WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.779 Welcome. Welcome to another deep dive. Today's 00:00:03.779 --> 00:00:06.240 mission is actually really fun. We are going 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:09.820 to explore the life cycle, the evolution and 00:00:09.820 --> 00:00:13.220 I guess the massive cultural footprint of a highly 00:00:13.220 --> 00:00:16.519 specific sports media institution, which is essay 00:00:16.519 --> 00:00:18.780 rugby magazine. Yeah. And at first glance, I 00:00:18.780 --> 00:00:20.760 mean, if you're just looking at the source material 00:00:20.760 --> 00:00:23.179 we have today, which is a really comprehensive 00:00:23.179 --> 00:00:25.739 Wikipedia article detailing the history of the 00:00:25.739 --> 00:00:27.519 magazine. Right. Chronicling everything from 00:00:27.519 --> 00:00:30.809 the spring box and super rugby. club and schools 00:00:30.809 --> 00:00:34.009 rugby since 1995 exactly you might think okay 00:00:34.009 --> 00:00:36.429 it's just a history of a monthly sports publication 00:00:36.429 --> 00:00:39.210 but it's actually this incredibly fascinating 00:00:39.210 --> 00:00:42.990 case study on print media survival, national 00:00:42.990 --> 00:00:46.009 sporting identity, and, well, that really brutal 00:00:46.009 --> 00:00:48.350 transition into the digital age. OK, let's unpack 00:00:48.350 --> 00:00:49.969 this. Because to get the listener right into 00:00:49.969 --> 00:00:51.909 the mindset, I want you to imagine trying to 00:00:51.909 --> 00:00:54.689 capture the absolute peak of a nation's sporting 00:00:54.689 --> 00:00:57.770 fever, and then bottling it into a monthly physical 00:00:57.770 --> 00:01:00.130 object. That is essentially what we are looking 00:01:00.130 --> 00:01:01.890 at today. That's a great way to put it, honestly. 00:01:02.170 --> 00:01:05.129 So to understand how they pulled this off, we 00:01:05.129 --> 00:01:08.400 have to look at their genesis, the bedrock. The 00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:11.799 very first issue launched in April 1995. Right. 00:01:11.980 --> 00:01:14.739 It cost eight rand and 50 cents. And the very 00:01:14.739 --> 00:01:17.180 first cover featured Spring Book's wing Chester 00:01:17.180 --> 00:01:20.000 Williams. But the real kicker here is the timing. 00:01:20.459 --> 00:01:23.340 It went on sale exactly two months before the 00:01:23.340 --> 00:01:26.140 1995 Rugby World Cup. Yeah, which was hosted 00:01:26.140 --> 00:01:28.620 right there in South Africa. Right. What's fascinating 00:01:28.620 --> 00:01:31.500 here is just the strategic calculation of that 00:01:31.500 --> 00:01:34.040 launch window. I mean, launching a magazine requires 00:01:34.040 --> 00:01:37.439 massive upfront capital. Oh, yeah. It's notoriously 00:01:37.439 --> 00:01:40.200 expensive. Exactly. Doing it under normal circumstances 00:01:40.200 --> 00:01:43.879 is a coin toss at best. But timing your very 00:01:43.879 --> 00:01:46.879 first issue to hit the shelves literally 60 days 00:01:46.879 --> 00:01:48.900 before your home country hosts a global sporting 00:01:48.900 --> 00:01:51.250 event, that is is a master class in capturing 00:01:51.250 --> 00:01:53.329 a captive market. But wait, was launching right 00:01:53.329 --> 00:01:55.549 before the World Cup a stroke of genius, or was 00:01:55.549 --> 00:01:57.609 it incredibly risky? Like, if the tournament 00:01:57.609 --> 00:01:59.890 had been a flop or, say, the home team got knocked 00:01:59.890 --> 00:02:02.769 out immediately, would this magazine have survived 00:02:02.769 --> 00:02:05.549 its first year? Oh, it was a monumental risk. 00:02:05.750 --> 00:02:08.430 I mean, if the home team crashes out early, the 00:02:08.430 --> 00:02:11.210 national fever breaks, people stop paying attention. 00:02:11.569 --> 00:02:13.830 And suddenly, you've got this really expensive 00:02:13.830 --> 00:02:16.189 monthly print product sitting on newsstands that 00:02:16.189 --> 00:02:18.150 nobody wants to look at. Right, they basically 00:02:18.150 --> 00:02:20.669 chained their corporate existence to the unpredictable 00:02:20.669 --> 00:02:23.990 mood of sports fans. They really did. But the 00:02:23.990 --> 00:02:27.039 gamble paid off. The cultural phenomenon of that 00:02:27.039 --> 00:02:30.740 1995 tournament provided this foundational bedrock 00:02:30.740 --> 00:02:33.599 of readership. It hardwired the magazine into 00:02:33.599 --> 00:02:35.620 the national memory. And that initial momentum 00:02:35.620 --> 00:02:38.620 was clearly vital because if you look at the 00:02:38.620 --> 00:02:40.740 business of keeping this magazine alive over 00:02:40.740 --> 00:02:43.740 the next few decades, it was completely turbulent. 00:02:43.960 --> 00:02:45.740 Yeah, the publishing side was a wild ride. It 00:02:45.740 --> 00:02:47.599 really was. I mean, it's like a rugby ball being 00:02:47.599 --> 00:02:50.020 passed around during a totally chaotic play. 00:02:50.340 --> 00:02:52.159 So it started with a publisher called Random 00:02:52.159 --> 00:02:54.259 House Stroke. Right. Then the title got sold 00:02:54.259 --> 00:02:56.860 to strobe publishing, and strobe managed to keep 00:02:56.860 --> 00:02:59.719 it going for a while, right up until the December 00:02:59.719 --> 00:03:04.419 2001 to January 2002 combined issue. But then 00:03:04.419 --> 00:03:06.680 strobe publishing just closed its doors. Which 00:03:06.680 --> 00:03:08.960 is usually a death sentence. When a publisher 00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:11.840 goes bankrupt, the individual magazine titles 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:14.060 almost always go down with the ship. The staff 00:03:14.060 --> 00:03:16.479 scatters, the brand evaporates. Yeah, it's just 00:03:16.479 --> 00:03:19.419 game over. Right. But somebody drops the ball. 00:03:20.069 --> 00:03:22.870 and Highbury Media, well they were called Highbury 00:03:22.870 --> 00:03:25.810 Monarch Communications back then, scoops it up. 00:03:26.210 --> 00:03:28.610 They officially rescued and relaunched the title 00:03:28.610 --> 00:03:32.050 in May 2002. Right, they essentially ran it down 00:03:32.050 --> 00:03:35.379 the field. But why? Highbury wasn't buying printing 00:03:35.379 --> 00:03:39.080 presses. What made this failing title worth rescuing? 00:03:39.180 --> 00:03:41.280 They were buying a congregation, essentially. 00:03:41.659 --> 00:03:43.340 Highbury realized that the audience was still 00:03:43.340 --> 00:03:46.539 there, sitting in the pews. Surviving that collapse 00:03:46.539 --> 00:03:49.020 just proves the sheer value of the title's brand. 00:03:49.539 --> 00:03:51.699 It had become synonymous with the sport itself. 00:03:51.819 --> 00:03:53.879 And you can actually track the economics of maintaining 00:03:53.879 --> 00:03:55.819 that physical product just by looking at the 00:03:55.819 --> 00:03:58.180 cover prices over the years. It's a stark lesson 00:03:58.180 --> 00:04:00.599 in print inflation. Oh, absolutely. So we started 00:04:00.599 --> 00:04:04.520 at $8 .50 in 1995. Ten years later, for their 00:04:04.520 --> 00:04:07.639 100th issue in April 2005, the price had doubled 00:04:07.639 --> 00:04:11.199 to 16 Rand 95. And by the 200th issue in May 00:04:11.199 --> 00:04:14.840 2014, it was 29 Rand 90. That climb is direct 00:04:14.840 --> 00:04:16.879 reflection of the shifting economics of print. 00:04:17.160 --> 00:04:19.459 You know, the cost of paper pulp distribution, 00:04:19.939 --> 00:04:22.620 paying top writers. Those margins were getting 00:04:22.620 --> 00:04:24.639 squeezed tighter and tighter. But people kept 00:04:24.639 --> 00:04:27.259 buying it. I mean, the audited print circulation 00:04:27.259 --> 00:04:31.980 stood at 24 ,871 copies for the period of October 00:04:31.980 --> 00:04:34.730 to December 2018. Which is amazing. for a new 00:04:34.730 --> 00:04:37.269 sports magazine in 2018 to hold on to nearly 00:04:37.269 --> 00:04:40.930 25 ,000 paid physical copies. That is a very 00:04:40.930 --> 00:04:43.129 healthy footprint in an era where everyone was 00:04:43.129 --> 00:04:45.370 getting news for free on their phones. And that 00:04:45.370 --> 00:04:47.569 brings us to 2017, where they made a completely 00:04:47.569 --> 00:04:50.269 counterintuitive business move. For years, they've 00:04:50.269 --> 00:04:52.689 been publishing 11 issues a year, combining Jan 00:04:52.689 --> 00:04:56.189 and Feb. But in 2017, they shifted to 12 issues 00:04:56.189 --> 00:04:58.589 a year. Yeah, bucking the global trend entirely. 00:04:59.269 --> 00:05:01.110 While the rest of the print media world was shrinking 00:05:01.110 --> 00:05:03.350 and consolidating, they increased their production 00:05:03.350 --> 00:05:05.680 schedule. They were basically declaring to advertisers 00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:07.779 that their physical product was still a necessary 00:05:07.779 --> 00:05:10.459 premium commodity. But to convince readers to 00:05:10.459 --> 00:05:12.860 keep paying higher prices, they had to give them 00:05:12.860 --> 00:05:15.220 a reason to physically hold the magazine. And 00:05:15.220 --> 00:05:16.519 that's where their milestone issues come in. 00:05:16.620 --> 00:05:19.139 Right, the power of curation. Exactly. Let's 00:05:19.139 --> 00:05:22.639 look at these. The 100th issue in April 2005 00:05:22.639 --> 00:05:26.360 featured Ashwin Villamzee. Brent Russell, Victor 00:05:26.360 --> 00:05:28.759 Matfield, and Schalkberger. A powerhouse cover. 00:05:28.920 --> 00:05:31.939 Yeah. And the 200th issue in May 2014 featured 00:05:31.939 --> 00:05:35.019 Francois Stein. But the real heavyweights, literally 00:05:35.019 --> 00:05:37.939 heavy, were the World Cup preview giants. Oh, 00:05:37.939 --> 00:05:40.680 these are legendary. So the September 2007 issue 00:05:40.680 --> 00:05:44.939 was 236 pages. Wow. Then the September 2011 issue 00:05:44.939 --> 00:05:47.899 broke that record at an astonishing 260 pages. 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:51.220 That's just massive. And the 2015 issue was 188 00:05:51.220 --> 00:05:53.579 pages, which was also the first one to be published 00:05:53.579 --> 00:05:56.180 in Africa. by the way, running an Africans edition 00:05:56.180 --> 00:05:59.500 from September 2015 to June 2016. But wait, I 00:05:59.500 --> 00:06:02.300 have to ask about that 2011 issue. A 260 page 00:06:02.300 --> 00:06:04.500 magazine isn't a magazine, it's a textbook. It 00:06:04.500 --> 00:06:06.699 really is. Did people read these cover to cover 00:06:06.699 --> 00:06:08.639 or were they essentially buying a collectible 00:06:08.639 --> 00:06:10.720 artifact? Like was this just a vanity project? 00:06:10.980 --> 00:06:13.759 Definitely not a vanity project. It was a calculated 00:06:13.759 --> 00:06:16.339 shift in how consumers interact with the media. 00:06:16.759 --> 00:06:19.660 A 260 page issue doesn't compete with daily news. 00:06:19.920 --> 00:06:22.100 It sits on your coffee table for the entire six 00:06:22.100 --> 00:06:24.970 week tournament. was a reference guide. Exactly. 00:06:25.269 --> 00:06:28.209 Fans dip into it to check stats, read deep dives, 00:06:28.329 --> 00:06:30.449 or settle debates in the living room. It's a 00:06:30.449 --> 00:06:32.870 physical companion to the TV broadcasts. OK, 00:06:33.029 --> 00:06:34.810 speaking of settling debates, here's where it 00:06:34.810 --> 00:06:37.899 gets really interesting. For their 20th anniversary 00:06:37.899 --> 00:06:41.319 issue in April 2015, they executed the ultimate 00:06:41.319 --> 00:06:44.779 curation. They got 2007 World Cup winning coach 00:06:44.779 --> 00:06:47.579 Jake White and veteran writers Mark Keoghain 00:06:47.579 --> 00:06:50.759 and Gavin Rich to pick the 20 best bucks since 00:06:50.759 --> 00:06:53.860 1995. That is a brave thing to print. Right. 00:06:54.079 --> 00:06:57.079 Printing a definitive top 20 list seems incredibly 00:06:57.079 --> 00:06:59.300 risky. You are guaranteed to alienate people 00:06:59.300 --> 00:07:01.180 who think their favorite player was snubbed. 00:07:01.259 --> 00:07:04.139 But that's the point, isn't it? In media, calculated 00:07:04.139 --> 00:07:06.860 alienation drives engagement. A safe list is 00:07:06.860 --> 00:07:09.060 boring. Putting those experts in a room to make 00:07:09.060 --> 00:07:11.879 a historical declaration shapes the sports narrative. 00:07:12.220 --> 00:07:14.399 You want people arguing about it in pubs. Well, 00:07:14.399 --> 00:07:16.519 let's look at who actually made the cut, because 00:07:16.519 --> 00:07:18.699 we have to list them. Starting at fullback, they 00:07:18.699 --> 00:07:21.819 picked Andre Joubert and Percy Montgomery. Legends. 00:07:22.220 --> 00:07:24.660 And on the wings, naturally, Chester Williams, 00:07:24.699 --> 00:07:27.540 who was on that very first cover alongside Brian 00:07:27.540 --> 00:07:30.310 Havana. For the centers, it was Jean de Villiers, 00:07:30.569 --> 00:07:32.689 Jacques Fourie, and Francois Stein. And at fly 00:07:32.689 --> 00:07:34.990 -half, Joel Stransky and Henry Hannibal. Then 00:07:34.990 --> 00:07:37.589 for scrum -halves, Juiced, Wander Westweizen, 00:07:37.810 --> 00:07:39.810 and Fourie -du -Prise. So that's the back line. 00:07:39.930 --> 00:07:42.410 Yeah, an incredible lineup. And the forward serve 00:07:42.410 --> 00:07:44.509 just is dominant. For loose forwards, you have 00:07:44.509 --> 00:07:47.230 Francois Pienaar, Juan Smith, and Schalkberger. 00:07:47.629 --> 00:07:49.810 For the locks, they went with Mark Andrews, Victor 00:07:49.810 --> 00:07:53.009 Matfield, and Bacchys Botha. At hooker. John 00:07:53.009 --> 00:07:56.069 Smith and Bismarck Du Plessis. And finally, rounding 00:07:56.069 --> 00:07:58.790 it out at prop, Austerant. Just a phenomenal 00:07:58.790 --> 00:08:01.069 roster. And by physically printing that list, 00:08:01.209 --> 00:08:03.269 the magazine basically carved those legacies 00:08:03.269 --> 00:08:06.050 in stone. But doing that level of authoritative 00:08:06.050 --> 00:08:09.290 curation requires some serious editorial stability. 00:08:09.870 --> 00:08:11.629 Who are the architects behind this narrative? 00:08:12.069 --> 00:08:14.149 That is the hidden engine of their survival. 00:08:14.970 --> 00:08:17.129 Simon Borchardt was the editor who navigated 00:08:17.129 --> 00:08:20.310 the most critical era. from 2002 all the way 00:08:20.310 --> 00:08:22.870 to 2019. That's a huge tenure in publishing. 00:08:23.089 --> 00:08:25.069 It is. He built on the work of previous editors 00:08:25.069 --> 00:08:27.050 like Chris Showman and John Dobson. And Dobson 00:08:27.050 --> 00:08:29.310 is a crazy piece of trivia, right? Because he 00:08:29.310 --> 00:08:31.470 eventually became the coach of Western Province. 00:08:31.529 --> 00:08:33.970 Yeah. Going from editing the magazine to actually 00:08:33.970 --> 00:08:36.809 coaching the team shows just how deep their tactical 00:08:36.809 --> 00:08:40.220 expertise was. Exactly. The staff had serious 00:08:40.220 --> 00:08:42.759 pedigree. Gary Lemke, Highbury's sports editorial 00:08:42.759 --> 00:08:45.759 director, was the 2015 SAB Sports Journalist 00:08:45.759 --> 00:08:48.360 of the Year. John Cardinelli, their chief rugby 00:08:48.360 --> 00:08:50.860 writer, won the same award in 2013. You also 00:08:50.860 --> 00:08:53.200 had Craig Lewis, Mariette Adams, and all these 00:08:53.200 --> 00:08:55.639 global freelancers. And they even won the 2002 00:08:55.639 --> 00:08:58.519 PICA award for innovation and magazine publishing. 00:08:58.860 --> 00:09:00.759 Right. But pushing print innovation in 2002 is 00:09:00.759 --> 00:09:02.720 one thing. To survive the next decade, they had 00:09:02.720 --> 00:09:04.960 to make the digital leap. They did. In February 00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:09.049 2013, they launched Sirugbemag .co .zaid. They 00:09:09.049 --> 00:09:12.090 brought their news, added live text commentary, 00:09:12.370 --> 00:09:15.009 videos, logs, and the metrics by 2022 are just 00:09:15.009 --> 00:09:20.950 staggering. They had 5 ,814 ,879 users. Unbelievable. 00:09:21.250 --> 00:09:26.350 And over 38 ,205 ,052 page views. If we connect 00:09:26.350 --> 00:09:29.070 this to the bigger picture, the scale of that 00:09:29.070 --> 00:09:31.169 digital pivot is what separates them from other 00:09:31.169 --> 00:09:34.169 legacy media. A lot of magazines launch websites 00:09:34.169 --> 00:09:37.320 as an afterthought. This magazine treated digital 00:09:37.320 --> 00:09:39.960 as the primary engine for growth. It's like a 00:09:39.960 --> 00:09:42.259 rugby team changing its entire play style at 00:09:42.259 --> 00:09:44.799 halftime. They went from the slow, deliberate 00:09:44.799 --> 00:09:48.659 impact of a 260 -page print issue to the rapid 00:09:48.659 --> 00:09:52.000 -fire, agile pace of live text commentary. Yeah, 00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:54.620 and that requires rewiring a journalist's brain. 00:09:54.879 --> 00:09:57.700 Operating on a minute -by -minute deadline while 00:09:57.700 --> 00:09:59.720 still maintaining the authority of a monthly 00:09:59.720 --> 00:10:02.539 deep dive is a massive operational achievement. 00:10:02.919 --> 00:10:04.759 So what does this all mean? We've gone from an 00:10:04.759 --> 00:10:07.539 8 -rand 50 -print magazine in 1995 surviving 00:10:07.539 --> 00:10:09.740 bankruptcies, curating the greatest players, 00:10:09.980 --> 00:10:12.399 to pulling 38 million page views. It's the ultimate 00:10:12.399 --> 00:10:14.659 story of adaptability. They were born in the 00:10:14.659 --> 00:10:16.919 fervor of a home World Cup, survived the print 00:10:16.919 --> 00:10:19.500 apocalypse by offering premium curation, and 00:10:19.500 --> 00:10:21.860 successfully mutated into a digital juggernaut 00:10:21.860 --> 00:10:24.399 without losing their identity. It really makes 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:26.980 you, the listener, think about how you consume 00:10:26.980 --> 00:10:30.480 your own niche interests today. Do you rely entirely 00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:33.000 on the instant gratification of a 38 million 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:35.879 page view website, or do you still crave the 00:10:35.879 --> 00:10:39.080 physical weight of a 260 page print edition sitting 00:10:39.080 --> 00:10:41.600 on your desk? This raises an important question 00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:44.240 though. As sports journalism becomes increasingly 00:10:44.240 --> 00:10:47.399 instant and digital, what happens to the historical 00:10:47.399 --> 00:10:50.950 record? When there are no more 250 page physical 00:10:50.950 --> 00:10:52.950 collector's items to pull off a bookshelf 20 00:10:52.950 --> 00:10:55.690 years from now, how will future generations remember 00:10:55.690 --> 00:10:58.029 the titans of the game? Wow, yeah. If it's all 00:10:58.029 --> 00:11:00.190 just live feeds that disappear, where are the 00:11:00.190 --> 00:11:02.090 artifacts? That's definitely something to think 00:11:02.090 --> 00:11:05.070 about. While we warmly thank you for joining 00:11:05.070 --> 00:11:08.149 us on this deep dive today, keep exploring, keep 00:11:08.149 --> 00:11:09.929 questioning, and we'll catch on the next one. 00:11:10.149 --> 00:11:10.450 Farewell.