Online media membership growing

Representative of South African online media companies, the Online Publishers Association (OPA)'s six new members take total membership of the OPA to 30 publishers, which between them host over 6.6 million website visitors*.

"The Online Publishers Association, with the addition of these new members, represents an increasingly healthy and profitable industry. The Internet, in the last decade, has moved from communicating to a small niche of users to becoming a mainstream media channel reaching millions of consumers. We look forward to the continued growth and success of online publishing," saysRussell Hanly, chairman of the OPA.

The six new members are:

Funnel: a South African local content search engine
DStv: the online offering of digital satellite television company, Multichoice
Junk Mail: an online classified advertising web site
New Media: the developer of magazines such as Insig, Visi and Time Out, among other consumer-focused publications and websites
Interface: the owner of sites such as Webmail and Easyinfo
Autotrader: an automotive e-commerce company

The OPA was developed to manage the interests of the burgeoning online media industry and provide clear and consistent communication of the information relating to it. A key part of the role of the OPA is to communicate the benefits of online advertising, which has now become an increasing mainstream marketing platform, worth in the region of R183 million**.

*According to Nielsen//Netratings statistics for Q2 2006
** According to recent research by World Wide Worx