Doubling down on digital
From the ashes of last year’s across-the-board disruption arose an opportunity for digital news publishers to shine, writes RIAAN WOLMARANS.
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RECORD NUMBERS OF READERS FLOCKED TO OUR WEBSITES TO CONSUME VERIFIED, RELIABLE INFORMATION ABOUT THE CRISIS
Riaan Wolmarans
IMAGE: SUPPLIED
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year ago, in January 2020, South African news websites were reporting on the new coronavirus outbreak in China – of interest, but not all that dramatic for a country down at the southern tip of Africa. Little did anyone know how quickly, and how badly, Covid-19 would disrupt our news industry. Less than three months later, the country entered a full lockdown. News publishers scrambled to ensure staff could work from home, and that reporters and editors had the right paperwork to carry on as essential workers. At Arena Holdings, the immediate effects included not being able to print our magazines, including Financial Mail. Newspaper printing continued, but distribution and sales became a nightmare. Retail outlets were closed, distribution routes became unviable and readers who routinely bought newspapers were confined to their homes, instantly breaking that habit. Customer support suffered when our external call centre shut down. We made quick technical changes to ease access to our e-editions (PDF replicas of our print editions) and marketed these online to our readers. Take-up was healthy but shady characters started distributing these for free on WhatsApp, so we had to prevent the printing and copying of e-edition pages.
themediaonline.co.za
08.04.21 11:46
