Harnessing Africa’s Digital Future

Edited by:

Francis Mdlongwa & Moagisi Letlhaku

By: Neliswa Ntanda

THE PURSUIT OF AN AFFLUENT AFRICAN INFORMATION SOCIETY Media leader = grappling with issues of globalization,

information and Africa’s role in this context

Media executives = requesting new + alternative business models

Enormous change in technology, economics and lifestyle are resulting in:

New opportunities (internet, mobile, e-reader etc.) Rapidly changing needs of customers

THE PURSUIT OF AN AFFLUENT AFRICAN INFORMATION SOCIETY “The real innovation challenges in established media,

however, are not perceiving the need for change or being able to get needed technology, but organizational structures, processes, culture, and ways of thinking that limit willingness and ability to innovate”

– F. Windeck (as cited in Mdlongwa, F., Letlhaku, M., eds. 2010: 4)

Therefore managers need to know what to do and how to pursue innovation.

THE PURSUIT OF AN AFFLUENT AFRICAN INFORMATION SOCIETY Africa Media Leadership Conference (AMLC) aims to:

Promotes high-level interaction among Africa’s media chiefs to seek home-grown, practical, innovative and creative solutions to challenges faced by African media organizations

Help prepare Africa’s media leaders for constantly changing media landscape

To bring awareness to media companies that media landscape is changing so they need to revisit the foundations of their businesses

THE PURSUIT OF AN AFFLUENT AFRICAN INFORMATION SOCIETY Basically:

CHASING THE FUTURE: What content do youthful audiences consume and why? Youth:

not only digital media consumer anymore, they engage, something becomes more realized the more it s exchanged and this happens by engaging

No longer interested in depth and detail of coverage, speed is what is now preferred.

CHASING THE FUTURE: What content do youthful audiences consume and why? WHAT MUST BE DONE:

Newsrooms must be organized to generate content that will have a life in print, online and mobile

Newsrooms must be organized around breaking the rules first

Breaking news must be in the form of podcasts, slide shows and video

News is now FREE: Who will pay for quality journalism? Offering free access increases audience members,

advertising base, this builds customer loyalty which paves way to media reaching a point where enough traffic is built up to introduce a dose of paid access

Many different formulas have been applied e.g. micropayment system

So much news, so little time: survival skills in the networked world “Online tools and resources that enable large-scale

participation and media sharing such as Facebook, Twitter and Wikipedia have been adopted into regular use by hundreds of millions of people in the last three years. This is perhaps because they enable people to collaborate, manage complexity and find information more efficiently than they would be able to without these tools” – David Duarte (as cited in Mdlongwa, F., Letlhaku, M., eds. 2010: 24)

Peering into the ‘connected’ world Individualization occurs when the supply of products,

services and information booms

Mass-customization = order content for one

Internet is displacing a lot of platforms because it is flexible, you use it for entertainment and practical services such as banking

With growing technological devices and connectivity becoming common we will soon be able to access anything from any device of our choice, more customization.

Digital innovation, youthful fun and connectedness: A case study of South Africa’s MXit

Mxit = mobile instant messaging service

Started in January 2005 with minimal subscription of R15 per month

After 4 months; had only 40 subscribers

Solution: became a free service and re-launched in May 2005 and experienced exponential growth

Digital innovation, youthful fun and connectedness: A case study of South Africa’s MXit Part of Mxit’s philosophy: “We do not compete, we

create”

Slogan: “Join the Evolution”, Mxit is always evolving

Digital innovation, youthful fun and connectedness: A case study of South Africa’s MXit Mxit plays in a variety of fields:

Social networking Advertising Entertainment Dating Classifieds Education TV interaction Counselling Mobile banking Micro transactions Location-based information Social development

Digital innovation, youthful fun and connectedness: A case study of South Africa’s MXit How is revenue generated:

Advertising and content sales

Future for MXit:

Multiplayer games

CRM: allow businesses and institutions to create sub-communities within Mxit (Mxit widget on websites)

Closer mobile network operators: create a relationship in which both Mxit and MNO will benefit

Education drive in Africa

Digital innovation, youthful fun and connectedness: A case study of South Africa’s MXit Success factors:

Launched at the right place at the right time Brand new form of communication Inexpensive compared to SMS and voice calls Embedded entertainment Socializing capabilities (dating and making new friends) Single place of connectedness – everything is available from

within Mxit Every user is part of a big community Youthfulness of the brand

Youth participation in news generation: The key to newspapers’ survival

Youth: knock knockTraditional media leaders: who’s there?Youth: youthTraditional media leaders: youth who?Youth: you think you know us, but you don’t

Youth participation in news generation: The key to newspapers’ survival “youth’s rejection of news and newspapers may be a

reaction to how journalism has rejected them” – D. Schechter (as cited in Mdlongwa, F., Letlhaku, M., eds. 2010: 58)

To attract young readers:

Make it quick Make it newsy Make it useful Provide platform for participation

Youth participation in news generation: The key to newspapers’ survival More ways to attract young readers:

Youth Editorial Advisory Boards Innovative use of technology Mobile phone reporting(ages 7 – 15, 64% have access to

cell phones, 35% own cell phones) A new language (language of technology):

Later – l8r Lol – laugh out loud Lmao – laughing my a** off Rotflmao – rolling on the floor laughing my a** off

The making of The Media: Innovation, strong brand the keys to success Read and research Build brand through choice of quality of content Work on the look and feel of the brand Advertise well Network (continuous) Align business with good initiatives Cater to other media platforms Exploit technology

Innovation is key and a strong brand the answer!

Monetizing digital audiences: Senegal’s small steps Service diversification (Group Reforma – 107 000

online subscribers)

Bring readers to accept for paying for mobile news as they pay for smses

Charge for some of the content

Charge users for individual articles as done in music

Copy-and-paste websites

CONCLUSION Media firms need to break away from

the dominant management thinking and literature which has conditioned them to manage and lead media enterprises in conditions of stability, predictability, regularity and harmony, because our present, real world is no longer stable, predictable or certain anymore.

Reference: Mdlongwa, F., Letlhaku, M., eds. 2010. Harnessing

Africa's Digital Future. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung: Johannesburg.