It’s time.
These are words I’ve been repeating to myself for far too long. So the time is now to go public with my new-look website.
The truth is that I’m a digital migrant but I’ve been hoping to learn by osmosis everything about the technology and interactivity of this site. I get it, it’s not going to happen and it won’t be the first time I’ve learnt on the job. So bravely, I’m putting it out there…
The history of the metamorphosis goes back to last year when someone called Jenni Baxter approached me via Facebook, to write about the Oscar Pistorius trial for her immensely successful SAPeople website and Facebook page.
Long story short, I accepted, and Oscar and Reeva and Judge Masipa, Nel and Roux et al became my daily diet for the duration. I was hooked on Carte Blanche’s dedicated TV channel and especially the expert panel discussions. My contribution was probably more than Jenni anticipated. Or me, for that matter.
After Oscar, Jenni made me an offer I couldn’t refuse – she asked whether she and her team could overhaul my website. What she was really saying was the functionality of my website was akin to those bricks we called cell phones back in the day, as opposed to our sleek and clever smart phones that rule our lives today.
Of course, I was thrilled, and gave little thought to the learning process and the fact that the process requires my own overhaul too.
Jenni and I have become regular correspondents though we’ve not met face-to-face. Well not recently anyway. She tells me we met way back when I was a magazine editor at Republican Press and she was a wannabe journalist. That was then, this is now, and Jenni is a high flier based in France.
Such is the power of the Internet and new technology and we have become firm virtual friends, just as one should in 2015. We have much in common not least our penchant for working and communicating in the early hours when we should be fast asleep.
Jenni knows me as a nit-picking, perfectionist who could continue to procrastinate about the written words, but I decided I’m ready to take off my clothes, metaphorically speaking, and to share PROWRITE’s clean, elegant and contemporary look.
My thanks go to Jenni and her team for re-inspiring me.
This brings me to Melville News, which I have published as a goodwill gesture to the suburb where I live since August 2008. If you search the archives, you’ll find the very first issue, which was jointly a print publication thanks to former Jawitz estate agent Dehan Liebenberg’s persistence. I imagine I will continue to post related stories but I will post them as and when they are ready to go, so henceforth I will not be notifying my database of new issues, and free subscriptions will no longer apply.
From time to time, I will use social media to highlight a new story, but I invite you to keep visiting my website, which will also go live via Facebook in the near future.
While I will encourage comment, abusive interaction will be removed. And only paid advertising will be accepted, for which I request advertisers contact me directly.
Lastly, special thanks to Westdene resident and professional photographer Emil Wessels, who has updated my photo for this re-launch. We’ve reassuringly come full circle given that Emil was my photographer of choice for my original website.
We were colleagues when we both worked in print media and also at SABC TV, and I have always loved Emil’s dedication to capturing the essence of his subject, a touch he’s never lost.
Visit Emil’s website at http://www.emilwessels.co.za , which refers to a Melville News story about him from Issue No 7.
I hope, dear readers, this is the beginning of a new interactive relationship. Your comments will be welcomed.
Suzanne Brenner