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Saturday, June 15, 2013

Goldberg celebrates a life of Struggle - Cape Times | IOL.co.za

 On June 12, 1964, ANC leader Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in jail. Sentenced with him was Denis Goldberg and other Rivonia trialists. Goldberg, now 80, spent 22 years in jail. being the only white person to be sentenced, he was sent alone to Pretoria Central prison, while the others went to Robben Island. He was released in 1985, a few years before Mandela and the other treason trialists were freed. Upon his release, Goldberg went into exile to continue his role in the struggle, returning in the new SA. I chatted to him on June 12 this year, at his home in Hout Bay, exactly 49 years after the Rivonia trialists were sentenced. A humble, witty intellectual and activist who is a qualified engineer, we spoke about his good friend Mandela, who has been in hospital for the past week, but also about his hopes - and vision - for the new South Africa.
Here is the interview published in the Cape Times on his thoughts about Madiba.

Goldberg celebrates a life of Struggle - Cape Times | IOL.co.za

Thursday, June 6, 2013

BANGKOK FRAGMENTS







25 themes of survival from the World Editors Forum



There was lots to think about at the World Editors Forum in Bangkok, June 2013. Here are my 25 quick take-home sound grabs .
www.wan-ifra.org/bangkok2013
1.       Don’t tweak, rather reinvent
2.       Get buy-in from newspaper owners, or you are wasting your time.
3.       Have a shared vision, across all departments, between editorial and management
4.       Communicate with management, show respect - but keep up the wall
5.       Focus on your role - good journalism: The platform is just the platform, the bottle. Journalism is the wine. It’s the wine that counts, that’s your core business. (credit: Juan Senor)
6.       Encourage management to expand revenue opportunities – the rats & mice all add up as traditional advertising declines
7.       Hire more reporters
8.       Protect reporters, ensure their safety, fight for them, don’t let owners take control of editorial
9.       Hire a digital/data developer/data wrangler (1 developer to 5 journalists)
10      Do what you do best, link to the rest (credit: Jeff Jarvis)
11     Take risks, but learn from the mistakes and successes of countries in a state of advanced crisis – ie the US media
12     Have a presence across as many platforms as possible: print, digital, social media. Right now, mobile is the IT medium.
13     Hire young upstarts, disrupters, with good ideas, different skills that add value and help transformation
14     Train experienced journalists, inspire them to learn new skills, they are invaluable
15     Discard outdated ideas, structures and deadlines
16     Interact with your audience
17     Use simple tools like wordpress and scoopshot
18     Know your audience: Analyse  response and traffic, and respond accordingly
19     Reorganise your newsroom and deadlines accordingly
20     Be quick, but add value, it’s impossible to compete with social media, so first verify
21.   Shake things up, it’s now or never
22.   Visualise stories from early on, not just at production stage
23.   Don’t replicate print content and design, do it differently, make it relevant for digital platforms
24.   Leadership is 20% journalism, 80% ability to inspire others
25.   Don’t despair. Do something radical, innovate.