Moneyweb undertakes facelift to studio even as losses continue

ONLINE news company Moneyweb would invest in upgrading its studio equipment from analogue to digital over the next six months to a year, Patrick Meyer, the financial director, said yesterday.

Meyer said that part of the upgrade would also include upgrades to personal computers, various software packages and internet capabilities.

Moneyweb’s flagship online operation is its business news website, Moneyweb.co.za. It also owns Mineweb.com, an international mining news website.

Alec Hogg, Moneyweb’s chief executive and founder, did not disclose the sum of the investment but said it was very small. “That will be covered many times by the interest we earn on our cash,” he said.

Moneyweb has recently completed a significant investment programme which resulted in a headline loss of R3.7 million, or 3.5c a share, for the 15 months to June, it said yesterday. “As these websites progress and grow we’ll see more upside,” Meyer said.

Meyer said the company had also identified increased selling opportunities by leveraging its relationships with SABC-owned radio stations Radio Sonder Grense, SAfm and Lotus FM, for which the company provided business-related news and talk content.

He said other opportunities for boosting revenue included creating new sections on the group’s main websites.

Revenue increased to R44.8m for the 15 months to June. In the 12 months to March 2011 revenue was R35.3m. The net loss in the 15 months was R4.1m, compared with a R3.7m loss for the 12month period last year.

Cumulative losses over the last two financial reporting periods exceeded R9m at operating level as a result of building and rolling out the Looklocal project, which also includes a substantial investment in applications for the iPad tablet, as well as the BlackBerry smartphones.

“Although neither is yet operating optimally, the potential is considerable,” the group said.

The Looklocal website is a network of 43 hyperlocal sites which Moneyweb has developed in partnership with its holding company, Caxton & CTP Publishers & Printers.

The sites attract about 500 000 unique visitors a month, according to Moneyweb.

Apart from new revenue streams, the company’s core offerings are benefiting from a continued switch in advertising spend from print to digital online platforms.

Moneyweb said that since the 2010 financial year, digital’s contribution had grown from just more than half to more than twothirds of Moneyweb Holdings’ revenues. The momentum is expected to continue.

“With the considerable upfront investment in Looklocal and apps behind it, Moneyweb Holdings is budgeting for better financial results during the year to June 2013,” the company said.

The media company had no debt at year-end and had cash on hand of R28m.

Moneyweb said its internet publishing division increased its audience by a third to more than 200 000 unique users who downloaded 2.5 million pages a month.

Mineweb.com had a difficult time due to a quieter period for the resources market, with the number of monthly unique visitors falling by 25 000 visitors to 135 000. The community, however, downloaded more pages than before and stayed on the site for longer.

The company’s shares were untraded at 62c on the JSE yesterday, giving it a market capitalisation of R68.2m.