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Hasn't this been a year? Of highs and lows, nation-pride and change. It went so fast and was so incredibly busy, it's hard to remember everything that happened. So here is Bizcommunity.com's informal (and entirely subjective) list of the good, the bad and the ugly that was 2007.
Feel free to weigh in with your best and worst below in our comments section as well. So, in no particular order, here's our list:
Most read…
MOST TALKED ABOUT ON BIZCOMMUNITY IN 2007: As a subject that is guaranteed to get the most reader comments and debate, radio wins hands down, year after year. We also launched our breaking news and sports blogs this year and our live blogging from the Media24 press conference during the circulation scandal was a highlight, receiving over 6000 hits from all over the world. These were our most commented on articles and forums:
MOST POPULAR POLLS: In our recently launched Polls on the home page of Bizcommunity.com, the two polls that generated enormous activity in a matter of days were:
BEST ‘SKANDAAL' OF 2007: Media48… er… Media24 certainly provided the fun and games in the industry this year. The circulation scandal which saw 12 of its consumer magazine titles suspended from the Audit Bureau of Circulations and audits reordered of all Media24 magazine titles, and key staff suspended in the investigation is still ongoing.
BEST NICKNAME FOR 2007: ‘Teflon Trish' was the nickname given to Media24 Magazines CEO, Patricia Scholtemeyer by Bizcommunity.com readers, as she refused to resign or step down from the chair of the Magazine Publishers' Association of SA (MPASA), as her magazines were being suspended from the same body.
THE MEDIA PERSONALITY THAT SHOULDN'T HAVE GOT OUT OF BED: Patricia Scholtemeyer. Crowned “Vodacom Media Woman of the Year” just a month prior to the Media24 circulation scandal breaking, Scholtemeyer has certainly faced her own annis horribilis.
COLUMNIST OF THE YEAR BY DEFAULT: Deon Maas whose first column… ‘trying to be controversial since it's my first column and I need to shake things up a bit' was also his last column for Afrikaans Sunday newspaper Rapport after he dared argue the case for Satanism being another religion, all in the context of freedom of speech and debate.
THE STORY THAT SENT OUR STATS SKY-HIGH: The Media24 circulation saga and anything mentioning radio, particularly radio DJ lineup changes!
THE STORY WITH LEGS: Media24 circulation saga. Last week we heard that Media24 has closed down InStyle and The Wisden Cricketer, two magazines affected by the circulation fraud. We are still waiting to hear what the outcome is of the disciplinary hearings regarding the key staff suspended.
THE BIGGEST COCK-UP: The leaking of the Loerie results by mistake by the Loerie Awards own website a whole week before the Loeries caravan hit Margate. The badly drawn cover-up by the Loeries Committee who pretended it wasn't a story and didn't affect the overall excitement of the awards on the night made you wonder what they had been sniffing.
THE SADDEST STORY: the death of reggae star Lucky Dube by hijackers in Johannesburg.
THE NASTIEST STORY: the ABC-Caxton led attack on Bizcommunity media guru Chris Moerdyk over his strong commentary on the magazine circulation debacle.
SOCIAL NETWORK OF THE YEAR: Facebook. The social media phenomena that is Facebook has brought social networking mainstream.
MEDIA MOMENT OF THE YEAR: Zuma speaking about media freedom surrounded by the media editors, journalists, photographers and cartoonists he is currently suing – while Zapiro doodled him at an adjouning table.
Events and communications
ONGOING TRAINING NEEDED: for communicators to teach them how to pitch and get published in online media.
WE STILL HATE: event organisers and event venues with cinema-style seating with midget-only suitable tables and no space or accommodation for media tables and power supply.
MOST ILL-EQUIPPED MEDIA VENUE: Cape Town International Convention Centre.
MOST MEDIA FRIENDLY CONFERENCE COMPANIES: (1) Global Conferences; (2) Knowledge Resources.
BEST LAUNCH THIS YEAR: Nike… the VIP rock star treatment throughout the night was something we will never forget – being chauffeured in a Hummer was a great touch!
WORST LAUNCH THIS YEAR: LG…Disastrous ‘organisation'.The event started late, the food ran out, the speeches were almost two hours long and mind-numbing.
WORST MEDIA EVENT FOOD THIS YEAR: Park Hyatt Hotel, Rosebank.
THE WORST PROMOTION OF THE YEAR: the locked black box we couldn't open as the key didn't arrive with the promotional whatever it was, from who we don't know.
BEST BRIBES… ER… SORRY… MEDIA GIFTS: the cellphone companies with their big budgets make an editor's life worth living on those days when every PRO south of the equator wants to know when their press release is going to be published; and all the technology launches where lucky journos can walk away with laptops, cellphones, digital cameras, etc, to ‘review'. (Just a little thought for next year: what happened to the spa vouchers this year…? Stressed editors so appreciate those little tokens of your affection and esteem…)
BEST GADGET: the DStv trials of television on cellphones involving lucky editors (again) who get to participate. One feels rather smug being involved at the start of this cutting edge technology and never short of conversation or ‘show & tell' at boring events or dinner parties… ‘Hey, have you seen my new TV phone…?' is bound to draw an appreciative group.
SECOND BEST GADGET: The new Nokia82 digital camera-quality phone which the lucky Biz assistant editor (who has extremely rapid reflexes, managing to beat the editor this time in grabbing that gift) will be trialing on her holiday travels through Istanbul and Israel in December.
WORST INVITES: all those who require us to click through or fill out some quiz. We don't have TIME! Just tell us when, where, which city, which hotel, and what the gifts are, so we can make snap decisions.
QUESTIONS PROS MUST NEVER ASK:
Did you get my press release?
Are you going to use it?
Let me know when it has been used?!
What does the PR industry think editors do all day? Wait for their itty bitty little press releases to land and then excitedly phone and say thank you? Sorry dahlings, but most often we are breaking nails hitting the delete button… or having spa treatments or going to launches where the gifts are guaranteed – you know, doing editorery things.
Trivia
ALL TIME BEST NATION-PRIDE MOMENT OF THE YEAR: when that final whistle blew and we knew the Springboks had won the Rugby World Cup and everyone went mad.
THE BEST AGENCY BATHROOMS: Going to the can at Universal McCann is a pleasure (no, not that one)… The interior is to die for doll, black chandeliers et al!
BIGGEST HAIR: Kevin Bloom, one of the editor's of Empire the new media mag that's got everyone talking; followed a close second by this editor.
BEST HOLIDAY READS: The Long Tail by Chris Anderson – dubbed the best marketing book since Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point; as well as the third in the scenario planning series by Chantell Illbury & Clem Sunter: Socrates and the Fox.
BIGGEST TREND OF 2007: Social media networking and the rise of citizen journalism. It is transforming the media landscape globally forever and is changing the way brands have to interact with their consumers.
NEXT KILLER APPLICATION: Mobile, mobile, mobile! The new generation of mobile phones will allow consumers to watch TV, use a myriad social networking applications, get email, podcast, vlog, blog, listen to music, streaming radio and much much more. The fact that it is with consumers, on their person ALL THE TIME, makes it the favoured marketing tool of the near future.
Now go off and enjoy your holidays and safe travelling! Bizcommunity.com's daily newsletters return Monday, 7 January 2008.
Louise Marsland is editor and editorial director of Bizcommunity.com, Africa’s leading provider of daily media, marketing, and advertising news and information. She is also the South African joint-coordinator and founder of the Trade, Association, Business Publication International (TABPI) Editor’s Chapter. She has recently also been appointed to head up the Magazine Publishers’ Association of South Africa (MPASA) Business-to-business Media Sub-committee. A journalist with 21 years’ experience, Marsland started in daily newspapers in South Africa in the 1980s and has specialised in media strategy and B2B and online media in the last decade, editing and launching publications in the main in the marketing and FMCG retail market, both print and online. She recently researched the sustainability of the B2B media sector for her Masters in Commerce degree: Strategy & Organisational Dynamics, through the Leadership Centre of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She is currently researching a book in her field and develops training programmes in the B2B media sector; and marketing communications arena in knowledge management from a media perspective. Contact her on: editor@bizcommunity.com.
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Louise Marsland is editor and editorial director of Bizcommunity.com, Africa’s leading provider of daily media, marketing, and advertising news and information. She is also the South African joint-coordinator and founder of the Trade, Association, Business Publication International (TABPI) Editor’s Chapter. She has recently also been appointed to head up the Magazine Publishers’ Association of South Africa (MPASA) Business-to-business Media Sub-committee. A journalist with 21 years’ experience, Marsland started in daily newspapers in South Africa in the 1980s and has specialised in media strategy and B2B and online media in the last decade, editing and launching publications in the main in the marketing and FMCG retail market, both print and online. She recently researched the sustainability of the B2B media sector for her Masters in Commerce degree: Strategy & Organisational Dynamics, through the Leadership Centre of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She is currently researching a book in her field and develops training programmes in the B2B media sector; and marketing communications arena in knowledge management from a media perspective. Contact her on: 
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