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chapter 5
Media liaison
Liaison with the media enjoys constant focus. Close contact is maintained in order
to ensure access to a maximum amount of information and background on mat-
ters affecting the grain producer. Grain SA has an established media profile and a
strong relationship with the agricultural media – particularly through the members
of the Agricultural Writers’ Association – as well as the business and daily press
and broadcasting media. Independent media monitoring in 2014/2015 indicated
that the grain industry’s exposure to the English media increased over the past few
years. Journalists from the local and even international media are received at Grain
SA’s media centre during the NAMPO Harvest Day.
Management Committee members of Grain SA are regularly quoted in the media
and the expertise of the organisation’s technical and economic specialists is highly
regarded by the media.
Digital
After Grain SA’s television programme had ended in 2002, the Executive de-
cided that a website should be established to contain most of the information
from the programme and should be updated regularly. The website boasted
11 000 visitors a month. The introduction of the first SMS service enabled the
organisation to communicate almost instantly with more than 2 000 members
by cell phone.
Given the rapid rate at which technology develops, the website was upgraded
in 2007 to make the information it contained more accessible and user-friendly.
The number of website visits increased annually, while May was the most popu-
lar month due to the NAMPO Harvest Day.
The advent of interactive website technology and social media led to the web-
site being upgraded again in 2013 to meet the new requirements. During 2014,
Phase 2 of the project was completed with the upgrading of the NAMPO Harvest
Day website and an extensive data-management system for the Farmer Develop-
ment Division to support interactivemanagement actions fromthe various regions.
SA Graan/Grain
was also released in e-book format on the website.
The high volume of daily visits to the market information on the website also indi-
cates that the Grain SA website is user friendly and is managed on a needs-driven
basis. By May 2015 the average monthly unique visits stood at 49 044. 2015 live
news reports were integrated with the website.
In addition to a series of regional meet-
ings that are held leading up to Congress,
special information meetings are held at
central locations in the grain producing
regions if necessary.