is struggling in the online world. It was one of the early online pioneers, establishing its own e-media division to specifically focus on its online strategy. So how is it that the country’s most powerful print brand has not managed to replicate its success in the online world?
Maybe translating the Sunday Times into a serious online brand was always going to be difficult, by virtue of its name. A website beginning with ”Sunday” is always going to pose a challenge on the immediate, daily, hourly, dynamic web. It’s a dilemma, because the Sunday Times is such a strong and respected brand you wouldn’t want to completely abandon it. Maybe clever branding and positioning could get around this, say if Sunday Times was a sub-brand of a general Johnnic online news property?
What’s also particularly noticeable is the underperformance of SABCnews.com, at position 11. The SABC is a cross-media giant, with enviable resources at its disposal. As the country’s national broadcaster it commands a massive audience, yet somehow the online audience has eluded it. SABCnews should be a multi-media giant in a similar vein to the BBC. The SABC should be leading the way and showing us how convergence works with its multiple audio, video and online properties. It’s a convergence dream.
Independent via IOL is still a big boy on the online rankings, and is doing very well on a budget and staff complement much smaller than Media24’s online entity. But Media24 recently passed IOL and there seems to be growing daylight between the two. Sources say Media24 is also bringing in sizeable online advertising revenues, probably outstripping most other online publishers.
The group also seems to be the most serious player in the convergence stakes – it is the only online publisher with a content presence on TV. It’s a success story that has quite a bit to do with strong leadership and healthy investment – including perhaps having a first-prize web address, ”News24.com”.
Matthew Buckland is the head of marketing for OPA and publisher of the Mail & Guardian Online @ www.mg.co.za. He writes this article in his independent capacity.