Avusa Media announces new digital division – Avusa Media live
Posted on 29. Apr, 2010 by admin in Avusa Media News
A new digital division has been launched within Avusa Media – Avusa Media LIVE. The division will represent the digital media publishing brands of the group including Times LIVE, The Sowetan, Sunday World, The Herald and The Dispatch, and any new digital platforms that the division launches.
On the launch of the new division Elan Lohmann, general manager of Avusa Media LIVE explains, “The division is now structured to ensure we become a competitive digital media force in the South African and the African landscape. We now operate under a single new digital publishing umbrella brand – Avusa Media LIVE – and this centralised business is solely dedicated to improving and building our brands”
“This new structure ensures that digital titles, which previously worked in individual silos with varying levels of digital knowledge, skills and resource, will now be run in a far more efficient and streamlined manner,” he adds.
“Until now, some titles have not had access to all the talent (commercial, product, multimedia and marketing) that have made other titles more competitive. This new move allows for all titles to have access to these resources. We are aggresively focussed on appointing top people to key positions.”
The new division welcomes a few new appointments. Justin McCall joins as product manager who will be in charge of ensuring premium quality Avusa Media products, with the objective of becoming market leaders in their categories. Marcus Stephens joins Avusa Media LIVE as commercial manager; he will be responsible for driving the division’s commercial strategy and revenues. Reuben Goldberg, well-known for his various leadership positions on radio in news, sport and entertainment, has been appointed as the news editor for Times LIVE.
As with the launch of Times LIVE in September 2009, the rest of these titles will re-launch through the course of the year as LIVE brands, with new-look sites on the EScenic web publishing platform. This new system is used by other major international publications and enables better editorial management and content integration. The new version 5 also includes a bouquette of social community tools to be rolled out.
“Since the revamp from The Times website to Times LIVE, we have been going from strength to strength and are thrilled about the new opportunities Avusa Media LIVE will bring to the table. The new Sowetan LIVE site is going to turn heads,” says Lohmann.
Times LIVE recently passed the 500 000 domestic unique user mark for the first time, a major milestone for the site. Only a handful of SA sites have achieved this to date.
“March was a great month for Times LIVE. The site had a 52% year on year growth in domestic users and our local readers are spending more time on the site – up from 5:52 to 6:45 minutes per session. This is also the second time Times LIVE has topped 1,000,000 total unique users,” concludes Lohmann