Business people have been seduced by “newer and sexier” delivery vehicles for information, says media strategist Harry Herber, offering his view on the increasing internet usage in this slice of the market.
“Information is absorbed in small bites, from multiple sources. So from updates that are e-mailed, to newsletters delivered electronically, through DStv business channels, and including SMS opportunities, the business person of today is in constant touch with his business and info needs,” continues Herber, group managing director of MediaShop.
His sentiments, penned in one of his columns in The Media last year, are reflected in the amount of care business publications invest in their websites.
Finweek, which has now firmly established its new brand following the merger between Finansies en Tegniek and Finance Week, is turning its focus to online, says editor Rikus Delport.
Media24 has now established a business unit called Fin Business Media Company, consolidating Finweek and Fin24.co.za into one structure.
“We have decided to invest more on the internet because that’s where the market is going, where people prefer to go find out what is happening in the world of business. Our plans are to expand on our internet offering, introducing features such as podcasts.”
“The advent of broadband has made this a very important platform. And this is happening overseas as well where financial publications such as Fortune and Forbes are all investing heavily on the internet because that’s where the world is moving,” says Delport.
Moneyweb CEO Alec Hogg’s website is the only local site with its own dedicated editorial team that does not rely on a print publication for content. He has predicted that his site will soon start giving business print a run for its money.
“There’s really no rocket science in all of this. We have the examples of what has happened globally once Broadband (always on, rapid Internet connectivity) has reached critical mass elsewhere,” says Hogg.
“Despite print industry Luddites who continue to think with their hearts rather than heads, the switch to online is inevitable, especially in the financial news area.
“It’s almost three years since the New York Times‘ online readers surpassed those of the print newspaper. And with the Wall Street Journal‘s online edition making a healthy contribution last year, www.wsj.com has become increasingly important in the company’s future plans.”
TIME magazine recently announced some changes to adapt to the internet, such as moving its on-sale day to a Friday, and redesigning its website TIME.com from January this year.
“The new publication date reflects the way the internet is affecting pretty much everything about the news business. Today our print magazine and TIME.com are complementary halves,” says managing editor Richard Stengel on the Editors Weblog.
“The traditional new newsmagazine was retrospective, looking back at what happened the previous week. But today’s TIME is much more forward-looking.”
Business Day editor Peter Bruce believes the best option is a combination of both internet and print services. He says Business Day has beefed up its internet service this year, moving it in-house and appointing a dedicated editor to the website.
“I do take it seriously. What we’d like to do is get to a point one day where people begin to write for the website and write a different kind of story for the newspaper. Break the news on the website and do an analysis in the newspaper.
“The paper would drive readers to the website and the website would drive readers to the paper.”
However, he does not believe that online journalism is up to standard yet.
“Online is not an easy medium. There’s not much journalistic added value. Online sites tend to be badly edited— When online publishers realise they need editors as much as print publications do, then they will become serious.”
Perhaps the so far successful launch of The Weekender in the first quarter of 2006, a new weekly newspaper for business people published by Business Day, proves print doomsdayers wrong.
It is published by Business Day and seemingly on track with its business plan which is based on a three-year investment on a projected circulation of 30,000.
Its first circulation figures stood at 5,076 and the latest figures for July – September 2006 showed an increase to 7,548.
“The latest unaudited figures show that more than 9,000 people are now buying The Weekender. That probably translates into 28,000 readers. We are already five months ahead of reaching our target,” says Business Day editor Peter Bruce.
After the failure of so many new newspapers in South Africa’s small market, the steady growth of The Weekender looks promising. Bruce says its print run remains small to keep costs down.
“There are not many copies around. We’re just not wasting any money. We print 12,000 copies so it’s very small, but that way we can go back to the board and say: ‘The investment is paying off’.”
Many would say he is brave to launch into print while the business market is turning to online for information.
“I just don’t think that is true,” responds Bruce. “There is a need and a market for both. What you get with a newspaper is portability and a clear ability – when you’re editing a paper or laying it out – to prioritise news.
“The front page of a newspaper is always powerful, far more so than a homepage of a news website.”
Other print developments in the business media in the past year include the revamping of the Financial Mail into FM. It boasts a striking new look and additions such the FM Fox section, with interesting and original news snippets from the business world, which adds value to the product. It is probably too soon say whether they changes have been paying off, but its circulation has increased to 30,072 (July – Sept 2006) compared to 25,991 in the corresponding previous period.
“We have received feedback that has been good and some not so good, but we set out to extend the relevance of the magazine to a business person’s 24/7 life and we have done that,” says FM brand manager Mxolisi Buthelezi.
Finweek, following the merger between Finansies en Tegniek and Finance Week, has managed to slightly up its circulation from 29,757 (April – June 2006) to 31,634 (July – Sept 2006).
Also in the past year, a finance publication shared the overall Vodacom Journalist of The Year Award 2006 with the Mail & Guardian’s team of investigative reporters.
Personal Finance editor Bruce Cameron was a joint winner of the award for his exposé on Alexander Forbes’ plundering of retirement funds.
Cameron believes print cannot compete on the hard news front with television, radio or the internet.
“If print media is to survive it must add value to the lives of ordinary people. And it can do so by dealing with lifestyle and consumer issues. Personal finance is one area where print media can add value in improving the lifestyle of readers as well as defending their rights against the powerful financial services industry,” he says.
Mail & Guardian Online publisher Matthew Buckland believes that websites reporting on financial news “were always going to crack it online.”
“The web is the perfect medium for delivering up-to-the-minute financial news and data. Moreover, the LSM of the average business news reader matches that of the online reader: Both are high.”
Of the top 20 local news sites, no fewer than six are business sites.
Buckland, in his monthly column in The Media, quotes Fin24 business manager Nic van den Bergh as saying that the internet has in many aspects taken over the role of a broker.
“(In the old days) you would have to phone a broker, but now you can do that research at home on the internet. It is available 24/7. It’s all available for the user, who is able to access it quite easily,” Van den Bergh was quoted as saying.
The biggest business sites in South Africa include Finweek‘s fin24.co.za, the IOL’s Business Report (both with big volumes of traffic from the mother portals IOL and News24). Moneyweb and Business Day‘s websites are comparable in size, with Moneyweb enjoying a slight lead in local readership, but Business Day‘s overall readership, including readers outside South Africa, makes it the biggest of the two.
Hogg says Moneyweb last year posted its fastest growth since its launch a decade ago.
“Moneyweb’s unique home page visitors – which is the true measure of a website’s loyal audience – has been growing consistently at a rate of 40 percent year-on-year since around October 2005,” says Hogg, who plans to expand its business coverage this year.
“We intend building on the platform Moneyweb has established over the past decade in the online arena and will be expanding the coverage of business affairs in indigeneous languages on radio (in partnership with the SABC) and in providing more business coverage to local communities (in partnership with Caxton).”
Buckland points out, however, that besides Moneyweb, most of the business sites rely heavily on their print publications for content.
Perhaps that is the easiest route for any business medium to take, having two services such as online and print complementing each other.
As Bruce points out, advertisers continue to prefer print. And that is where the money lies – for now.