TV Newsers Make the #Kellman20 List

Today Arye Kellman, the drive time presenter of online radio station, Cliff Central, released the stations inaugural #Kellman20. The #Kellman20 is a list of twenty (what else) millenials to look out for in the year to come.

Like similar lists by the likes of Time Magazine, the #Kellman20 are honoured by various personalities writing their testimonials. Various television newsers and media personalities made the list.

eNCA's star reporter, Yusuf Omar, made the list. On the ground breaing reporter,Ruby Chikwiri wrote, "A forerunner in his industry, Yusuf is not constrained by the norm. He is instead breaking barriers by marrying technology together with journalism. A true storyteller. He lives through his journalism and has immersed himself in the art of “snack media”."

Head of  multimedia at Times Media Group, Dan Calderwood, is also featured on the list. " His talent and passion for breaking news that’s relevant to a diverse mass audience without losing quality of journalism is to be admired," writes Jonothan Sinclair.

Former YoTV presenter and former presenter of ANN7's I Am South African, Hulisani Ravele, also made the list. "Grounded, truthful and Powerful, Hulisani is an Influential Millennial. When she smiles, the world smiles back. When she laughs, we feel at home. Through her existence the world is a happier place," writes Ruby Chikwiri.

On 'Undercover' Journailist, Melanie Berliet, Ruby Chikwiri writes, " She made the jump from Wall Street to Journalism. She loves to immerse herself in various sub-cultures. Truthful and daring."

5FM Producer/presenter and Top Billing presenter, Roxy Burger, is also featured. In an email written to Roxy,Ruby Chikwiri writes, "Roxy we know you thrive on change, and this is clearly evident in you juggling all your passions and challenging yourself to expand your horizons."

The group is completed by:
Goodluck (Band)
Rorisang Moseli (UCT SRC Member)
TiMO ODV (Musician)
Toya Delazy (Musician)
Florence Adepoju (Cosmetic Scientist)
Tresor (Musician)
Locnville (Musician)
Poppy Ntshongwana (Radio DJ)
David Moore (Choreographer/Director)
Emma Gannon (Writer/Blogger)
Nomuzi Mabena (MTV Base VJ)
Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh (Activist)
Andy Jordan (Musician)
Boity Thulo (TV presenter)
Pearl Thusi (Media Personality)

The list, which has been trending on social media today, can be found in full detail at:
kellman20.cliffcentral.com/

Chantal Rutter Dros gives birth to son

Former eNews anchor, Carte Blanche reporter and ANN7 Prime anchor, Chantal Rutter Dros, this past Monday, January 25th, 2016 gave birth to her first child, Peter Dros.

Since leaving ANN7 in December 2014, Dros has been focussing her energies on her production company and living life, and has now given birth to a beautiful baby boy.

Terrible Scheduling

Remember in school when your teacher would tell you that you need to get working from day one?

Well, someone ought to tell that to Mindset Learn, the domestic television channel apparently dedicated to helping school children pass the school year with revision programming.

Problem is, ever since the school year started a few weeks ago, Mindset Learn has not shown a single hour of school revision content during the day, instead filling its schedule with reruns of programming like 'Soul Buddies,' and 'I Am Mzansi.' Its schedule now even boasts music video programming, content viewers can receive elsewhere.

if you want Life Sciences revision you will have to wait until after midnight because that is when the content that should be on The GoodLife Network stops playing on a channel dedicated to apparently helping scholars pass school.

eNews Direct Weekend Broacasts From the Weather Center

So this past weekend was the first weekend of eNews Direct Weekend being broadcast. Considering how the weekday counterpart uses a new, bigger studio as well as shots from the Johannesburg newsroom, it was going to be interesting to see how the weekend edition of the shoow, which is broadcast from Cape Town, would be done.

This past weekend was Amy McIver's turn to anchor and she did the bulletin entirely from a standing screen. The screen looked familiar to me and then I realised that it is the screen used to do the weather bulletins.

Yes, the news bulletin that aims to take you to the 'heart of the newsroom' is broadcast from the weather center.

 It was going to be interesting to see what the weekend edition looks like considering the setup at the Cape Town bureau is different to that of the Johannesburg one and is not exactly accomodating to the roving the newsroom format. [This is probably why the rumour that the weekend editions would also be done from Johannesburg studio started].

This format seemed awkward as well, it seemed more like just a normal news bulletin done standing up for no reason at all. There seemed to be little movement among the anchors and really just seemed like a low budget bulletin.


It reminded me of eNCA's News Night in the earlier years when the anchors would do the headlines from the big screen then move elsewhere for the rest of the bulletin.

On a side note, the eNews Early Edition branding has also finally been retired after all these years. The weekend edition previously survived when the weekday edition was replaced by the since then cancelled Sotho bulletin. However, it is now completely replaced by a short segment referred to as eNews Direct Headlines.

ANN7's SA Decides set to return later this year

SA Decides, ANN7's daily election programme that aired during the last election cycle, is set to return later this year.

As with the last 'season' of the show (the channel refers to its shows as seasons, as if it is episodic fare) the show aims to deploy a team to each of the nine provinces in the country getting the on the ground sentiment from ordinary South Africans.

Therefore, anyone wishing to be a part of these teams and want to get both experience and exposure on a platform as such should contact the channel.

The show will also continue to get the opinion  of various political commentators and party representatives in the lead up to the local elections taking place this year.

Like the elections, no set date has been given for the return of the show but one thing we do know is that its former anchor, Nzinga Qunta obviously wont be back considering that she has left the channel, and it is unlikely to air in its former timeslot as GameOn! airs in part of that block.

REVIEW: eNews Direct

They rehearsed all week last week. Those were the words I kept saying to myself as I watched the first bulletin of eTV's new prime time news bulletin, eNews Direct.


The show suffered so many glitches it was painful to watch. The camera was extremely shaky as it 'followed' Duduzile around the newsroom, which did not contain much movement. At one point during Gareth Edwards' social media report, viewers were nearly looking at the ceiling with Gareth not knowing how to look at the camera.

The poor camera work was, however, blamed on a steady cam malfunction, according to eNCA's MD, Patrick Conroy.

But there are other things that can't be explained away. Firstly, the quality of the camera following the anchor in the newsroom is terrible. It felt as if I was watching a video recorded on someone's cellphone. At more than one point did the on air anchor try to link to a story but the story just did not air. Sometimes the camera would also just cut to someone else completely.

But technical mistakes aside, the broadcast just lacked meat on the bone. There was a news segment, which featured an interview, then there was the social media news with social media editor (which cannot be a daily segment considering Gareth anchors News Night on Friday evenings, which airs the same time as eNews Direct), then 11 minutes into the thirty minute bulletin we have have our sports report (which is earlier than what viewers are used to), then there was the weather report with Candice McKechnie (which has new graphics and presentation style that has less details than it previously had because, well, that is the theme).

 After this I looked at the time and saw that we still have a lot of time left so what can possibly come after the break? Believe it or not there is a full business news segment and to end the bulletin off, we have entertainment news as well because, why not. [Trivia note: This is the first time eTV's prime time news bulletin has a scheduled entertainment segment since eArts was discontinued in the early 2000's]. The entertainment story was just another news piece on the Gareth Cliff situation with MNet, which definitely did not lighten the mood as the last segment of news usually does. Add to this the fact that the insert was setup to inform viewers of the development of the story, but viewers already knew this from the social media report from earlier in the evening, further indicative of poor planning.

The music used for the bulletin is still the same old yoga like music used for all eNews bulletins and not something upbeat to go with the theme of the bulletin. The bulletin also seemed very all over the show: now she is in the newsroom, then she is not, well then back in the newsroom, then not, with no link between the movement.

Over all, eNews Direct is a major disappointment. The amount of general news has been decreased and viewers who do not have access to 24 hour news channels on pay tv will be less informed by this new bulletin that seems just full of gimmicks.

Guess what? When it comes to news from the newsroom, ANN7 does it better (Newsroom Live with Chante Jantjies, 6pm), which is something Patrick Conroy who usually slams ANN7 for their on air mistakes, will probably not admit.

SABC News Channel launches 'On The Record' with Vuyo Mvoko

"And a very warm welcome to the very first episode of our new show, On the Record." Those were the first words of SABC News' Contributing Editor, Vuyo Mvoko, welcoming viewers to his new show this past Monday night, January 11th.

On The Record aims to go beyond the day's headlines to bring viewers a select few stories that viewers simply have to know, debates, as well as interviews and profiles with people viewers ought to know.

The show has a decent format: start with a few news stories with Mvoko drawing a narrative in between links as well as providing commentary, none of which seems to be scrolling on a teleprompter. Not being a traditional news bulletin, the program has the luxury to linger longer on certain news stories, creating insight viewers would otherwise not have received during a regular bulletin.

After the first segment details the main news story of the day, the second segment features the show's focus story of the day, which is something discussed in with on air guests. The premiere episode featured a simply explosive debate around the recent race issues experienced in the country. It featured author, Eusebius McKaizer (Run, Racist, Run), rights activist, Ernst Roets (Afriforum)as well as Andile Mgxithama (Black First, Land First).

Following the lengthy debate, the premiere episode aired an interview with the current ANC Youth League President.

With the launch of On The Record, Your World gets cut down to only two hours, starting now at 10pm. Both shows use the same studio though.

The show is also not Mvoko's first attempt at a show on the channel as he has previously experimented with different formats in the past.

One The Record with anchor Vuyo Mvoko airs weekdays from 9pm to 10pm on SABC News Channel (DStv 404).

Al Jazeera's American News Channel To Shut Down, Decides To Expand Digital Operations

Al Jazeera Media Network today announced that the organisation's american news channel, Al Jazeera America (Stylised as AJAM) will cease operations from the end of October this year.

The moves comes nearly 2 years after the channel launched in August 2013 and faced an uphill battle in two fronts, both battles of which are now lost: firstly, getting the American public to tune to your tv channel and, secondly, getting pay tv providers to carry the channel.

The channel launched with much fanfare and poached talent from other news channels. These included Ali Velshi who previously anchored CNNi's World Business Today, which is now anchored by Maggy Lake.

Al Jazeera America replaced Al Gore's Current TV (which was carried by what was then called TopTV here in SA) which too struggled in the ratings, though things never got better.

Being backed by financially strong investors, the network launched with over twenty bureaus across the United States and backed by Al Jazeera's muscle for international news. However, when ratings failed to improve, the network shut most of its bureaux and cut back a lot of its live content.

To replace this cut content, the channel simulcast Al Jazeera English, which is seen around the world including here in SA. This led to Al Jazeera English changing its on screen look and feel to that of the American channel so that the transition between the networks can be seamless.

Now, the channel goes 'online only' as the organisation invests more in its online platforms, which benefit online news consumers around the world.

eNews Prime Time to be replaced by eNews Direct

From Monday, January 18th 2015, eTV's prime time news bulletin, eNews Prime Time, will be replaced by a new brand, eNews Direct.

Advertised as being just the up to the  minute headlines, nothing else, eNews Direct is the independent broadcaster's attempt to revive the ratings for their news bulletin which has lost more than half of its viewers since being moved from its longstanding 7pm position last year.

The bulletin will continue to be anchored by Duduzile Ramele with Sandile Nqose on the sports headlines.

What will change is the studio from which the news originates. It will no longer be done from eTV's studio 101 (where it shares space with the breakfast show, Sunrise),  but will move to the studio previously occupied by eNCA's African programming, Africa 360 and African Edition, which is much closer to the newsroom. The studio has received a slight facelift, again, which I personally feel makes it not just the best version of this studio I have seen, but easily one of the best in the country.

Moving to a studio closer to the newsroom also coincdes with the show's aim of taking viewers to the pulse of the story, with the anchor doing live shots from inside the actual newsroom.

This format is currently being experimented with by ANN7 with its 6pm Newsroom Live with Chante Jantjies where she goes to the journalists in the newsroom for the story. Though the format sounds good on paper, ANN7's bulletin feautures shaky camera work, poor lighting and many sound technical problems, so I will be keen to see whether this new bulletin from eNews will be different.

Monde Twala, managing director of eTV's channels said that the change is in response to changes in how news is consumed

This is the first major change in the format of the prime time news bulletin on eTV since way back in the early 2000s when the bulletin moved from Cape Town to Joburg and even experimented at being a one hour bulletin for a while.

Whether it is a success or not will depend on how viewership numbers will react to the change, which I do not think will change by much.

Andrew Barnes in hot water after mocking Minister of Basic Education

With the recent race row involving Penny Sparrow reigniting the debate around how far South Africa has come, eNCA anchor, Andrew Barnes is now drawing criticism on social media.

This follows him mocking Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga's pronounciation of the English word, 'epitome.'

Follwing a link on today's edition of eNCA's News Day, Barnes commented, "Someone should have a word with the basic education minister on how to pronounce eptiome." [Ironically, Barnes does not pronounce the Minister's surname correctly]

Since then, the uproar has continued to grow on social media, with 'Andrew Barnes' currently peaking at number 3 on social network, Twitter.

In response to the uproar, Barnes tweeted, "My heartfelt apologies for the hurtful comment I made about the Education Minister's English today.You all expect more of me. I'm Sorry."

With eNCA's movement to the online realm, covering Twitter happenings on air quite often these days, many users of the site are patiently waiting for the channel to cover this story, which would meet the channel's criteria for on air coverage had it been someone else, yet no coverage yet.