In Alec Hogg’s Boardroom Talk column last week [below], he announced all sorts of news, including new appointments and a fresh morning newsletter. Since that announcement, he’s lost one of those appointments: Bronwyn Nielsen has been poached back by former employer, CNBC, after just two weeks on the job at Moneyweb.
It’s been a privilege mailing you over the years with updates on developments at Moneyweb . We’ve worked really hard at listening to our community’s feedback (our secret weapon) to build what is today a wonderful media company. A business which cares about its community and shows our appreciation for your support by continually improving the offerings. Another of which is detailed at the bottom of this mail.
On to the news inside Moneyweb and for myself, the past year has been a period of focusing on being the editor-in-chief after handing the business responsibilities to Moneyweb’s long-time chairman and our new CEO Andrew Smith. It’s been seamless and we believe highly successful transition. When our next set of numbers are released in May, I have no doubt shareholders will be delighted at the way Andrew’s more commercial approach has lifted the company’s game.
My time has been invested on the stuff I love – in particular, getting around the world to better understand what’s happening in the fast-changing media industry and taking back the responsibility of talent-spotter-in-chief. Both areas have yielded concrete results. We’re close to launching the first iPad Apps and you’ll have noticed some interesting innovations to the sites (like the regular Twitter feeds on breaking news subjects and our new comment facility).
We have also attracted some talented journalists to the Moneyweb team.
Best known of our new arrivals is Bronwyn Nielsen , most recently chief presenter at the television channel CNBC Africa. Bronwyn has taken to Moneyweb like a farmed trout to a Drakensberg stream; she anchors the Monday and Friday editions of Market Update with Moneyweb on SAfm and is driving our new video project. She’s an amazingly talented, hard working and intelligent colleague who adds huge value to the team.
After trying to bring her aboard 11 years ago, we’ve finally managed to persuade Sasha Planting to come over from the Financial Mail . Sasha is a wonderful writer, has deep experience which she is able to share with the team, and a marvellous sense of balance, providing context and finding all sides of any story. Sasha has made an immediate impact since joining us at the beginning of February. For me, she’s one of Moneyweb’s best ever hires, her well researched pieces reminding me so much of those by our now US-based star writer Felicity Duncan.
We round off the new faces additions next month when we welcome Pat Sidley, a journalism doyenne and a former colleague from our days at the Rand Daily Mail back in the early 1980s. Pat will be assuming the responsibility as Business Editor of The Citizen, the daily newspaper whose financial section has been produced by Moneyweb for the past eight years. Pat is fearless in her pursuit of the truth, calls a spade a bloody shovel, and is a long-time campaigner for the rights of the little guy – ideal qualities for a Moneywebber. We still see our primary objective as the bulwark between vested interests and those upon whom they would prey.
To close off the note, as promised, our new offering which we’re calling Morning Coffee because it should be one of the first things you get to in the morning (and we believe will become as strong a fix as caffeine). For some years now, our Webmaster Tracy Wade has been based in Sydney, Australia, an ideal location for someone to be working while South Africa sleeps. The two of us have spent time developing an early morning product for the SA market to help kick-start your day. It’s probably best described as a dawn patrol news tip sheet with a para or two of important information and links to what business people and investors need to know from SA and around the world. Best of all, it’s also free!
Sign up for your own daily fix of Morning Coffee at https://bit.ly/ejD5Vu .
