Independence at last?
Friday is the deadline for a deal for Tony O’Reilly to sell the Independent in London to Russian mogul Alexander Lebedev. Let’s hold thumbs.
Continue Reading Add comment February 23rd, 2010
An early warning for our media
A little over a year ago, award-winning British reporter Nick Davies turned his investigative skills on his colleagues in the media and produced a book called Flat Earth News. It shook up British journalism.
Continue Reading 1 comment February 12th, 2010
And how about a lazy newspaper reporter …
I also had a bad experience of lazy journalism from a leading national business publication this week - one from whom I have come to expect higher standards.
Continue Reading 1 comment January 25th, 2010
Wild and woolly advertising
Two adverts caught my eye: Sunday Time’s giant front pages on buildings across Joburg and a mysterious bottle of whisky in the middle of a page in The Times.
Continue Reading 2 comments November 27th, 2009
Behind the Naspers results
Probing behind the Nasper’s results shows some interesting things: how bad things are in newspapers, how our TV market is changing quietly, and just how big and powerful Naspers is.
Continue Reading 2 comments November 27th, 2009
Miserable newspaper sales figures
Last week’s newspaper circulation figures indicate that we may have joined the many countries seeing a rapid decline of the industry. Only one daily and one Sunday newspaper were the exception as sales plunged. Usually there are some that go up and some down, but this time it plummeted across the board.
Continue Reading 1 comment November 25th, 2009
Death in the newspaper family
It is a sad day when any newspaper closes, and the Weekender, whose last edition came today, was a paper that had enriched my Saturday reading considerably and had found a definite place in my home. There are two questions one must ask: why did it fail, and does this mean there is no place for such a serious newspaper in this big city of ours?
Continue Reading 2 comments November 7th, 2009
Sundays are looking up
Sundays could become interesting again, at least for those of us who like our weekend newspapers. There is nothing like an infusion of new energy into the Sunday newspaper market, and hints of a circulation battle, to liven things up.
Continue Reading Add comment October 31st, 2009
Behind the scenes at the Indie
Oh my gosh, the Sunday Independent has what looks like it might be a full-time editor. What accounts for this sudden lavish spending by the Independent group?
Continue Reading 3 comments September 22nd, 2009
Take your head out the sand, Peter Bruce
Business Day editor Peter Bruce had a go in his column on Monday at the head of First National Bank for suggesting to his staff that they should stop their newspaper subscriptions - costing over R1-m a year - and read it all online. Bruce was being - I am afraid - struthious.
Continue Reading 3 comments September 18th, 2009
Semenya and the funambulists
Journalists are like high wire artists: magnificent when they get it right, but with a long way to fall when they get it wrong. And the difference is often only a shift in balance. The Caser Semenya story is a case in point.
Continue Reading 3 comments September 17th, 2009
Can the M&G stand by its man?
The Mail & Guardian is in a real fix: how can it stand by a reporter who did not take notes in a major interview which has caused a national furore?
Continue Reading 1 comment August 28th, 2009
Bold Times
The Times today boldly turned its front page on the side and splashed its cover over front and back - as a bold welcome to our athletic star, Caster Semenya. I detect a note of guilt in their treatment of the story.
Continue Reading 2 comments August 25th, 2009
