FROM THE EDITOR INDEPENDENT INDUSTRY INTELLIGENCE
www.themediaonline.co.za
PUBLISHED BY Arena Holdings Hill on Empire, 16 Empire Road (cnr Hillside Road) Parktown Johannesburg 2193 Postal Address: PO Box 1746 Saxonwold Johannesburg 2193 Telephone: +27 11 280 3000 EDITORIAL Editor: Glenda Nevill glenda.nevill@cybersmart.co.za Content Manager: Raina Julies rainaj@picasso.co.za Sub-Editor: Anthony Sharpe Content Co-ordinator: Vanessa Payne Contributors: Roxanne Boyes, Benoit Cacheux, Dr Glenda Daniels, Sandra Gordon, Nicole Greenfield-Smith, Paula Hulley, Claudelle Naidoo, Uyanda Manana, Ben Milne, Solly Moeng, Kagiso Musi, Yolisa Phahle, Britta Reid, Joe Steyn-Begley, Simon Wall, Riaan Wolmarans, Tim Zunckel DESIGN Head of Design: Jayne Macé-Ferguson Project Designer: Anja Hagenbuch SALES Sales Manager: Tarin-Lee Watts twatts@themediaonline.co.za +27 79 504 7729 Sales Administrator: Neesha Klaaste PRODUCTION Production Editor: Shamiela Brenner Advertising Co-ordinator: Johan Labuschagne
IMAGE: SUPPLIED
IMAGE: SUPPLIED
MANAGEMENT General Manager, Magazines: Jocelyne Bayer
Copyright: The Media. No portion of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without written consent of the publisher. The publisher is not responsible for unsolicited material. The Media is published by Arena Holdings. The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Arena Holdings. All advertisements/advertorials have been paid for and therefore do not carry any endorsement by the publisher.
On the record…
“ T
his time last year…” Never before has that innocuous little phrase had such meaning. We were just about to put the 2020 issue of The Media Yearbook to bed when EVERYTHING changed. Only the latest contributions to come in mentioned the big C-word. We were just about to enter level five hard lockdown, and many of us, in our naivety, thought the coronavirus would be conquered and life would return to almost normal. A year later, as I write this, we are just about to put The Media Yearbook 2021 to bed. This time, our stories pay homage to the resilience of the media industry, and how it is dealing with the massive changes brought about by the pandemic. Our loose theme is ‘Revive, recalibrate, refresh’, and those media companies that have survived have done just that. Sadly, many didn’t make it through the first year of Covid-19. Some were already battling, dealing with the ongoing impact of digital transformation and its ripple effects on advertising. The pandemic hastened their demise. Others rallied, embracing the challenges of working from home, Zoom or Teams meetings, virtual pitching and events, and new ways of selling and communicating. In our own small way, The Media magazine too has changed. We’ve transitioned to digital magazines, with limited print runs for special occasions. We’ve updated and increased our online databases, as these are our most important currency in this digital world. The Media Online’s numbers soared in 2020 – as did many publisher platforms. Now that the (media) world is back at work (albeit still from home or in some kind of hybrid WFH model), most publishers have reported numbers stabilising from the lofty heights we experienced in the first few months of lockdown. We wanted the 2021 issue of The Media Yearbook to tell the stories of our sector, and how the different businesses within the media industry learned to survive, adapt and change. As always, we’ve sourced content from South Africa, the continent and abroad to offer our readers a wide perspective on the year that was, and the year to come. The Media. Got to love it. Glenda
themediaonline.co.za
05_TheMediaYearbook2021_EdsNoteInfoPanel.indd 5
THE MEDIA YEARBOOK 2021 I 5
14.04.21 10:20
