Things have been very busy for me over the last couple of weeks (evident by the sporadic blog posts) as the official launch of The Times draws ever nearer.
There are now 4 blogs on The Times blog network (Bullog, The Unknown Soldier, Les Ma-ada, and The Wild Frontier) and this number will continue to soar with one or two surprise additions along the way. The blog network is just the start of things to come, however, and I’m particularly excited about some of the other things we have up our sleeve which are sure to make the South African media landscape a whole lot more interesting.
On a slightly different note, I have been asked to speak about The Times and the Bullard fiasco at the upcoming 27 Dinner in Jozi this weekend, which also happens to be my first 27 due to missing the previous two for various reasons. Bullard’s blog has done pretty well over the past 10 days since its inception and according to Google Analytics has racked up over 10 000 page impressions with around 4 000 unique visitors.
Web traffic to sundaytimes.co.za has also spiked a number of times over the past two weeks and I don’t think it takes a brain surgeon to realise that it’s as a result of the “Bullard Effect”. Now if only he could send some of that traffic this way ;-)
Mail & Guardian (red) Vs. the Sunday Times (blue) [source alexa.com]
1 Hash May 22nd, 2007 at 9:42 pmI’m looking forward to your talk! I’m sure this whole Bullard incident has given you quite some clout at the Times. Kind of proves the value of blogging and new media strategies doesn’t it?
2 Colin Daniels May 22nd, 2007 at 10:05 pmHash – Don’t know about the clout (paycheck is still only 5 figures – LOL) and the only people who’ve taken any notice within the organisation are those that already know what a blog is and appreciate the value of a solid new media strategy!
Flattery can sometimes be an additional perk of the job ;-)
3 Izz May 23rd, 2007 at 8:37 amI can’t wait to see The Times, both in print and online. But so far, off the field, it seems best work done.
4 Brad Whittington May 23rd, 2007 at 4:39 pmHi, it is dumb that blogs.thetimes.co.za doesnt index the blogs, or do anything useful. It should aggregate or index the blogs, not redirect to the times homepage, it doesnt give exposure to the other blogs. unless there are plans and tricks afoot.
5 Colin Daniels May 23rd, 2007 at 4:42 pmBrad – Well spotted there young sir. Fortunately there are always “plans and tricks afoot” and The Times hasn’t even officially launched so easy there tiger…