The Media Online’s weekly round up of moves in media. McCarney now CEO of New Media while Lamb takes over as MD. NATIVE VML awarded iconic men’s skincare brand, Vaseline. The MediaShop is moving. OpenView HD shakes things up. Goli Mag & Young Nation News new online mags for SA youth. MCSISA rebrands to Change News
The week’s BIG move: Bridget McCarney now CEO of New Media while Aileen Lamb takes over as MD
Managing director of New Media, Bridget McCarney has been promoted to CEO of the group of companies, while Aileen Lamb, current general manager of the consumer division, has been appointed as managing director. These changes are effective from 1 April 2017.
McCarney has led the company for 15 years and steered it through many changes. Under her award-winning leadership the company grew its profits by more than 600%, staff increased from 30 to 250, and the company grew from a custom-publishing venture into a full-service strategic and content agency.
In her role as general manager of New Media’s consumer division, Lamb has been the driving force behind the digitisation and relaunch of successful media brands such as Eat Out, VISI and Woolworths TASTE. She has also successfully led the annual Eat Out Restaurant Awards to great heights with a record number of 740 guests attending this glamorous event last year.
“It has been my pleasure to have grown New Media from a fledging custom publisher to the country’s leading content-marketing agency. Aileen will drive this change even further and faster,” McCarney said.
“This move takes me into a broader role that includes growing our sister companies and focusing on important strategic pillars such as Matrix24,” says Bridget. “The change will allow me to focus on the elements I believe to be the most important, including our company culture and the future vision of New Media. I’m excited about the move and look forward to a range of new opportunities and challenges.”
Lamb said the company developed an exciting new strategy that would “allow us to build on the successes of the past, channel the brilliance of our talented people”. She added that she was looking forward to “discovering new ways in which New Media can play an even more vital part in delivering valuable content for our clients’ audiences; content that audiences truly want to engage with”.
Who’s won what
NATIVE VML awarded iconic men’s skincare brand, Vaseline
NATIVE VML has been awarded lead digital agency status for Vaseline Men Hand & Body.
The skin-care category continues to grow with increasing product availability and consumer awareness globally, as men want products suited to their needs. Vaseline, as an iconic heritage brand has created an ideal platform to tap into this fast-growing market and establish itself as the go-to choice for South African men who want leading skincare solutions.
“We believe NATIVE VML has the proficiency to place Vaseline in the mind of the modern man through deep and meaningful engagement across various channels. We have no doubt that we will shift market perception,” says Richard Kohler, global brand director, skin care at Unilever Singapore.
Who’s making moves
The MediaShop is moving
The MediaShop’s Johannesburg office will be moving to brand new premises on 22 March. The agency’s new home will be Block B, The Main Straight Office Park, corner Main and Portman Roads in Bryanston. Telephone numbers will remain unchanged.
“Great Minds Think Different – we’ve put a lot of thought into what we’re looking for in terms of office space for the team, and for our clients and media owners – this building has it all. Great modern spaces, it’s more social than our current environment, it has a canteen and a lot of space for creativity to thrive,” says Group MD Chris Botha.
“Other positives include loads more parking and it’s a better commute for many of our team which will make life easier for a lot of people. We’re excited to get into the new space and look forward to welcoming our clients and media owners soon.”
The agency will be shutting down at 5pm on Thursday 16 March ahead of the move. “We expect minimal downtime and disruptions to services while we make the transition and we can’t wait to welcome our staff into this new modern space.”
OpenView HD shakes things up
Following three years of steady growth and the successful launch of eMovies Extra late last year, OpenView HD is redesigning two channels in 2017. From 1 April, the current eKasi+ (channel 105) will make way for eExtra and eNolly+ (Channel 109) will be transformed to True African. These revamped channels will speak to the viewing needs of OpenView HD’s growing audience.
Managing director at e.tv, Marlon Davids, says that the addition of e.tv Extra is a step in the right direction, towards helping OpenView HD become South Africa’s digital platform of choice. “Our viewers enjoy watching movies in HD, so the addition of e.tv Extra is the logical next step in bolstering our content offering on OpenView HD,” he said.
eExtra will offer viewers a variety of premium entertainment in HD including sitcoms, drama series, reality, telenovelas, court shows, lifestyle and movies. While the channel is infused with a good measure of suspense, drama and action, a touch of comedy adds a light-hearted flavor to the line-up. eExtra can best be described as young, urban, modern and cosmopolitan.
The True African channel is a snapshot of contemporary Africa, showcasing handpicked premium entertainment and lifestyle content from across the entire continent. It is vibrant, energetic, trend setting and innovative; in telling the stories of the people and nations of Africa.
In response to viewer’s requests for more series, eExtra will now offer more high quality series and movies. Fans can look forward to a bouquet of sitcoms, drama and reality shows including House, Mayday, Burn Notice, Girlfriend’s Guide To Divorce and more.
eExtra will officially switch over at 5:00 AM on 1 April 2017 and will offer 24 hour family entertainment, True African will begin broadcast on the 3rd of April at 16:00. “We have made these changes in direct response to the feedback form our viewers, who want more series,” says e.tv’s head of local productions Ziyanda Mngomezulu.
Goli Mag and Young Nation News new online mags for SA youth
Goli Mag and Young Nation News are new online magazines that look to talk about issues that concern the Youth of South Africa.
Spaza Shop Media is a start-up company, having started operating in 2016. It mothers two online magazines, Young Nation News, that broadcasts hard news that affect the youth or that the youth would be interested in, such as the increase of sin tax and the Fees Must Fall campaign; and Goli Mag which broadcasts softer news, such as entertainment, lifestyle and conversation TV.
These magazines are meant to inspire the Youth. Most of the stories written are of an inspiring nature. Spaza Shop Media wants young people to read such stories, stand up and do something with their lives, with whatever they wish to do. “We also wish to educate and inform people because this is a way to bring about change in communities. When you know something, you feel empowered and want to empower other people. When you know things, you can engage in conversation with whatever group of people you are with. Spaza Shop Media wants to bring about this change – it wants to inspire, educate and inform people, so that they can be the best people they can be,” the founders said in a statement.
Young Nation News and Goli Mag are good for the community of South Africa. They try and empower people from all communities around the country by giving them something that will potentially improve who they are and what they do with their lives.
MCSISA rebrands to Change News
Good news portal MCSISA has announced a re-branding of its publishing site. Originally only highlighting the good works performed by South African businesses through their corporate social investment and responsibility outreach programmes, the portal has quickly evolved to encompass numerous other inspirational tales of those involved in creating change for the better – as a result the platform will now be called ‘Change News’.
Explaining why the portal has revamped, expanded and had a name change, co-Founder of the holding group Millennial Change Shifters Initiative South Africa (MCSISA), Glenda Mansfield said: “We always knew we had a good ideas, but over the past three to four months we have realised how important this portal can become in its efforts to ‘change’ mind-sets and provoke ‘change for good’, beyond just the showcasing of corporate news.
“People all across the country are looking for more positive ways with which to either start the day, give themselves a mid-morning boost, or some peace last thing at night. When you can read about and see, that others who might be in similar circumstances to yourself have overcome their challenges, you can easily identify with them and this can provoke a sense of hope that similar positive change can result for you.”
Underpinning this premise, the platform was attracting 227 156 unique visitors and generating 820 294 page views, at the end of February 2017, with interestingly, the bulk of views coming from mobile users – 68.7%. Mansfield and her partners believe that the rebrand will make it easier for more people to find the platform, remember it and keep their audience coming back to read and even share their own good news on a regular basis.
