Mail & Guardian Online launches The Media magazine's new website

The Media Online will include an archive of The Media magazine's highly sought-after content, reaching back to the inaugural October 2002 issue. The aim is to make the magazine's cover stories, features, columns and illustrations available to a wider African and international audience, and is in part motivated by the sustained interest shown by media professionals on the continent and beyond.

Says The Media's editor Kevin Bloom: "The Mail & Guardian Online is the perfect fit for us. Not only is the site the oldest and most respected online news presence in Africa, but it is also the website of choice for ex-pat South Africans looking for an intelligent and provocative read on issues back home."

Aside from the archive of The Media's in-depth features and columns, The Media Online will offer regularly updated news articles on media developments in South Africa and Africa, a discussion forum facilitating debate on media and journalism's most contentious issues, and delayed postings from the Mail & Guardian's media pages.

Says Mail & Guardian Online editor Matthew Buckland: "We are excited about the prospects of this relationship and are pleased to be associated with a quality title such as The Media. The Media brings focused, high-quality, in-depth content to the Mail & Guardian Online's broad content offering. The Mail & Guardian Online will expose The Media content and brand to its local and international base of more than 235
000 monthly readers and help drive up subscriptions to the print title."

"The M&G Online editorial team will run and update the site. The Media site will run off the M&G Online's content management system, developed by M-Web, which also provides the technical backbone and hosting for the site," adds Buckland.

* The Media Online website is at: http://www.themedia.co.za
* The Mail & Guardian Online is at: http://www.mg.co.za