South Africa: Mail & Guardian leads local thought

Posted by Jean Yves Chainon on August 30, 2007 at 11:07 AM

The Mail&Guardian (M&G) Online launched Thought Leader, an opinion aggregator that gathers the voices of South Africa’s columnists, bloggers and opinion makers in general. An interesting idea, inspired by the Guardian’s Comment is Free feature, which restores and reinvents newspapers’ civic mission as… thought leaders.

While still in the process of recruiting bloggers (about 40 so far), Matthew Buckland, publisher of the M&G Online, hopes to have about 200 signed up by next month. Current contributors include the M&G’s journalists and staffers, but also “professional bloggers, industry commentators and analysts, marketers, commentators, developers, columnists, freelance journalists, academics, businessmen and businesswomen,” Buckland wrote via email. Thought Leader focuses on established voices, but is also open to “up-and-coming writers.”

These voices supposedly range across the political spectrum and don’t necessarily match the M&G’s editorial line. Yet all posts are subject to editorial oversight, since Thought Leader is clearly displayed under the M&G brand name. According to Buckland, the M&G’s online editor has already rejected a few posts, and the print paper’s style guide also applies to the blog posts.

Buckland doesn’t seem to fear cannibalization of the newspaper product as in-house columnists and staffers devote time to Thought Leader. “I think it adds another dimension to the comment, opinion and analysis sections of the newspaper and website. it also provides our journalists with a platform to write more, get feedback and build a community around them,” wrote Buckland.

In the past, there have been concerns that journalist blogs don’t work because they simply don’t have time to write for alternative platforms. This doesn’t seem to apply to Thought Leader so far. Voluntary staffers are regularly opining.

“We have made blogging via Thought Leader a voluntary activity for staff. Some have taken the offer up enthusiastically, some haven't,” wrote Buckland.

Thought Leader is the third increment of the M&G’s aggressive blogging policy. After launching the Amas platforms (Amagama designed for readers and Amatomu as a local blogosphere aggregator), Thought Leader hopes to group the country’s influential voices and opinions under its brand name. Although the content isn’t typically news, this kind of service can attract the majority of the news-interested audience – from across the spectrum.

Source: Matthew Buckland, publisher Mail & Guardian Online