Category archives: Media

“Die Burger’s almost like Riaan Cruywagen” says editor Bun Booyens

by Gill Moodie (@GrubstreetSA) Media24’s Die Burger joined an elite group of newspapers this year that are showing signs of arresting circulation decline, which is really something to crow about in this grim market.

As sales were falling across the board, the ABC circulation figures for the second half of last year showed that Die Burger – which has Western Cape and Eastern Cape editions (the latter grew out of Die Oosterlig) – was slowing its downwards trajectory. Then in the latest set of ABC figures – for the first quarter of 2013 – Die Burger (Western Cape) netted 51 516 compared with 51 232 in the same period of 2012. It’s Port Elizabeth-based Eastern Cape sister posted 10 721 circulation compared with 10 748 the corresponding period of the previous year.

So stability in a devastating quarter for newspapers, in which the Daily Sun lost 20% of circulation, The Star fell 14% and the Pretoria News shed 12%.

I’m sure the excellent reporting and run of exclusive breaks on the Oscar Pistorius story in the first quarter that Die Burger carried (from its sister paper Beeld) helped to buoy sales. And indeed, Die Burger’s Cape Town-based editor, Bun Booyens, is cautious about singing his newspaper’s praises.

“Let’s be sober about this. I think a lot of these are lapsed subscribers that we’ve won back,” he told Grubstreet last week. “We suffered some real subscriber damage with the Cycad software problem (Media24’s CRM programme that governed subscriptions and distribution). I suspect the gains we made were lapsed subscribers, among others, who we won back – which is in itself encouraging.”

Newsjacking: a fad or the future for marketing?

by Richard Gruner, University of Melbourne A newsworthy event is happening right now. And another, and another — it never ends.

This is vital not just for feeding our 24-hour news cycle and hungry media corporations, but increasingly also for marketers working for all sorts of brands. That’s because every news story has the potential to attract the same people firms wish to reach and talk to, and is therefore an opportunity to be “newsjacked”.

Newsjacking. It means injecting a firm’s ideas or angles into breaking news to generate media coverage for your brand. A prominent example of this is when officials at the London Olympics mixed up the Korean flags, and optometrist Specsavers moved in with their slogan: “Should have gone with Specsavers”.

Bestselling marketing author David Scott explains that these stories do not even have to directly relate to your business. When Kate Winslet was staying with Sir Richard Branson at a private retreat, lightning set their home on fire, and Kate rescued Branson’s elderly mother from the blaze. That’s not only a story that will attract attention and interest, but the London Fire Brigade saw an opportunity here to run a story on their website, offering the actress a chance to train with their firefighters. I don’t think she ever took them up on the offer, but with little or no investment, the fire brigade had unprecedented media exposure and interest in their work. Newsjacking on fire.

Newsjacking should happen in near real-time to be executed well. It demands a fluid, creative team that can go from idea, to concept, to market in less than 48 hours. Of course, social media can accelerate this process. It can take weeks or even months for a print ad to get published, but to inject content on your Facebook fan page only takes a few minutes. And yes, as Simms says, if you do it right it’s an easy way to build consumer affinity, affection and saliency for your brand.

MagLove: Nelson Mandela at 95, as captured on magazine covers

MarkLives.com runs a regular slot featuring the best local and international magazine covers every week. We recognise well thought out, powerful and interesting (and hopefully all three in one) magazine covers and celebrate the mix of pragmatism, creativity and personal taste that created each of them. By media blogger MediaSlut.

With Nelson Mandela’s 95 birthday yesterday (18 July 2013) I thought it only appropriate to also celebrate some of the recent beautiful cover designs featuring Madiba.

Hermaneutics: ‘Blackface’ ad faces international backlash

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Cape Town agency Lowe + Partners and client Cape Town Fish Market has been strongly criticised for using ‘blackface’ in their latest TV commercial. The ad has even been featured on Al-Jazeera who reported that the it had sparked ‘outrage among South Africans.’

In American history especially, ‘blackface’ was used to create stereotyped caricatures of black people. Today it is still sometimes used as social commentary or satire but it is generally considered politically incorrect.

The ad in question references a stereotypical ‘African Dictator’ – with an actor in blackfaceand wearing an Afro – diverting funds into his “expense account.” The ad, which consists of various vignettes, features the same actor also playing a prostitute, a dodgy doctor, porn director and rental agent.

Mvelase Peppetta blogged that he found the ad seriously offensive and suggested lack of transformation in the ad industry might have played a role in the ad getting flighted in the first place. “People far smarter and more experienced in SA’s marketing industry than me have time and again explained how the lack of diversity in our ad industry leads to these kind of horribly offensive and stereotypical ads,” wrote Peppetta.

Covering Mandela health, reporters face various obstacles

by Gill Moodie (@GrubstreetSA) The classic Hollywood image of pushy reporters stabbing each other in the back and stepping over the body in the quest for an exclusive is often just that: a celluloid stereotype.

And it’s when the story becomes really difficult – such as with the ailing Nelson Mandela – that you find journalists sticking together and helping each other out with information, leads on the next development and contacts.

This may lead to some homogeneity of the news – and aside from Debora Patta’s scoop for CBS of Mandela’s ambulance break down, we haven’t seen many exclusive breaks in the Mandela story over the past month. In fact, the lack of genuine scoops is an indication of how challenging it has been to cover this story.

In both Pretoria – where Mandela has been in hospital for a month – and in the Transkei – where reporters are racing between Mthatha, Qunu and Mvezo covering the family fight over the remains of Mandela’s three children – journalists are battling with a lack of official information or are being chased away by police and security guards.

MagLove: Gary Player, naked and 77, puts the rest of us to shame

MarkLives.com runs a regular slot featuring the best local and international magazine covers every week. We recognise well thought out, powerful and interesting (and hopefully all three in one) magazine covers and celebrate the mix of pragmatism, creativity and personal taste that created each of them.

Mac, how hard is it to be honest and open about Mandela?

by Gill Moodie (@GrubstreetSA)I was very touched – as I’m sure were many other viewers – by the interview on eNCA last Friday by Annika Larsen with former Rivonia trialist Denis Goldberg after he visited Nelson Mandela in hospital.

I don’t think I am only South African hack – or ordinary citizen – who is mystified by the lack of official information from the presidency and its chief spokesman, Mac Maharaj, on the how our former president is doing in hospital… especially after the confusion last week when Mandela family court papers filed at the Mthatha high court claimed that doctors had advised that life support be switched off.

Goldberg said he wanted to set the record straight – and that he does in this interview!

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