Kagiso Media has announced key leadership appointments within its radio division following some tweaks to its structure. Management says they are designed to add further value to its audiences, commercial partners, and platforms.
The changes see the repositioning of its digital content team into a specialist Audience Acquisition unit, with a significant emphasis on audience research via the establishment of a new research role, and more co-ordination of its news content via a central News Editor role.
“Kagiso Media Radio brands Jacaranda FM and East Coast Radio have been the most consistent and best performing digital platforms in the radio industry, and last year our investment into a Data Management Platform (DMP) gave us even more ability to both understand our audiences and connect to them. We’ve taken the opportunity to take all this capacity to the next level as we refine some of our existing departments and bring in some fresh blood,” says Kagiso Media Chief Executive of Radio, Nick Grubb
Research consultant specialist Melissa McNally joins the team in September as the group’s Research and Analytics Manager.
McNally has an extensive research career that spans over 15 years. She began her career in social research, before progressing into market research with a focus on brand health and media studies.
She has spent the last few years heading up a research team in the broadcasting industry, where she was responsible for primary research across multiple radio stations as well as commercial research.
Earlier this year, McNally was elected to the board of the Broadcast Research Council of South Africa (BRC). Some of her career highlights include playing a role in the design of the new RAMS (currency) and working on the South African Infinite Dial study.
“I love working in the radio and broadcasting environment because it is fast-paced. There is never a dull moment and you’re always surrounded by passionate people. Also knowing that the work I do has an impact in terms of what the listener experiences is rewarding. I always tell people that it is a privilege to be the voice of the listener,” McNally says.
She adds that she is excited to be joining the Kagiso Media family.
“I’m looking forward to working with incredibly strong brands/stations that are so deeply entrenched in the lives of their listeners, as well as in the communities that they reach.”
Another big movement in leadership is the appointment of Anthea Carstens as Audience Acquisition Manager.
Carstens has worked in the digital media industry for 20 years. She joined Kagiso Media in 2012 and has worked on various publishing products over the years. Carstens most recently worked as a Content and Data Strategist for Kagiso Media brands – East Coast Radio (ECR) and Jacaranda FM.
She will continue to work closely with the stations to grow their current audiences.
“I’ve always been fascinated by the numbers and how we can use content and statistics to increase audience participation and engagement, making this role a natural fit. I’m looking forward to working closely with the stations to develop a sustainable acquisition strategy that is able to evolve and keep up with new trends and technology,” Carstens says.
Kagiso Media is also pleased to announce that Marius van der Walt has been appointed News Editor: Radio for both Jacaranda FM and ECR. Van der Walt joined Jacaranda FM as a weekend freelancer in 2007 and worked his way up to news editor. He says he is thrilled to be adding ECR to his portfolio.
“I grew up in KwaZulu-Natal listening to ECR, so it’s a homecoming of sorts. I am looking forward to working on a bigger canvass, where we can get the two newsrooms to work together to create a better product.”
“Anthea and Marius have been tremendously valuable in our digital and news operations, respectively, and we look forward to them building on these successes as they each step into new and expanded roles. Melissa brings us new and exciting capacity in audience understanding and analytics, and these insights will help us drive benefit for our programmers and content people, as well as for our advertisers,” Grubb concludes.
