#TheGathering: The business of the media

Ferial Haffajee, Ann Crotty, Mzwanele Manyi, Steven Nathan on the panel at #10XDMGathering. © Daily Maverick website.

Haffajee started the panel discussion by saying that for her the new dawn feels that it almost hasn't broken yet, but, she said, imagine where we would be without the truth tellers, without our journalists, the muckrakers and without our civil society who often work from the work of investigative journalists, and of course without our wonderful judiciary.

#10XDMGathering gets underway, starting the conversation is @ferialhaffajee, @steven10x @MzwaneleManyi . They are discussing about the business of truth. pic.twitter.com/YExxTFSSJU

— TheSouthAfrican.com (@TheSAnews) August 15, 2018

"Our story of state capture is very discrepant with the biggest names in the corporate world. KPMG, Bell Pottinger, McKinsey, I could go on and on," she said and jumped right into asking Manyi if he thought his company was ever going to survive without the funnel from state enterprise treasuries straight into his own. In other words, she said, "Was the New Age and ANN7 channel (that now trades as Afrotone Media Holdings) ever anything than a PR wing for the Gupta family?"

Manyi responded and said: "We at Afrotone Media Holdings do not apologise for government business. And by the way, we are not the only ones." He mentioned that both Sunday Times and City Press newspapers would shut down if government weren't supporting them. "So this notion that when the government is supporting black business, then there is something underhand is wrong," he said.

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Genevieve Quintal  21 Aug 2017

Big business not being a good citizen

Haffejee then addressed Nathan and said that she thinks the media is in real trouble and feels that it will have to be philanthropically funded and by things like crowdfunding. She said that, in a recent interview, she heard Nathan say that it was vital that the media survives because it played such an important role in the past, but also in the present in pushing back against state capture. She asked him if he thought that companies should be consciously taking away their advertising spend, which is increasingly going to Facebook and Google, to fund local media.

Nathan responded by saying that business exists to make a profit and that it is quite difficult to say where business should and should not be spending. "I think Google and the Internet are probably good places for them to spend." But, what concerns him is that business is not being a good citizen in South Africa, and by that, he referred to how much money business gives to fund political campaigns.

Now whether the funding is good or bad, that's not the debate, but what they give proportionally to the media. "They give next to nothing, and if you look at the important role the media plays in South Africa, it's huge," he said.

More politicians or more independent media?

Nathan continued and asked, "What is better for South Africa, more politicians or more independent media?" He said the problem is a global problem; the fact that there is a concentration of power. There's a concentration of economic power and vested interest of driving agendas, and that's why we need the truth to come out, because these vested interests like Facebook and others, they can almost control the truth and invent the truth. So, the more vested interests supporting each other, the less free a society we're going to have, and we can't make good decisions unless we have the truth.

Manyi added that big business isn't helping the same cause. "Big business is also having a symbiotic relationship with a particular mainstream media narrative."

Big players set the rules

Crotty joined the conversation and said she thinks it's really important for government to back black business. "But, as far as I can make out, it's reasonable to put ads in the Sunday Times and the City Press because both those publications have readership to justify the ads," she said. Before ANN7 and New Age, they didn't have any readership, she continued, adding that she didn't think that they could ever justify that kind of advertising.

Manyi responded by saying that he thinks the big players set the rules. He said that they agree that in order for the rate card worth so much, you must have so much security. He said that it is all good and well if you are like the Sunday Times who have been in business for so long, but new players that are measured with the same scale as veterans in this space is just an inherently unfair system. So, he argues, government can't dispense equal treatment on all. "It is incorrect. There has to be a transformation element," he said.

Anne Crotty: @MzwaneleManyi is right. Gvt ad spend should support black media outlets but they should be supported by readership.
Jimmy: this argument works for the big players who can get huge ad spend, while newer players aren't able to compete straight away. #10XDMGathering

— SECTION27 (@SECTION27news) August 15, 2018

Nathan added to the conversation that he thinks the vast amount of South Africans want South Africans to succeed. "Now in order for South Africa to succeed, the population has got to succeed. So, we can't live in South Africa and not want black people to succeed in all facets of our lives." He said that if we look at what government has done in terms of government policy, in terms of equality, equity, ownership, etc, there is an enormous amount of policy that favours black people.

"So if you look at South Africa, this is a huge economy. Government spends about R1.5tn per year. There is a lot of money going around, and it has to be a common cause to want black business people to succeed," he continued, and questioned whether business is being allocated on a fair and transparent basis.

Manyi responded, saying that employment equity is about the profitable distribution of human resources. What it seeks to do is to ensure that in this country 10% is white and so, therefore, all positions should somehow reflect that.

Journalists need resources and training

Haffajee then stated that before the Steinhof scandal broke last December, she saw acres and acres of copy that covered it as a brilliant, globalising South African company and acres of copy that covered Marcus Jooste (Steinhoff ex-CEO) as if he was the next best thing. She then asked if the financial media and the media in general are as good a watchdog over corporate malfeasance as they are over watching the public realm?

Steinhoff director spills the beans about accounting irregularities and Jooste's disappearing act

Linda Ensor  1 Feb 2018

Crotty doesn't think so. "When you talk about the truth, there are so many truths. I'm told that Marcus Jooste does not believe that he did anything wrong. So his truth is… I can’t begin to understand how his mind works. It is a really disturbing reality or thought,” she said.

Great question @ferialhaffajee asks if our media cover corporate malfeasance as well as public? @anncrotty says no. Yep. Would agree. #10XDMGathering

— William Bird (@Billbobbird) August 15, 2018

Manyi commented and said that most of these companies that the competition commission reports about that commit the scariest things in terms of governance and ethics are big advertisers. He said that the media is conflicted because they don't want to write 'bad things' about their customers because they are interested in advertising revenues.

Haffajee pushed back and said that on many occasions, when advertisers have threatened to pull their advertising if a story is not killed, she has seen many editors stand their ground for the stories to go ahead even if that ad is pulled.

Nathan said that before each business deal, you should do an ethics test and ask yourself, "Would you be happy to have that published on the front page?"

Well, would you?

For more on The Gathering: Media Edition, visit the DailyMaverick.co.za and follow the conversation on Twitter #10XDMGathering.