Media News South Africa

Buckland, Maher to leave M&G Online

It has been confirmed: both Matthew Buckland and Vincent Maher, Mail & Guardian Online GM and strategist respectively, will shortly be leaving the online newspaper. Buckland is off to 24.com in Cape Town, and Maher to manage social media at Vodacom.

Comments Chris Moerdyk, marketing and media analyst and Bizcommunity.com columnist, “It should come as no surprise to the Mail & Guardian to see two of their top online executives heading off for pastures new. Talented young people such as Matthew Buckland and Vincent Maher belong to a new generation who thrive on new challenges, new environments and sometimes an entirely new lifestyle. It's what makes them tick, what motivates them, no matter how happy and successful they have been.

“Certainly they have both done wonders for M&G Online, particularly in creating the impressive Thought Leader site that last year went from nowhere to one of the country's most popular sites. With his journo's hat on, Matt Buckland is one of the most respected writers in the country when it comes to the online industry. And with his management hat on, he has a quite remarkable and pragmatic business sense. I guess M&G will be sad to see them go but there is no holding talent like this. It is going to be interesting to see where they end up. Frankly, I won't mind as long as they don't leave the country...”

Another Naspers stable appointment

Update 4.30pm: Also announcing his new appointment this afternoon, Tuesday, 24 June 2008, at MIH Internet, is last year's Top ICT Youth Innovator in Africa, Rafiq Phillips, who is currently "SEM Guru" and "Web AddiCT" at Quirk eMarketing. Effective 1 August, Phillips' new role in Strategic Worldwide Applications & Technologies (SWAT), the global research and development unit at MIH, under which portfolio 24.com and MXit both fall, will include developing new and improving existing products, as well as providing a strategic advisory service.

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About Simone Puterman

Simone Puterman (@SimoneAtLarge) is currently editor-at-large at Marklives.com and deputy chair of the Sanef online editors subcommittee. After majoring in psychology and linguistics at Rhodes University, and then completing her honours in psychology, she has been in the world of B2B publishing since 1997, with 7.5 year stints at both WriteStuff Publishing and Bizcommunity.com (March 2006-August 2013). Email her at moc.sevilkram@enomis.
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