FRUSTRATED former readers of Maverick magazine can rejoice  the indomitable Branko Brkic yesterday launched an online version of the business magazine, called The Daily Maverick, writes Chantelle Benjamin in Business Day.
In many ways the website recreates winning concepts from the now defunct Maverick monthly, such as its promise to make business reading enjoyable. But Brkic takes matters further, looking to challenge perceptions of online media in SA.
“I wanted to create a website that debunked the myth that it’s not possible to get good quality, insightful journalism online, while still making it a fun read,†he said.
The new website not only appears user-friendly, with interesting content generated by the same experienced team of journalists that wrote for Maverick, but its attractive layout makes it much more than the repository for published information that many other media websites are.
The loss last year of Brkic’s media industry magazine Empire and its business sibling Maverick, in particular, was met with sadness by some in the media and by the magazines’ core audience, who saw them as innovative and entertaining publications.
Brkic put their demise down to shareholder disagreements with Mvelaphanda Holdings, who had majority shares in his company, Business Century Publishing, who published the magazines.
Brkic said yesterday that he can run his website with 100% in- house-generated copy and pictures for four months on the money used to produce just one edition of Maverick.
The new website, the product of 130 interviews with leading business executives over numerous cups of coffee and a one- month trial run with former Maverick readers, carries no international wire-service copy and deals in an in-depth manner with the latest international, political, economic, sport, news and entertainment news.
Click here to read the full report, posted on Business Day's website.
