No Comment 11 June 2007

Well, one could be forgiven for thinking that the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) conference last week, including the World Editors Forum (WEF), was actually a conference about online media, because the lines are so blurred now between the different news mediums, we’ve all become purveyors of news using any medium at our disposal… be it online – from web to social media sites like YouTube, blogging and podcasts; print – newspapers with magazines; broadcast – sound and video, etc.

In fact, we’re actually not even news mediums any longer, we’re building communities. Because engaging with your readers – in all forms possible and fulfilling all their needs (news, entertainment, fun, interaction, education etc) – you are building loyal communities of readers who feel that they have a stake in their medium of choice (you) and interact with you accordingly (commenting, providing news, columns etc).

We’re taking that whole community thing further than our launch last week at WAN of our news blogs and vlogs (video) from WAN, with our man in Cannes this week: Stuart Stobbs, failed drag queen and now the creative dude at proximity#ttp (logical career trajectory it seems). He’s a judge and partygoer there and will be reporting regularly on the goings on, so keep a look out this week on Biz.

Thanks also to our hardworking Jozi sales and marketing team for holding down the fort at Markex Johannesburg last week.

Because Biz also has some expansion plans ready to launch (more about this soon!) we need to streamline some of our email addresses. Please start sending all news for this ezine (media, marketing, advertising South Africa) to: marketingnews@bizcommunity.com. My email address as editor of Biz Marketing and editorial director of Bizcommunity.com remains editor@bizcommunity.com for all strategic client contact, including queries, proposals, invites, confidential info, etc.

Keep warm!
Louise Marsland, editor@bizcommunity.com
All news: marketingnews@bizcommunity.com

This column originally published on Monday, 11 June 2007.