[Rod Baker, Content Director]President Zuma's portrait - you know the one we're talking about - has kept Gail Schimmel awake. The issue, she says, is that the moment we decide that there is a certain category of person that deserves no dignity, we are on a slippery slope.
The Sunday Times editor, Ray Hartley, is a man who wants answers - don't we all... read more
[Rod Baker, Content Director] The 2012 Biz Trends Report, which was sponsored this year by Aegis Media, was the main focus of the online media marketing sector discussion at the fifth Thought Leadership Digibate held recently in Joburg.
Meanwhile, Theunis Botha, leader of the Christian Democratic Party, says that Western Cape Premier Helen Zille must resign after Public Protector Thuli Madonsela found that a communications tender awarded to TBWA/Hunt Lascaris in 2010 was provisionally invalid. Unfortunately, there are not many politicians in this country or anywhere else for that matter who do what we might expect them to do in this sort of situation. read more
[Rod Baker, Content Director] The SABC is debating the role its group CEO should play in decisions about its news coverage. This follows the dispute that led to the suspension of head of news Phil Molefe. read more
[Rod Baker, Content Director] We've got some interesting research - believed to be a first - for you from UCLA. Researchers have found that when it comes to which ads are winners your brain knows better than you do. read more
[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] The April Fool's press releases - under embargo - started arriving in my inbox on Thursday last week already, so when on Friday, 30 March 2012, I read The Media Online's story that Media24 almost poached the entire Sunday Times' investigative team of Mzilikazi Wa Afrika, Stephan Hofstatter and Rob Rose, I checked the date twice and still almost didn't believe it. Incidentally, the trio walked off with the 2011 Taco Kuiper Award for Investigative Journalism on Friday afternoon - nothing new for them.
And then there's State Security's new 'advertising' campaign for the Protection of State Information Bill... read more (2 Comments)
[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] Actually, I think there are very few months of the year in which there aren't any awards events. And since Bizcommunity.com covers so many different but related industries, there's always a different circle of professionals 'robustly debating' the worth and value of awards. read more
[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] Today we've launched our Biz reader survey, to which the first 1000 readers to respond will each receive a one-month subscription to iPad-only daily magazine iMaverick. Read more about the reader research here and take the survey here. read more
[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] First, the sad news: today the South African media community has been paying tribute to top economist Tony Twine, who passed away on Sunday 11 March after having suffered a heart attack last week - see Twitter and Google News - and Afrikaans actor Andrew Thompson committed suicide on Friday 9 March. We at Bizcommunity.com extend our condolences to family, friends and colleagues of both.
On a positive note, IOL has a new editor - Alastair Otter - and the Mail & Guardian a new associate editor - Phillip de Wet; 5FM has been teasing us with more lineup changes; and Black River FC has bagged Edcon's Legit account from The Jupiter Drawing Room; and 8ta's through-the-line services are out to tender.
Controversially: South Africa has a new brand slogan; Ster-Kinekor Theatres is no longer advertising its movie schedules in Independent Newspapers, according to iafrica.com; the Cape Argus has gone 'compact' since last Friday - read Gill Moodie's interview with editor-in-chief Chris Whitfield; Tiffany Markman has written a follow-up to her #bankwars: 'Steve' vs Standard Bank experience; and this morning 702's Redi Tlhabi hosted a debate between reputation manager/spin doctor Chris Vick and M&G editor Nic Dawes regarding media integrity, professionalism and accountability (listen to the 702 podcast).
In other news, Karin Botta and Uno de Waal from trigger/isobar (part of Aegis Media) are currently in Austin, Texas, attending the annual film, music and interactive festival SxSW and blogging about it here on Biz; the next Thought Leadership Digibate, hosted by Aegis Media in conjunction with Biz, will focus on the state of print media in SA this Friday 16 March; and we've partnered with iafrica.com to launch the Jobs Channel, which enables job seekers to search for jobs across a range of industries in SA. read more (1 Comment)
[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] I'm not going to rabbit on much about Design Indaba in this editorial column, as I'm saving it for the special edition newsletter which we will be putting out later this week (hint: send your press releases and gallery contributions for editorial consideration by end of Tuesday afternoon for possible inclusion, or forever hold your peace).
What I will say is that, once again, it was a well-run, thought-provoking and inspiring conference that was jam-packed with wonderful ideas showcasing how design is truly cross-discipline and should be part of everything we do. And the Design Indaba expo was crammed with the most wonderful, high quality South African design and craft, so much so that I'm still not sure I saw everything, despite having spent at least five hours perusing it over three separate occasions. read more
[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] On Thursday evening, 23 February 2012, when I caught wind of what has been nicknamed the #bankwars, my first reaction was to *wince* and tweet that "[t]his banking blowup on Twitter is just thoroughly cringeworthy. I see even @nedbank uttered something inane" (see this retweet to understand why). read more
[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] Lowe Bull is rebranding as Lowe + Partners South Africa after the international parent company acquired a majority share in the local agency, with Peter Badenhorst to be ECD of Lowe Johannesburg - read all about it in Herman Manson's exclusive for Bizcommunity.com. This should really come as no surprise, considering that in September 2011 it was announced that Matthew Bull had teamed up with FoxP2's Andrew Whitehouse to launch the New-York-based The Bull-White House, a sister agency to FoxP2.
Last week we announced that Joe Public had not only won the Jet account but that it has gone international with Joe Public Amsterdam. read more
[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] So the hoo-hah of the weekend was the announcement on Friday afternoon that the South African Reserve Bank governor would announcing something of "national importance" on Saturday afternoon, together with the president and the minister of finance. And, oh boy, did the speculation and rumours fly and the markets react! In the end, it turned out to be more a case of historical importance or significance: redesigning our note currency for improved security and honouring Madiba at the same time by including his face on the one side. read more
[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] With much sadness, we at Bizcommunity.com extend our condolences to family, friends and colleagues of John Farquhar, the legendary ad man and commentator who passed away this weekend after a long period of illness.
In conjuction with AdVantage magazine, which he co-founded in 1993, we have set up a special page to commemorate his life and legacy and we invite everyone to add pay tribute to this man of fascinating contradiction who had such an impact on the South African advertising, marketing and media industries.
Details of wake:
Date: Friday 3 February
Time: 12.30pm-3pm
Venue: Bryanston Country Club, Bryanston Drive, Bryanston, Johannesburg
Happy lunching, John!Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)
Managing editorWake details added at 9.50am on 31 January 2012.read more
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