Media24 confirmed on Wednesday that five Touchline Media magazines inflated their circulation figures between July 2005 and June 2007 and that three senior managers including managing director Marc Blachowitz resigned in connection with the irregularities.
The Touchline Media titles: Men’s Health, Sports Illustrated, Shape, The Wisden Cricketer and Kick Off.
Men’s Health inflated its figures by up to 7.4 percent and Sports Illustrated by up to 7.8 percent while The Wisden Cricketer inflated its numbers by up to 22.6 percent.
Shape and Kick Off inflated their numbers by up to 4.3 percent and 2.4 percent respectively.
Meanwhile six staff members in the women’s magazines division are under investigation for irregularities in the seven women’s titles already suspended by the ABC.
These are: True Love Babe, InStyle SA, True Love, Lééf, Fairlady, SARIE and True Love Bride.
‘There have been irregularities in two of our 12 magazine divisions. I would have loved to tell you they were errors but they were irregularities,” says Hein Brand, Media24 group managing director.
Brand, Patricia Scholtemeyer, CEO of the Media24 Magazines, and a forensic auditor hosted an information session and media briefing about the circulation scandal that has hit Africa’s largest media group in Sandton on Wednesday.
‘This was a deliberate manipulation of figures by certain individuals. It certainly wasn’t sanctioned by top management and no editorial staff are implicated,” said Scholtemeyer.
‘It was not administrative errors. It was downright dishonesty,” added Scholtemeyer.
Media24 did not want to name the other two Touchline senior managers implicated, saying only Blachowitz chose to make his resignation public.
However, Scholtemeyer emphasised that Touchline Media special project publisher Paul Ingpen was not in any way involved in the circulation scandal.
‘Paul Ingpen was in no way whatsoever involved in the circulation scandal. He already resigned six weeks ago and it was coincidental that he left the company at the same time as the other executives,” said Scholtemeyer.