Friday, February 7, 2025

May 27, 2014

This Is Why The New York Times Should Take A Look At Naspers

South African media company Naspers could teach its US counterparts a thing or two...

With The New York Times learning that you really do need to adapt or die, the long-running newspaper publication could take a page out of South African media company Naspers‘ book.

The New York Times may have mismanaged certain elements of their business in the early 2000s, digging in their piggy bank and investing into other newspaper assets instead of branching out further into the daunting, yet inevitable internet news revolution. And if the leaked 96-page memo from the NYT is anything to go by, it’s not looking so good.

Back in the late 90s, in the depths of the “dark continent”, where things were often seen to be “backwards”, Koos Bekker was catapulting Naspers into the future by putting online first by starting, investing in or buying companies that were born on the web. Bekker must’ve known the interwebz was destined for great things, like cat videos and selfies.

Naspers is now the largest internet company outside the U.S. and China and holds stakes in online auction businesses, instant messaging services, mobile advertising networks, price comparison sites and e-commerce firms in countries such as Russia, Poland, Brazil, Nigeria and the UAE.

Naspers also spread its hand far beyond the print and online media realm, starting M-Net in the late 80s, and branching into sports coverage, which as you can imagine in the sports-crazed South Africa, makes truck-loads of money – something the NYT could’ve had their share of in the States given some foresight.

[source: MemeBurn]