THE Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) has breathed new life into 135 companies since it started its operations four years ago.
Three of these companies have become very successful.
Media entrepreneur Mbali Dhlomo had only her pension money to fund her dream publication, Genuine magazine, in 2001.
By then she had given up on becoming an accountant and had held down a couple of jobs. One of them was as an assistant to the deputy editor of Thandi magazine in the early 90s; another was as an IT practitioner.
Dhlomo says she developed a love for magazines while working at Thandi and vowed to start her own magazine.
She registered her company in 1998, and three years later produced the first issue of Genuine, a family lifestyle magazine for the KwaZulu-Natal market.
When Dhlomo registered the company she thought everything would quickly fall into place.
“It was tough. Advertisers weren’t willing to give me money without seeing a dummy of the magazine and I had to go back to the drawing board.
“I thought the money from my pension payout was quite a lot, but it didn’t last because I also had to buy equipment, so I had to get additional funding. That is why it took three years to get the first issue out,” she says.
The next two years were even more difficult and she continued to struggle for advertising, funding and editorial support.
Dhlomo lost her flat and car and eventually decided to shut down the magazine while she thought of new funding mechanisms.
The MDDA came to her rescue at the end of 2006 with R337 902 in funding.
The money was used for organisational development in the form of mentoring from the MDDA, a feasibility study on the viability of the magazine, buying operating equipment, such as scanners and cameras, and covering the magazine’s printing costs.
The magazine was relaunched at the beginning of last year and now publishes every two to three months. It features profiles of local celebrities, advice columns and motoring – everything you would find in your average magazine.
Some might say it is too early to tell if Genuine magazine is a success, but with a 5 000 print run and 80% more sales than when it was initially launched in 2001 it is well on its way to becoming a big seller for a magazine in its segment.
“People love it because it speaks to them and their needs and there isn’t anything like it in the province,” Dhlomo says.
The MDDA has also helped two community radio stations in the Northern Cape and Limpopo with funding and support.
Radio Riverside in Upington was awarded a R400 000 grant last year which the community station used to purchase an outside broadcast unit to increase its revenue from advertising.
Radio Riverside’s general manager, Thabang Pusoyabone, says since buying the outside broadcast unit the station has doubled its income from R1 million in 2006 to almost R2 million at the end of last year. And all the revenue came from advertising.
“Things are going very well and we think we will double our income again this year,” he says.
The community station broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and has grown its listenership to 72 000. This is an increase from 42 000 in January last year.
Pusoyabone says the money generated from operations is used to fund community-related projects.
Last year the station threw a Christmas party for 1 500 underprivileged children in the area. They were also given food and clothing.
The station, which has been running since 2001, also has a school support system where it helps secondary school-leavers with funding for their tertiary education.
Pusoyabone himself is the recipient of a grant. He joined the radio station as a newsreader when it started operating seven years ago. He went on to become a presenter on the station, then received funds to study for a marketing diploma.
After completing this, he rose through the ranks to become the station’s programming manager and, later, marketing manager.
The MDDA awarded him an additional grant to do a course in radio management at Wits University. In 2004 he was promoted to station manager and is now in charge of about 24 volunteers and 19 paid staff members.
“I think we’ve succeeded because we’ve instilled a sense of professionalism in our daily work. We’ve discussed issues that employees are unhappy with and this creates a good working environment for all.
“Our marketing team has also been instrumental in our success. I think other community stations have one person carrying all the marketing responsibilities – one person can’t do everything. We have a team of three very efficient marketing personnel and it is working very well for us,” he says.
Moletsi Community Radio station, which broadcasts to the Capricorn district in Limpopo, has a listenership of 20 000.
Given Mkhari’s Capricorn FM was recently launched in the province and might threaten the success of the station, but station manager Modjadji Mphela says she is not perturbed.
“We don’t fear anything. We welcome the competition because it will help us improve our station and give us reason to strengthen our programming,” she says.
The MDDA awarded the station a grant of R500 000 to build a new office, which Mphela says has become an advertising billboard on its own.
“The new office has really sparked a lot of interest in the community,” she says.
“We used to have problems with marketing, but whenever anybody passes the office, which is situated on the main road, they ask about it. It has really been a great marketing tool for us.”
She says the station needs bigger premises so it can implement its community programmes more efficiently.
“We have an HIV/Aids project where we record tapes that deal with Aids-related issues and distribute the tapes to the community.
“We found that people were not well informed about the virus.
“I once remember riding in a taxi and ended up having a conversation with the driver, who told me there was a serious problem in the industry.
“He said they were burying a driver every week. People automatically associate the deaths with witchcraft, so we did our own investigations and found that a lot of them were dying of Aids.
“So we started recording shows that addressed the issue. The radio broadcasts of the show are then distributed to the taxi drivers,” she says.
The MDDA also helped the station with training and various other forms of support.
“I think our success lies in the passion we have for the work we do. We work as a team,” she says.
The heads of the three media operations say they are grateful for the funding and support they have received from the MDDA.
Without it, they might very well have ceased to exist.
Three of these companies have become very successful.
Media entrepreneur Mbali Dhlomo had only her pension money to fund her dream publication, Genuine magazine, in 2001.
By then she had given up on becoming an accountant and had held down a couple of jobs. One of them was as an assistant to the deputy editor of Thandi magazine in the early 90s; another was as an IT practitioner.
Dhlomo says she developed a love for magazines while working at Thandi and vowed to start her own magazine.
She registered her company in 1998, and three years later produced the first issue of Genuine, a family lifestyle magazine for the KwaZulu-Natal market.
When Dhlomo registered the company she thought everything would quickly fall into place.
“It was tough. Advertisers weren’t willing to give me money without seeing a dummy of the magazine and I had to go back to the drawing board.
“I thought the money from my pension payout was quite a lot, but it didn’t last because I also had to buy equipment, so I had to get additional funding. That is why it took three years to get the first issue out,” she says.
The next two years were even more difficult and she continued to struggle for advertising, funding and editorial support.
Dhlomo lost her flat and car and eventually decided to shut down the magazine while she thought of new funding mechanisms.
The MDDA came to her rescue at the end of 2006 with R337 902 in funding.
The money was used for organisational development in the form of mentoring from the MDDA, a feasibility study on the viability of the magazine, buying operating equipment, such as scanners and cameras, and covering the magazine’s printing costs.
The magazine was relaunched at the beginning of last year and now publishes every two to three months. It features profiles of local celebrities, advice columns and motoring – everything you would find in your average magazine.
Some might say it is too early to tell if Genuine magazine is a success, but with a 5 000 print run and 80% more sales than when it was initially launched in 2001 it is well on its way to becoming a big seller for a magazine in its segment.
“People love it because it speaks to them and their needs and there isn’t anything like it in the province,” Dhlomo says.
The MDDA has also helped two community radio stations in the Northern Cape and Limpopo with funding and support.
Radio Riverside in Upington was awarded a R400 000 grant last year which the community station used to purchase an outside broadcast unit to increase its revenue from advertising.
Radio Riverside’s general manager, Thabang Pusoyabone, says since buying the outside broadcast unit the station has doubled its income from R1 million in 2006 to almost R2 million at the end of last year. And all the revenue came from advertising.
“Things are going very well and we think we will double our income again this year,” he says.
The community station broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and has grown its listenership to 72 000. This is an increase from 42 000 in January last year.
Pusoyabone says the money generated from operations is used to fund community-related projects.
Last year the station threw a Christmas party for 1 500 underprivileged children in the area. They were also given food and clothing.
The station, which has been running since 2001, also has a school support system where it helps secondary school-leavers with funding for their tertiary education.
Pusoyabone himself is the recipient of a grant. He joined the radio station as a newsreader when it started operating seven years ago. He went on to become a presenter on the station, then received funds to study for a marketing diploma.
After completing this, he rose through the ranks to become the station’s programming manager and, later, marketing manager.
The MDDA awarded him an additional grant to do a course in radio management at Wits University. In 2004 he was promoted to station manager and is now in charge of about 24 volunteers and 19 paid staff members.
“I think we’ve succeeded because we’ve instilled a sense of professionalism in our daily work. We’ve discussed issues that employees are unhappy with and this creates a good working environment for all.
“Our marketing team has also been instrumental in our success. I think other community stations have one person carrying all the marketing responsibilities – one person can’t do everything. We have a team of three very efficient marketing personnel and it is working very well for us,” he says.
Moletsi Community Radio station, which broadcasts to the Capricorn district in Limpopo, has a listenership of 20 000.
Given Mkhari’s Capricorn FM was recently launched in the province and might threaten the success of the station, but station manager Modjadji Mphela says she is not perturbed.
“We don’t fear anything. We welcome the competition because it will help us improve our station and give us reason to strengthen our programming,” she says.
The MDDA awarded the station a grant of R500 000 to build a new office, which Mphela says has become an advertising billboard on its own.
“The new office has really sparked a lot of interest in the community,” she says.
“We used to have problems with marketing, but whenever anybody passes the office, which is situated on the main road, they ask about it. It has really been a great marketing tool for us.”
She says the station needs bigger premises so it can implement its community programmes more efficiently.
“We have an HIV/Aids project where we record tapes that deal with Aids-related issues and distribute the tapes to the community.
“We found that people were not well informed about the virus.
“I once remember riding in a taxi and ended up having a conversation with the driver, who told me there was a serious problem in the industry.
“He said they were burying a driver every week. People automatically associate the deaths with witchcraft, so we did our own investigations and found that a lot of them were dying of Aids.
“So we started recording shows that addressed the issue. The radio broadcasts of the show are then distributed to the taxi drivers,” she says.
The MDDA also helped the station with training and various other forms of support.
“I think our success lies in the passion we have for the work we do. We work as a team,” she says.
The heads of the three media operations say they are grateful for the funding and support they have received from the MDDA.
Without it, they might very well have ceased to exist.
No comments:
Post a Comment