The last few months at The Times have been very productive and extremely eventful. I have been an active participant in the launching of a revolutionary news brand with enormous potential and watched as our newsroom has continued to expand with staff from all walks of life. I believe this has been a once in a lifetime experience and I feel privileged to have been involved from the start.
However, from the beginning of next month I will be following a new calling, one which sees me moving into Johncom’s Business Development division as the Digital Business Development Manager. This new role will include managing, researching and implementing digital strategy for all the group’s assets, which are pretty diverse and this is likely to be one of the biggest challenges. I will still be intimately involved in The Times and most of it’s upcoming projects, but JJ Hartman will hold the fort on a day to day basis and is likely to be the one pushing the ante on this front.
I know it sounds extremely sentimental, but I’d like to thank The Times editor, Ray Hartley, for his vision, guidance and support as well as everyone else in the newsroom who have demonstrated commitment and professionalism on a scale that I’ve never seen before.
I’ve been working hard over the past week with my henchman JJ Hartman on getting the Dispatch Online blog portal up and running, starting with Dispatches from the Trench – the blog of Dispatch’s deputy-editor, Andrew Trench. Already, his blog is full of activity and there are quite a few comments from dedicated readers who have visited it since it launched yesterday. This is the first of many new news and reporter blogs to come from the East London-based paper, which dates back to 1872 and has a long and illustrious history.
While the Dispatch’s main site is screaming for a makeover (me please!), it’s great to be involved in the process of bringing this print icon into a new era and ensuring it’s archives, which date back to 1996, are made accessible. Based on the enthusiasm I’ve seen from both it’s readers and editorial staff, I have no doubt that we can expect to see some exciting things from them in the near future which other small and regional newspapers will hopefully replicate.
The recent multimedia story entitled “I should not be alive” produced by The Times photographer Alon Skuy and deputy-multimedia editor Gregor Rohrig, is one of the best packages we have done so far, in my humble opinion, and is a sign of a maturing multimedia team.
The story is about a South African who joined the SAS as a medic and was sent to serve in the front lines in Iraq. That’s about the extent of my spoiler so watch the video in the embedded player below to see how the rest of the story unfolds…
There was a massive amount of jealousy when it was confirmed that three employees from the Sunday Times/The Times would be getting complimentary tickets on the much hyped Axejet aka “flight of your life with hot air-hostesses to Ibiza” trip. Speculation was rife in the respective newsrooms over whether the jet could accommodate passengers who “accidentally” broke both legs, but in the end the lucky three – Jason von Berg, Gabisile Ndebele and Tebogo Letsie – made it to the airport this past Saturday unscathed.
The jet, set to be packed with models, celebrities, journalists, DJs and lucky plebs was supposed to leave at midnight this past Sunday, but the reality was a lot more sinister and has turned into somewhat of a PR disaster for Unilever, the Axe holding company.
I don’t want to spoil the rest of the story, so if you’re up for a bit of a laugh and think you’ve had a nightmare intercontinental trip, read the full account on The Times Live Events blog…
I am currently Head of Digital for the South African division of the Trader Media Group where, amongst other things, I manage a digital department and am responsible for the commercial success of several digital products and services ยป more
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