The question was put by a Thai official who wanted to know why none of the networks had put out an alert. They all have full-time meteorological expertise, all have people who know (or should know) that an earthquake of such magnitude out at sea causes a tsunami.
With new technology on the horizon and the presence of big-name multinationals in the local media research space, can we expect vast changes in the structures and methods of media measurement? Kevin Bloom investigates.
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/ 26 January 2005
The good news for the weeping editors and owners at our own financial publications is that they’re in good company. Annual advertising revenue at most of South Africa’s business print brands is equal to what it was five years ago — <i>Business Day</i> is more than R10-million down on 1999/2000 figures, and only the <i>Business Times</i> is significantly up.
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/ 26 January 2005
For the past while the Financial Mail has been suffering declining circulations and internal editorial discord. Will Barney Mthombothi find the answer in fuller coverage of the country’s transformation? Kevin Bloom speaks to the new editor, Barney Mthombothi who takes the helm this month.
How does the rest of Africa feels about South Africa’s "media imperialism"? What are the economic motivations for moving into the continent? Does the Western media still look at Africa through a colonial lens? These are some of the queries that the December issue of <i>The Media</i> addresses.
At one end of the market, community newspapers are returning record revenues and seriously challenging the mainstream titles. But there’s another side to this sector, that of the small and independent grassroots publisher. Kevin Bloom looks into the split.
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/ 15 December 2004
A media owner may put years of work into researching a market gap, but the reader, viewer or listener will only recognise the niche in hindsight. A media brand that awakens its target market to the post-the-fact inevitability of its existence, is a media brand that’s going to be around for a while, argues Kevin Bloom.
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/ 9 December 2004
Adult contemporary may be the most lucrative licence a radio broadcaster can get, but this market looks decidedly overfished. The problem, of course, is that there are a limited number of licences available — and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) is extremely conscious of overfishing depleting the stock.
There’s an unofficial competition going on between local journalism awards for the title of "South Africa’s Pulitzers." But is that such a big honour to chase? And what’s with all these new awards anyway? Kevin Bloom takes his chances on the issue.
If aggregate newspaper purchases are any barometer of a country’s literacy levels — and they sometimes are — there may be grounds for cautious optimism in South Africa. The latest circulation and readership figures show more people are buying newspapers than ever before.