HOW INDEPENDENT IS RESPONDING TO

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR

MEDIA IN AFRICA

DR  IQBAL  SURVÉ    INDEPENDENT  MEDIA  SOUTH  AFRICA

Once  known  as  the  “Heart  of  Darkness”,  Africa  is  on  the  rise  and  the  continent  is  facing  a  new  dawn  full  of  opportunities.  The  interplay  between  information,  news  and  technology  is  allowing  the  average  African  citizen  to  be  informed,  connected  and  empowered  to  effect  change  at  both  the  micro  and  macro  levels.”

Amadou  Mahtar  Ba  –  CEO  African  Media  Initiative

AFRICA  BY  AFRICANS

Challenges    Shrinking  advertising  

revenues  in  legacy  media  Media’s  loss  of  authority  Journalism  vs  Content  

Audience  shift  to  mobile  Broadband  

Poverty  Restrictions  on  media  

freedom

Opportunities    Growth  of  mobile  Video  as  the  platform  of  choice  Growing  middle  class  Appetite  for  tech  innovations  Need  for  solutions  journalism  Communications  as  a  tool  of  democracy  and  growth  Digital  as  a  tool  to  close  education,  health  and  development  gaps  Africa  is  a  new  business  opportunity  for  the  world  Mobile  allows  us  to  reach  hitherto  inaccessible  communities

MED

IA  IN

 AFR

ICA

AFRICA  IS  …

INDEPENDENT’S  STRATEGY  …

ABOUT  INDEPENDENTFrom  legacy  to  new  media

INDEPENDENT  MARKETING  WAYONE  OF  SA’S  LARGEST  MEDIA  COs

Late  2012  –  Irish  owned  A  19  year  old  brand  with  a  stable  of  18  daily  and  weekend  titles,    some  more   than   150   years   old   and   15   free   community  titles.      Great  legacy  brands  with  no  investment,  no  digital  plan,    no  new  products,  mired  in  cost  cutting.  

One  year  later    Independent  News  &  Media  sold  to  Sekunjalo.    New   ownership,   change   management,   considerable  investment,  particularly  in  digital,  six  new  products  and  a  structural  change  from  regional  to  national.  

OUR  BACKGROUND

CHANGING  THE  BUSINESS

Become Africa’s premium provider of quality content across all media platforms

Independent Media will lead the new media revolution by helping to build and strengthen a democratic South Africa and grow our presence locally and and on the continent. This we will accomplish with excellence in the way we conduct our business, in our product offering and in our service to our diverse readership base. 

OUR  VISION  …

BUILDING  A  NEW  TECHNOLOGY  STACK  AND  OUR  DIGITAL  PORTFOLIO

MOBILE  FIRST  PUBLISHING

Features•Elastic  Search  algorithms  •Standalone  or  integrated  with  existing  editorial  process  •Bulk  media  archive  upload  and  index  facility  •Metadata  search  capability  •Metadata  update  capability  •Speed  and  performance  in  search  paramount  •Syndicated  capability  across  multiple  digital  properties

Projects where being used•SAPA  and  ANA  news  agencies  media  archives  •Independent  Media  historical  archive    

CLOUD  BASED  DIGITAL  ASSET  LIBRARY  

BUILDING  BRAND  INDEPENDENT

MORE  DIGITAL  INVENTORY

VENACULAR  PRODUCTS  ON  DIGITAL

OUR  LOCAL  NEWS  BRANDS  ON  MOBILE

Mobile  Journalism  and  User  Generated  Content

OUR  OWN  APP  TO  DRIVE  USER  CONTENT

NEW  PRODUCTS,  NEW  BUSINESSESMobile,  Digital,  Print  and  into  Africa  …

Independent  media’s  online  shopping  site/Ecommerce  partnership  and  investment.  

BUILDING  ECOMMERCE

Africa’s  first  syndicated  multimedia  news  service.  A  single  source  of  reliable  and  credible  news  on  government,  politics,  economies,  markets,  business,  sports  and  lifestyle  pushing  content  on  Africa  to  Africa  and  from  Africa  to  the  world

AFRICA’S  1ST  NEWS  &  PR  WIRE  AGENCY

Weekly  newspaper  reporting  on  news,  sport,  lifestyle  and  business  in  Sub-­‐Saharan  Africa.    Strong  online  presence  ensures  readers  are  kept  abreast  of  events  on  the  continent,  as  and  when  they  happen.  African  Independent  reaches  Angola,  Botswana,  Ghana,  Kenya,  Lesotho,  Malawi,  Mauritius,  Mozambique,  Namibia,  Swaziland,  Tanzania,  Uganda,  Zambia,  Zimbabwe  and  South  Africa.  

GROWING  MEDIA  IN  AFRICA

GROWING  MEDIA  IN  AFRICA

NEW

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IA  PRO

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A  reader  INSIGHTS  PANEL  and  weekly  survey  across  all  our  daily,  weekly  and  digital  titles/products.  Reaching  800  respondents  on  a  weekly  basis.  The  INsight  database  will  consist  of  10  000  national  opted  in  respondents    (subscribers,  regular  readers,  non  regular  readers)    

BUILDING  AUDIENCE  KNOWLEDGE  WITH  OUR  INSIGHTS  PANEL

2016:  20  MOJO  interns  2016  :  30  Multi  Media  interns  2017:  100  Racism  Stops  With  Me  interns

DEVELOPING  A  CORP  OF  MOBILE  FIRST  MULTI-­‐MEDIA  JOURNALISTS

SUCCESS:  MOJO  team  is  now  a  fully  fledged  business  unit,  supporting  the  newsrooms

▪  Experimental  first  step  in  the  space  of  new  digital  storytelling  ▪  It  paired  interns  with  our  print  titles  to  focus  newsrooms  on  new  formats  ▪  Opportunity  to  bring  digital  natives  into  our  storytelling  ▪  Seed  new  storytelling  in  our  newsrooms  so  staff  can  get  over  digital  “fear”  ▪  Commercial  Mojo  Unit  adds  value  to  multiplatform  solutions

MOJO:  MOBILE  JOURNALISM  BY  MILLENNIALS

MOJO  BUILDS  MOBILE  PRODUCTS

USING  MEDIA  FOR  SOCIAL  GOOD

Racism  Stops  With  Me  –  a  year  long  campaign  Fees  Must  Fall  –  student  takeover  of  the  newspaper  The  Dignity  Project  –  the  homeless  write  for  us

BUILDING  NEW

 PRO

DUCT

 LINES

3  MON

TH  SU

BSCRIPTION

 TO  A  LOCAL  DAILY  N

EWSPA

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KEYHOLDERS  SHAPED  FOR  THE  CITY

BUILDING  360°  CLIENT  SOLUTIONS

Independent  Media  won  the  Global  Innovation  Award  for  Africa  at  the  INMA    (International  News  Media  Association)  International  Awards  ceremony  in  New  York  in  May  2015    More  than  30  marketing  and  media  executives  worldwide  judged  the  INMA  Awards

WE  PICKED  UP  SOME  AWARDS  …

• Building  a  Data  Management  Platform  • Growing  our  content  solutions  business  • Focusing  newspapers  strong  local  news,  solutions  journalism  and  thought  leadership  

• Growing  digital  media  in  Africa  • Building  a  Membership  Business  • Building  our  Events  Business

WHAT  WE’RE  FOCUSING  ON  RIGHT  NOW