Johannesburg - Established newspaper outlets are not stifling the growth of smaller upcoming players in the sector, the Print and Digital Media Transformation Task Team (PDMTTT) heard on Thursday.
However, Caxton non-executive chairman Paul Jenkins told the task team’s hearing in Johannesburg that it would be illegal for the established industry to arrange a plan to refrain from a particular market, leaving it for the smaller players.
“The question is what can I do to make that (smaller) newspaper work. With the way the Competition Act is set up … say Media 24 and us (Caxton) sit down at table with the TMG (Times Media Group) and say let’s leave that particular market it sounds like a simple solution.
“If we do that the competition authority is going to say that is collusion. We cannot do that …I won’t come to such a meeting and I won’t even give that thought a wink lest I be accused of conniving. I am already being accused of being in a cartel,” said Jenkins.
He said passing legislation restricting the established players from entering particular communities would be met with opposition.
“Its intention (the legislation) is absolutely noble but as a businessman I will say I have the right to do business where I like. We have this dilemma and it’s like the issue of humility. The minute you know you are humble then you are no longer humble,” he said.
“The minute you tell us that we can’t compete (in a specific area), then that's exactly what we want to go and do. We can never agree that we can’t.
“The work of this PDMTTT is to reinforce the importance of the little guys (smaller players) and their need for a voice.”
He said the optimal way to regulate the business would be through a free market. The establishing media had been supporting the upcoming ones, said Jenkins.
“I can tell you that the pricing we give to the little players (for production services like printing press) is priced at a level which gives them no disadvantage,” he said.
“It’s like they were part of the family. We are not making massive mark-ups on the little guys. We can try harder to look for the little guys and give them a leg up. However there is no way that as Caxton we are going to say we are giving them a sponsorship,” said Jenkins.
Project director of the transformation task team, Mathatha Tsedu, a former City Press editor, said that on Friday representatives of Independent Newspapers and the TMG would submit oral presentations.
The hearings are part of a facts submission phase by key players in South Africa's newspaper industry: Media 24, Independent Newspapers, Caxton Media, Times Media Group, the Mail & Guardian, and BDFM.
The task team was set up in August to help the industry develop a common transformation strategy. It is examining issues such as ownership, management, employment equity, skills development, and the low level of black ownership in many large media groups.
It was established after Parliament's portfolio committee on communications criticised the print media sector and called for a transformation charter.
Print Media SA, now called Print and Digital Media SA, rejected the idea and said the media industry would deal with the matter in its own way. - Sapa