Irna van Zyl
Irna van Zyl is New Media Publishing's executive director and editorial director, and was a founder of the company when it was established 12 years ago. NMP publishes titles such as VISI, Eat In, Eat Out and various custom publications, including Edgars Club, Multichoice's Dish magazine and Woolworths' Taste. TheMediaOnline asked her about her career path.
How did you get involved in media?
I qualified with a cum laude Honours in Journalism at Stellenbosch University and secured a job at Die Burger as a general reporter in 1980.
Take us through your career in media?
After six months I was sent to manage Die Burger's office in Worcester where I was responsible for covering everything that happened in the area, from tea parties to murders or big incidents such as the 1981 floods at Laingsburg and Montagu in the Karoo. I won the Stellenbosch Farmer's Winery Award for reporting under pressure of time and circumstance (SFW Awards) for this story. I then went backpacking overseas for six months and came back to a job in Die Burger's subs office (Nagkantoor), which ran after normal working hours. I became the newspaper's first female chief-sub in 1985. But the call to the magazine world came a little over a year later when I was offered the assistant editorship of the newly formed De Kat magazine, becoming the editor in 1988.
After that it was quite an easy step into publishing as I learned more and more about the business side of things in a small publishing house. After almost eight years at the helm of De Kat I moved back to Cape Town and in 1998 formed NMP with John Psillos and Naomi Herselman. Naspers bought 50% of our company, I became editor of one of their titles, Insig, and we launched what was in essence a custom magazine company.
After three years at Insig the NMP job that I was juggling at the same time became too demanding and I moved on to be publisher of several of our titles, such as Eat In, VISI, Mercedes and later Woolworths' Taste for a couple of years before moving back to my first love, editorial direction, development and training. I still hold the title of Editorial Development Director.
Two years ago we launched Mikateko Media, an enterprise development company with more than 51% black shareholding, of which 37,5% is held by black women. Mikateko has now posted two years of audited profits.
In the past 12 years NMP has grown to be South Africa's foremost custom-publishing company. We publish three of the biggest top ten titles in terms of circulation in the country: Multichoice's Dish, M-Net Magic and Edgars Club Magazine. We have also won more awards than any other publisher in the last 12 years, including four times Pica Customer Publisher of the Year for four different titles (Heart, Hip2B2, Plascon Colour and Woolworths' Taste) and have twice been named Best Customer and Consumer Magazine by Advantage for Taste. We also won the Pica Rossi Trophy for Best Consumer Magazine for Insig.
What would you say was a fundamental milestone in your career?
Being appointed the first female chief-sub for Die Burger.
Tell us about some of your achievements in the industry.
I have created The NMP Night School for editors and the Craft Awards (held internally) and was instrumental in setting up Mikateko Media. NMP employs over 160 people (75% female) and profits have grown by 110% over the last four years.
What is your take on media in South Africa? What are our strengths and weaknesses?
Our strength is our independence and we should guard that jealously in our young democracy. Besides that we also have great (and still vibrant) newspapers and some of the best magazines in the world. We have good representative bodies and structures that ultimately promote (and reward) continuous improvement of the media.
Our weaknesses lie sometimes in the level of intellectual debate and the lack of good crafting.
What can we do about our weaknesses?
We need to develop our craft more and we need to learn from international publishers. We should not be scared of bringing in talent to train and consult to us. We need to be creative and of course we always need to read more.
What is the role of women in the media?
I think it has greatly improved over the last couple of years - maybe the last five years. But we need to see more women in management and not just in editorial, though we should be grateful for all the female editors.
Why do you think that women are minority senior-position holders in the media?
It's a man's world, what can I say?
What are you hoping to achieve in your role as one of the leading women in media?
I am not an activist - not anymore. But I hope to be a positive role model.
What do the Women in The Media Awards mean to you?
Wonderful acknowledgment, a big surprise and a lot of 'sjoe, I am not sure I deserve this'.
And on a more personal note, who is your role model and why?
Our MD Bridget McCarney, because she is funny, intelligent and most of all because she has taught me that management can be about caring for people as well as financial performance. She has tremendous empathy, yet demands only the best quality from all of us. Like a lot of us New Medians, I've learned from her not to take myself too seriously.
What is your biggest pet peeve?
Selfish ego-centric people.
The book on your night-stand?
Plaasmoord by Karin Brynard, an excellent crime novel with huge literary merit. And The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, this year's keynote speaker at the Franschhoek Literary Festival.
Your signature line or saying?
How lucky can one girl be!