Quotes from media industry leaders
The latest quotes about the media industry.
To read more from key players in the media industry and related fields, see what our columnists have to say.
"...until media owners put a stop to agreeing to these sometimes ludicrous requests, they will persist"
Sandra Gordon
"...until media owners put a stop to agreeing to these sometimes ludicrous requests, they will persist."
Sandra Gordon
"I don't care what you say about me, as long as you say something about me, and as long as you spell my name right."
– George M Cohen (1878-1942), in John McCabe, The Man Who Owned Broadway (1973)
"Individuals project themselves into products. In buying a car they actually buy an extension of their own personality. When they are loyal to a commercial brand, they are loyal to themselves."
– Ernest Dichter, motivational researcher
"One gets the impression that nowadays it is so much easier for advertising people to create advertisements in English, and, only if there is pressure from the marketer and client, will they attempt to make it work in Afrikaans – and that is precisely the problem. They should be inspired to create in original, effective Afrikaans and not merely translate advertising messages into Afrikaans: that’s where the challenge lies."
– Sarel du Plessis, RCP Media CEO, in support of the Pendoring Awards 2009
"We need to stop interrupting what people are interested in and actually BE the thing that people are interested in."
– Craig Davis, global creative director, JWT
"A telescope will magnify a star a thousand times, but a good press agent can do even better."
- Fred Allen, qouted in Eugene Weber, The Wisdom of Business.
"News is the first rough draft of history."
- Author Ben Bradlee.
"Journalism largely consists in saying, 'Lord Jones Dead', to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive. "
- Author GK Chesterton.
""The editorial excellence entrants (in the Pica awards) presented superb quality much of which could sit comfortably alongside the best international journalism”"
- Pica judge Mandy de Waal.
"Isn’t it astounding? That a man (Julius Malema) who incites people to murder and violence, who uses hate speech and insults senior members of his party is still around and playing a prominent political role in the ruling party, nogal?"
- Blogger Alex Matthews.
"It is difficult, indeed dangerous, to underestimate the huge changes this (digital) revolution will bring or the power of developing technologies to build and destroy – not just companies, but whole countries."
- Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corp.
"Known for her courage in tackling touchy issues, she simultaneously is living evidence of what it means to have courage with a heart by providing kindness, support and - literally - chicken soup to colleagues who need it. She is the one the only JR: Jane Raphaely."
- Judges comment about the recipient of the LifeTime Achiever award at the Vodacom Journalist of the Year awards.
"When Candidate A says it's raining and Candidate B says it's sunny, a journalist should be able to look outside."
- Campbell Brown, CNN anchor.
"If an African American can become president it says that so can a woman, it removes the artificial roof of possibilities."
- Reverend Jesse Jackson.
"They (Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand) epitomise a kind of brain-dead perpetual adolescence comedy that shocks for the sake of being shocking... If this scandal means the demise of the public funding of unfunny intellectual offal, then perhaps that prank call to Andrew Sachs was the best thing that either of them ever did."
- Author Sarah Britten.
"One might say that the public broadcaster is so embroiled in internal turmoil that the quality of stories is the last item on the agenda of its leaders."
- Cristina Karrer, head of the Broadcast Department at the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism.
"But one sector that seemed to escape the TRC’s attention was that of higher education, except for a section in its final report titled: “Complicity of the medical schools”. And although the hearings and final report had harsh words to say about the media, there was silence on the country’s journalism schools. "
- Guy Berger, media academic/activist.
"The furious and passionate debate of whether to cull the Springbok, or not, has had one reading nearly every single one of the articles for and against the existence of the Springbok. It has been exhausting, but most of all it has been painful to observe how South Africans have turned on each other and savaged each other with such relentless energy and vitriol."
- Sports leader blogger Tony McKeever.
"Does self-regulation mean protecting the media or upholding the integrity of journalism? Believe me, the idea of a media tribunal is not popular within the ANC, but we need to engage with SANEF with fairness to ensure that people take further steps when they feel offended by the press."
- The ANC's Jessie Duarte.
