[Behind the Selfie] with... Justin Zehmke

Reflections of my self(ie)

1. Where do you live, work and play?

Zehmke: I live in Pringle Bay, work in the Cape Town City Bowl with regular stints in Joburg and, as for play, there's not much time for that. Weekends are like holidays in Pringle Bay, so I don't feel the need to do much else.

2. What's your claim to fame?

Zehmke: Apart from my media career, I'm a qualified chef and an increasingly competent brewer of quality beer.

3. Describe your career so far.

Zehmke: A long period of freelancing, followed by ten years of climbing up the management ladder, which has been difficult but very rewarding.

4. Tell us a few of your favourite things.

Zehmke: Belgian Tripel Ales, strong cheeses and obnoxiously loud music.

5. What do you love about your industry?

Zehmke: The pace of change, the constant evolution and the total unpredictability. We are always one Facebook or Twitter away from having the game changed completely.

6. What are a few pain points your industry can improve on?

Zehmke: In South Africa, advertisers need to wake up to the possibilities offered by digital and stop seeing it as an afterthought, and of course, we need decent, affordable broadband for the man on the street.

7. Describe your average workday (if such a thing exists).

Zehmke: Check and answer emails over coffee at home followed by a nice hour-long drive to work to gather my thoughts. I drive one of the most spectacular roads in the world every morning and afternoon, which really focuses the mind. Once in the office I deal with staff queries for the first hour or so, then back to email. The rest of the day is split between meetings, planning sessions, reviewing web stats and editorial plans, checking on project progress with the tech department and more staff questions and issues. I leave the office around 6pm and do a final email sweep once I get home.

8. What are the tools of your trade?

Zehmke: An agile, inquisitive mind and saintly patience.

9. Who is getting it right in your industry?

Zehmke: Sadly, I don't think anyone has really found the solution to making digital publishing work in terms of profitability. One could point to Vice as a success story, but there's more than just a whiff of 'bubble waiting to burst' about them. Would it be arrogant to claim that Ole Media are as close to getting it right as I've seen? (Ed: It would not, clearly that's why you're working there.]

10. What are you working on right now?

Zehmke: Numerous projects, most of which I can't really reveal as yet. My job is to develop new publishing opportunities, so by its very nature, I tend to practise the code of Omerta until the products are ready.

11. Tell us some of the buzzwords floating around in your industry at the moment, and some of the catchphrases you utter yourself.

Zehmke: I'm not really one for buzzwords, but I keep hearing about people looking to develop a 'killer app'. I tend to think the fact that much of our industry is run by hipsters always looking to out-cool each other is a negative, as it alienates huge swathes of the potential audience. While there's a feverish search for the next 'killer app', millions of South Africans are still on feature phones. While the discourse is dominated by early adopters and urban trendoids, I like focussing on the man in the blue overall. So there's my buzzword I suppose. "Serve the man in the blue overall."

12. Where and when do you have your best ideas?

Zehmke: Under pressure and at the last minute.

13. What's your secret talent/party trick?

Zehmke: I can open a beer with almost anything, from a lighter to a car door to a shoe.

14. Are you a technophobe or a technophile?

Zehmke: Technophile. I love gadgets.

15. What would we find if we scrolled through your phone?

Zehmke: Games, hundreds of pictures of my daughter, and an eclectic mix of music, beer recipes and hopefully a completely blank browsing history.

16. What advice would you give to newbies hoping to crack into the industry?

Zehmke: Find the one thing you're really good at, nail that, then wing your way through the rest.

17. Plug your contact details, punt yourself - list all the places people can find you/your work online...

Zehmke: I'd rather not. I work behind the scenes these days and prefer that the product gets the attention. But check out the Ole Media Group website for a nice overview of what we're about.

Click here for more on Zehmke and visit the Ole Media Group press office.

*Interviewed by Leigh Andrews.