NEWS & ANALYSIS

"Media24′s Afrikaans newspapers announce paywall" - MarkLives

And four other of the top stories on the website this week

Media24′s Afrikaans newspapers announce paywall, digital first strategy

Soon readers of the three Media24 Afrikaans language daily newspapers Die Burger, Beeld and Volksblad, will have to pay for the privilege to read news in their home language. They announced the arrival of a paywall, a new tablet app and the imminent arrival of new look websites for all three papers on their sites this morning. The paywalls will take effect as soon as the new websites come out of beta.

Media laughs on April Fools

April 1, a day in which the mainstream media plays tricks on readers by publishing/broadcasting stories that ranges from the plausible but untrue to the improbable, and disguises fiction as news, is always an interesting alternative measure of media zeitgeist. Of course, post WMD and the Iraq war and Rupert Murdoch's incarnation of The Galactic Empire, the more cynical amongst us could be excused for feeling many news days offer little more than Ground Hog Day meeting April Fools.

Smile 90.4fm aims to shake up Cape Town radio market

Smile 90.4fm - which held its official launch in Cape Town two weeks ago - will be unique in that it will be completely bilingual - going out in 50% Afrikaans and English and with a mix of music and talk. Half of the music will be local.

Masingita Mazibuko: A story tells many tales

by Masingita Mazibuko Story-telling is a core characteristic of African culture, used to expound wisdom. If one casts their mind back to childhood or a moment in a movie theatre, one cannot ignore the emotions that stories evoke within us. I recall as a child the storyteller would announce the beginning of their story and we little ones would eagerly respond loudly declaring our readiness to listen and get lost in this imminent world.

Ad of the Week with Oresti Patricios - How's it Hangin'?

Despite everything we know about safe sex today, selling condoms to youngsters is still a hard sell (if you'll forgive the obvious pun).

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