Economically, South African media owners have experienced a golden period with measured advertising spend reaching record highs – R19-billion which excludes a big dollop that isn’t measured. I reckon R23-billion is a more realistic number. This has led to an unprecedented number of new opportunities for marketers to reach consumers, particularly in print and new media. The warning signs are there though. Greed as a consequence of the boom is taking hold with advertising rate increases reaching alarming levels, particularly in the legislated broadcast arena.
It is also costing marketers more to reach the same number of eyeballs. This has been raised on numerous occasions by our most favoured columnist Harry Herber, but seemingly the giants of television and radio are unperturbed and will march on under the protection of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, who instead of shifting the landscape, have created new monopolies. Check the ownership structures of television and radio.
I have been quoted as saying that if start-ups cannot make their mark financially in this climate, then there is no room for them. I predict they will drop like the dead stones they are as soon as the economy turns. They have survived despite themselves, propped up by naïve advertisers and funding from the likes of the National Empowerment Fund, Industrial Development Corporation and others. They are mostly vanity media that survive under the radar screen of measurements such as the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
From a listed sector perspective, most of the shares have seen nice growth with Naspers really pulling ahead under astute leadership that has seen the restrictions of having all of their eggs in the local basket and diversified off shore. As I write, the long expected “deal” between CTP Caxton and Johnnic has not eventuated and Primedia’s delisting appears to be a laborious process.
Perhaps my biggest disappointment is that I was quite sure that within the past five years we would see a new media entity rising up, led by black entrepreneurs with the vision displayed by the founders of Naspers, Primedia and CTP Caxton. With all the capital for black empowerment deals being touted around it seemed a natural. Sadly, no-one has put up their hand and boldly announced their intention. Perhaps in the next five years?
Greed has also left its mark on us. I have personally been privy to numerous deals both consummated and proposed, where the salaries of the senior executives are at such a level that the deals were dead in the water before a word of content was created or an advert sold.
Politically, the past five years have seen a lot of posturing by the media and jostling by government and its departments. The presidency continues to claim shoddy reporting and sensationalism and journalists retort with accusations of poor communication and access.
Long may this tension continue in our democracy where we enjoy freedom of the press, particularly when compared with other developing nations, and it is up to our editors to fight to keep it.
Surely the greatest political hindrance in our past five years must be the lack of transparency, access and progress under our minister Ivy Matsepe-Cassaburri.
Icasa has suffered enormous challenges both internally and with a stop-start approach to dealing with the market.
But overall it has been an almost golden era, with lots of capital around, many new media opportunities, press freedom like we’ve never experienced before and some bright young stars entering the sector.
The media carries a great responsibility across the social, economic and political landscape, in a democracy that is often at odds with itself.