Group Chief Executive Bekker was a founder of M-Net, Supersport, MTN, M-Web and several other media ventures. Naspers has investments operating in 129 countries, serving some 500 million customers with internet, TV and print media.

Bekker started by linking the sudden growth of the global economy to, among others, the invention of the Gutenberg Press in 1450. This invention – which happened around the same time as the Fall of Constantinople (1453) and Columbus’ explorations (1492) – led to an explosion of knowledge and its globalization.

Change has been dramatic. In reviewing the evolution of the media over the last century alone, Bekker shows a transition from single-colour newspapers, to radio, to television, to multichannel television to the internet with its social mediums.

“No medium has ever developed the following one,” he warns, and it is unlikely that the print media are going to invent their successor. Instead, it is likely that the new format will destroy the incumbent.

Bekker noted that media evolved very fast, without planning and led to the creative distribution of the old. Remember South Africa’s black and white “picture books”? They died within a year of television introducing the soap opera.

Will newspapers suffer the same fate?

Sadly, when Bekker reviews current innovators, they tend to be absent of women – instead they are young males, living in the West coast of America, Korea, Japan, China and Russia … Africa, like Europe, does not appear to have the conditions in which innovation thrives.

These conditions include the freedom to try and fail; good mathematics at school; good universities; hungry ambition and, computers & bandwidth aplenty.

“Invention is high risk,” he adds.

It is the nature of the beast that most innovations fail. In fact, “inventions” really come about with small, continuous improvements rather than a big bang discovery. If there is no appetite for failure then there is little opportunity to try out innovations which may or may not have an impact in the market.

“Take a concept that has worked elsewhere, copy it, take it in, take it forward…” he says. Be prepared to keep trying and keep changing.

It’s not surprising then that Thomas Edison once said:  “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

And once you have launched your innovation, the task starts again: “Keep reinventing yourself.”

In this age of technology, the journal seems like an anachronism: Outlook is our diary; our thoughts are scattered across Twitter, Facebook and rushed emails.
While completing her Masters on Marion Island, Joubert recalled that she “journalled compulsively” and this made her narrative stronger.
“I was quite moved by the whole process, so my journal was emotional as well. I was fascinated by this place and I think that the fascination came through in my journal notes … and that proved to be very powerful when the writing process came about,” recalled Joubert
Her journal helped provide the multiple entry points into climate change stories which later led to the first of a series of award-winning books.
Ferguson, in turn, kept notes on anything and everything even while she was in a drug haze and this helped ensure that when she wrote her best selling book “Smacked” it was filled with the detail that helped bring her story alive.
In doing so, both were able to follow that old adage: “Show, don’t tell.”
Any tool that helps strengthen our writing is worth adopting. A leading narrative writer once told me he took photographs to help him set the scene in his story. Since then, I have carried a small digital camera to take photographs wherever I go. And, whenever I transfer these into my computer, I am surprised at how much detail I missed at the scene: the faces of people lost in the crowd; the details of the landscape swept over in the rush of the moment…
While useful for daily breaking news, the journal and writer’s camera become invaluable for long-term features and investigations – allowing the writer to refresh their memory and bring in precise detail into the content.
Recording even the mundane allows the writer to observe the change and context – what might not be interesting today could have a new significance down the road once the reporting process is completed.
The journal also helps us hone our powers of observation. As stories get shorter and less detailed, the journal reinforces the art of long-form writing.
frayintermedia will be focusing on these and other tools of the trade during various courses over the next year. Click here for upcoming courses.

1. Update my contact book: Whether it’s an electronic file or a reliable hardcover, make sure your contacts are updated. Use New Year greetings to reconnect with old sources or connect with new. Delete old numbers; add new ones and make sure you have all the useful detail you need. Search engines are a great resource for contact details but do you have all the essential ones you need if – heaven forbid! – you had no internet access?
2. Update my diary: Review your stories from 2010 to update the essential dates on your diary for story ideas. Use technology to set reminders so that big days in your specialist beat don’t catch you unprepared.
3. Review the Press Code of Professional Conduct: When last did you review your sector’s press code? You can find the South African print media press code here and the broadcasting code here.
4. Review my organisation’s style guide: Does your organization have a style guide? Use the slow start to the year to ensure you know the basic guidelines on your style and update yourself on any 2010 changes … the sub-editors will thank you for that.
5. Start collecting story ideas: Resolve to be an ideas reporter not an assigned reporter. What issues are people talking about? What stories were you not able to tell last year? Whether you use an electronic file or a good old-fashioned filing system, get into the habit of collecting story ideas for slow news days.
6. Make a list of stories to follow-up in 2011: What stories were covered in 2010? Are there untold elements? What promises were made which should be followed up? Which stories should be revisited?
7. Show, don’t tell: It’s an old adage but good reporters tell their stories with detail and through the voices of other people. Take your readers, listeners and viewers to the story…
8. Do a spellcheck: Reviewing your story represents one step in professional self-editing. A spellcheck is a great way to make initiate a final review … make sure its UK and not US spelling.
9. Identify my own strengths and weaknesses: Good writers and reporters know their own strengths and weaknesses. Use your strengths wisely to the benefit of your work and take action to eliminate your reporting and writing weaknesses.
10. Update and refresh my skills: You don’t need to go to a training course… find resources on the Internet, invite an expert to give a lunchtime talk in your newsroom, ask the reporter you most admire how they found their last story. Opportunities for learning are all around you. Check out www.poynter.org for some good advice. You can download the Narrative Writing Journals from www.frayintermedia.com
11. Read: good writers are good readers.