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Big names talk about state of media and publishing industry in SA

23 June 2022 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Rulanzen Martin

Ivor Price and Nelleke de Jager — Ivor Price (left) and Nelleke de Jager during the discussion session in the Senate Hall of the Centenary Building.

Click to view document Lees: Groot name praat oor stand van media- en uitgewerswese in SA

Ivor Price, seasoned journalist and media man, and Nèlleke de Jager, fiction publisher at Human & Rousseau, are two of the big names serving on the advisory panel of the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, German and French. On 27 May 2022, Price and De Jager presented a discussion on the state of the media and publishing industry in the country.

Students and lecturers from the department who attended the discussion had the privilege of witnessing the expertise and experience of the advisory panel first hand. The other two members of the advisory panel are Mariska van der Merwe, a teacher at the Meisieskool Oranje, and Wyno Simes, Curator of the National Afrikaans Literature Museum and Research Centre (NALN) in Bloemfontein. The University of the Free State (UFS) has introduced the concept of practice panels in its faculties and academic departments to provide practice-based expertise to students as well as advice to lecturers.

Two prestige bursaries were also presented to two postgraduate students. Lynthia Julius, author of the award-winning book Uit die Kroes, is the first recipient of the JC Steyn Prize, and Corné Richter received the Marius Jooste Prize from the SA Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns.

Important role of the media threatened

Price – who worked as a journalist at Die Burger and made a name for himself in media and television circles, and who is also the owner of the online news publication Food for Mzanzi – said “a democracy is nothing without the media”. He referred to some of the biggest news events in recent times where the media has played an important role in exposing crime and corruption in the highest circles of executive government.

Examples of this are the Gupta/state capture scandal, the Zuma corruption, as well as the asbestos fraud by Ace Magashule and the Free State government. “This says something about a country where people steal money to implement idleness,” Price said.

He also warned that things were not ‘going well’ with the media in SA and that the media – also internationally – are in danger. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the media will be with us for a long time. “The circulation figures of daily newspapers fell by about 40% of the total sales.” Sunday papers can, to some extent, keep their heads above water thanks to government advertisements. Price also believes that niche markets are the future.

Publishing industry changing in SA

In turn, Nelleke de Jager talked about the challenges that publishers must overcome today. “Educational publishers are publishing the largest number of outputs in SA,” she said. She also mentioned that retail publishers such as Penguin Random House and Pan Macmillan are changing the landscape for the better. “The South African publishing industry is changing, not waning,” said De Jager.

From the left Lynthia Julius; Prof Heidi Hudson, Dean of Faculty of the Humanities and Corné Richter.
(Photo: Rulanzen Martin)

Book lovers will remember with great nostalgia that Leserskring/Leisure Books was the leader in terms of book sales a decade ago. “The closure of Leisure Books damaged the outputs and turnover of NB Publishers,” said De Jager.

De Jager also told students about the skills that are needed to survive in the industry. “It is important to master a variety of skills, such as writing and reading skills, project management, and editorial know-how.” She also jokingly said that anyone interested in the publishing industry should first work as a waiter, since it teaches one to be humble.

News Archive

Another boost for sport at the UFS

2005-10-13

A contract formalizing the appointment of Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd was signed by Prof Verschoor and Mr Morne du Plessis in the historic Main Building of the UFS Bloemfontein campus.

The University of the Free State (UFS) has officially appointed Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd, which has former Springbok rugby captain Morné du Plessis as managing director, to manage its Centre for Exercise and Sport Science Services (CESSS) on the Bloemfontein campus.

According to Prof Teuns Verschoor, Vice-Rector: Academic Operations, the appointment of Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd is another step in the implementation of the UFS’s wide-ranging sport strategy to improve sport facilities and elevate formerly marginalized sports such as soccer, hockey, netball, tennis etc.

Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd is the manager of the Sports Science Institute of South Africa and coordinates and manages the national basketball high-performance programme of SA Basketball, as well as the Boxing Academy on behalf of Boxing South Africa.

“It is also actively involved with the sports plans of several tertiary institutions like that of the University of Johannesburg and the University of Stellenbosch,” said Prof Verschoor.

“Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd was also appointed by the Ministry of Sport and Recreation to manage the allocation of sports codes to high-performance centres and to oversee the allocation of monies received from the National Lottery to these centres – this includes the CESSS at the UFS,” Prof Verschoor added.

In unfolding its national sports plan, the Ministry of Sport and Recreation has already identified the UFS-based CESSS as the high-performance testing centre for the national basketball teams whilst the national boxing teams are also earmarked to be trained at the UFS.

“We are glad to be associated with a company of this stature and look forward to work with them in the further development of sports at the UFS,” said Prof Verschoor.

According to Prof Verschoor, the CESSS will act as a centralised body that is responsible for the coordination and management of joint initiatives between professional service providers, research projects and KovsieSport.

“The centre will also coordinate and manage joint initiatives between various academic programmes in different academic subject fields such as sports medicine, bio kinetics, physiotherapy, dietetics, etc. ,” said Prof Verschoor.

These initiatives will help the UFS to become a centre and catalyst of sports development, to become internationally recognised in the field of exercise and sports science research and to become a centre for high quality sports performance enhancement.

Some of the objectives of the CESSS are:

To provide sports science services like to athletes, students, the general public and other stakeholders including certain national sport teams.
To provide the necessary teaching and training facilities and internship opportunities for UFS students in sports related fields of study will also be provided by the centre like human movement science.
To present skills-transfer programmes directed at the broader community like development of skills in various sporting codes.
To continue and extend the current chronic risk reversal programmes presented by the Department of Human Movement Science such as obesity management, cardiac rehabilitation and other lifestyle related conditions.

The centre was founded in 2003 and was until now managed by Dr Louis Holtzhausen, from Kovsie Health and a consultant, Dr Gary Vorster.

A contract formalizing the appointment of Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd was signed today by Prof Verschoor and Mr Morne du Plessis in the historic Main Building of the UFS Bloemfontein campus.

The manager of the centre appointed by Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd is Mr Charles Store, an alumnus of the UFS, previously employed at the Sports Science Institute in Cape Town and by the SANDF at 3 Military Hospital, Bloemfontein.

Media release
Issued by: Anton Fisher
Director: Strategic Communication
072-207-8334
12 October 2005

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