Online – a necessary evil![](https://biz-file.com/b/0911/35002.jpg?1) Whether Rupert Murdoch's threat to pull content from News Corp off Google and put up a pay wall on all content from the company's publications is idle or not, it has brought to the fore, yet again, the question of whether newsprint will survive the rise of the digital age. There's a definite growing fear that print publications will slowly phase out as decreasing revenues make them unsustainable. It's a huge conundrum that companies are facing and whatever has to be done needs to be done soon. In this day and age, you really don't exist if you don't have a presence online - it is a necessary evil. The trick is how companies turn that evil - that churns out free content - into a money-making entity. Most consumers no longer share any loyalty to certain publications as Google throws up various websites every time you search for a story. In Africa, a large portion of the population will barely recognise newspapers as a prime source of news as many leapfrog the print era and go straight to digital. There's a new era dawning for news content on the web - Rupert Murdoch knows it, and so do a host of other media companies including Naspers, which announced last week that it will continue to focus on growing its internet operations, which I think, is a wise decision at this point in time. Sindy Peters, content manager
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Marketing & Media
![](https://biz-file.com/c/0911/41139.jpg) C Squared, the UK-based company behind The Festival of Media, M&M magazine and the Nation Branding series of events, has launched Cream “The Innovation Exchange” - a new intelligence service designed for global advertisers, agencies and media vendors. Read more >>Marketing
![](https://biz-file.com/c/0911/41088.jpg) In the build up to next year's football tournament to be held in South Africa, Engen has launched a TV, radio, print and Internet campaign known as African Welcome. The campaign aims to encourage South Africans to express their support for the 2010 FIFA World Cup under the banner of welcoming the world to Africa. Read more >>![](https://biz-file.com/c/0911/40925.jpg) BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: Delegates attending the Africa Finance & Investment Forum 2009 (AFIF09) in December 2009 are invited to put forward their development project ideas to be considered for the EMRC-AfDB Project Incubator Award grand prize of US$15 000. Read more >>2010 FIFA World Cup
[Nthambeleni Gabara] JOHANNESBURG: Green Goal 2010 programme has been launched ahead of the World Cup spectacle to ensure that the event is environmentally friendly. Read more >>![](https://biz-file.com/c/0911/41084.jpg) PRETORIA: Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele has assured the British public that South Africa's transport sector is ready for the first ever FIFA World Cup on African soil. Read more >> [Dr Nikolaus Eberl] When LOC chief executive Dr Danny Jordaan announced the sites for hosting the official 2010 Fan Fests earlier this week, he referred to the 2006 fan experience at the German fan festivals, saying that “this is where we want to carve the real event experience, outside the stadiums”. Read more >> [Proffesor Ndawonde] JOHANNESBURG: With just under 200 days until kick-off to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, FIFA has launched a Fan Fest which will connect football fans globally across South Africa and five continents. Read more >> [Nthambeleni Gabara] JOHANNESBURG: The South African Mint Company has minted special gold coins to commemorate the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Several gold coins with the emblem of the 2010 FIFA World Cup were launched at the renovated Soccer City Stadium on Monday, 23 November 2009. Read more >>Advertising
![](https://biz-file.com/c/0911/41150.jpg) AMSTERDAM: The Eurobest Festival 2009, the European awards in advertising creativity, concluded on Friday night, 27 November 2009, with the awards ceremony held at the Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam. Read more >> [Dumisani Ndlela] The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has launched an advertising platform targeting Zimbabweans in the Diaspora for jobs and investments back home. Read more >>Cinema
![](https://biz-file.com/c/0911/41141.jpg) JOHANNESBURG: Nu Metro will open the first all-digital cinema complex in Africa, according to content executive for Nu Metro Cinemas, Mark Harris, this week in the Emporium at Emperors Palace, Johannesburg, South Africa. The six screen multiplex, owned and operated by Nu Metro Cinemas, is part of the redevelopment at the entertainment venue. Read more >>CRM
![](https://biz-file.com/c/0911/40917.jpg) LAGOS: Zain Nigeria, at the weekend, was awarded Best Customer Care Operator of the Year in Nigeria, at the 2009 Nigeria Information Technology and Telecommunications Awards (NITTA). Read more >>CSI
![](https://biz-file.com/c/0911/41034.jpg) The MTN Group is one of the latest signatories to the Copenhagen Communiqué on Climate Change. As a signatory to the Copenhagen Communiqué on Climate Change, the MTN Group has joined others in calling for environmentally-friendly practices. Read more >>![](https://biz-file.com/c/0911/40915.jpg) The MTN Benin Foundation has donated ten million CFA (approximately USD$20,000) to Mercy Ships, the health aid organisation. Mercy Ships, a global charity that has operated a fleet of hospital ships in developing nations since 1978, uses hospital ships to deliver free health care services to those without access. Read more >>Digital
![](https://biz-file.com/c/0911/41028.jpg) LONDON: Gateway Communications, a supplier of telecommunications services across Africa, earlier this week, was awarded Best African Wholesale Offering for 2009 at Capacity Magazine's Global Wholesale Telecommunications Awards held at Capacity Europe in Amsterdam. Read more >>![](https://biz-file.com/c/0911/40936.jpg) WASHINGTON, DC: The National Peace Corps Association (NPCA), late last week, announced the fourth-round winners of its Africa Rural Connect (ARC) online contest. The first place winner is from Sweden while the second and third place winners are from Malawi and Tanzania. Read more >>Eventing
![](https://biz-file.com/c/0911/41137.jpg) The Celebrating Africa Festival takes place at Gallagher Estate in Johannesburg from 13 - 17 July 2010 - immediately after the closing ceremony of the World Cup. The event plans to host members of the public, the corporate world, SMMEs and thought-leaders. Read more >>Magazines
[Carole Kimutai] East African Magazines (EAM) announced early last week the suspension of Adam and Twende. Adam is slightly over two years in the market and was targeted at the male readership while Twende was a travel magazine. Read more >> Media
Koos Bekker, CEO on media group Naspers (NPN), said Thursday, 27 November 2009, that the group will continue to focus on growing its internet operations. Read more >>![](https://biz-file.com/c/0911/41145.jpg) At least 88 journalists have been killed so far this year and hundreds of media employees have been arrested and jailed, most often following sham trials or without formal charges being brought against them. This is according to the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) half-year review of press freedom worldwide. Read more >>![](https://biz-file.com/c/0911/41092.jpg) Trevor Ncube, executive deputy chairman of the South Africa-based Mail & Guardian and founder of the Zimbabwe-based The Standard and The Zimbabwe Independent, has been appointed co-chair of the African Media Initiative (AMI) board. Read more >>LILONGWE: Representatives of MISA-Malawi and Gender and Media Malawi (GEMMA) are to introduce media awards on gender issues. This is one of the resolutions the participants made at a day-long meeting they held at the College of Medicine in Blantyre on 13 November 2009. Read more >>[Carole Kimutai] Kenyan journalist Steve Mbogo from the Business Daily newspaper has been nominated as one of the 15 winners of various categories of the Earth Journalism Awards that rewards excellence in climate change reporting. Read more >> DAR ES SALAAM: Police in the Singida region in Tanzania summoned and interrogated freelance journalist Jumbe Ismailly on 19 November 2009, from 11am to 1.09pm on allegations of defaming the regional commissioner Parseko Kone. He was released and told that he would be called again as part of an ongoing investigation against him. Read more >>Mobile
[Gregory Gondwe] Malawi's third mobile phone service provider, G-Mobile, has entered a pact with Alliance Media, Malawi's largest airport and outdoor media company to install billboards across the country, in the run up to its launch. Read more >>Newspapers
[Gregory Gondwe] The Nation Publication Limited (NPL), which publishes daily newspaper The Nation, the weekly Weekend Nation and The Nation on Sunday, has changed its mission, which it unveiled over the weekend. Read more >> Online Media
[Duncan McLeod] Rupert Murdoch, the leader of News Corp, is on a mission to get people to pay for his company's journalism. He's even threatening to pull News Corp content off Google and to do an exclusive deal with Microsoft instead. Has he lost the plot? If he actually does it — and I doubt he will — it will be an audacious move. But it's also one that is likely to fall flat on its face. Read more >> Retail
![](https://biz-file.com/c/0911/41172.jpg) JOHANNESBURG: Standard Bank has been granted a banking licence in Angola. It plans to start operating as a full-service bank in Angola by mid-2010. The banking licence was granted by the Angolan Council of Ministers at the weekend. Standard Bank has been waiting for a banking licence since May 2008. Read more >>The pan-African Imara financial services group on Friday, 27 November 2009, hailed the signing of the South Africa-Zimbabwe investment protection agreement as a major breakthrough with the potential to drive strong economic growth and sustain the revival triggered earlier this year by dollarisation of the Zimbabwe economy. Read more >>Stanbic IBTC Bank, Nigeria, a member of Standard Bank Group, has completed a US$15m cocoa financing for Agro Traders Limited (ATL) to fund the ATL's procurement of cocoa beans from the 2009/2010 Nigerian cocoa harvest, which it will export to Europe. Read more >>![](https://biz-file.com/c/0911/41006.jpg) According to MXit, the mobile social network and instant messenger, globally, mobile banking will become three times more popular than traditional banking by 2011. MXit plans to explore this opportunity as it offers banks in Africa a transaction platform that would eliminate entry barriers including data costs. Read more >>[Walter Wafula] A group of 25 Africa tax administration authorities have united under the Africa Tax Administrators Forum (ATAF), to boost economic development and good governance in Africa. Read more >> [Dumisani Ndlela] Zimbabwe's traditional brands, which had been wiped out by a now-receding decade-old economic crisis, have bounced back and are competing for space in supermarket shelves overflowing with choice imports. Read more >> PRETORIA: AfriForum plans to assist a group of South African farmers with land in Zimbabwe this week to prevent a discriminatory investment agreement between the governments of South Africa and Zimbabwe, which is to be signed in Harare on Friday, 27 November 2009. Read more >>Blogging 101 Jayz Internet Solutions - Cape Town, 2 December "There are many elements to a campaign. Leadership is number one. Everything else is number two." - Bertolt Brecht "Finding the right work is like discovering your own soul in the world." - Thomas Moore "Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom." - General George Patton
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