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Career Junction sale signals end of an era - Goldstuck

Cape Town – Times Media Group’s (TMG) [JSE:TMG] decision to sell Career Junction to the owners of PNet was a good business decision, but signalled the end of an era for the old Johnnic e-Ventures properties, according to World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck.

The Saon Group, which also owns PNet, bought the online recruitment business for an undisclosed amount and said it would not merge the two entities.

Read: Times Media sells Career Junction to PNet owners

“Career Junction and PNet will continue to operate as separate entities,” Saon Group marketing director Safann MacCarthy told Fin24 via email from their headquarters in Dublin.

Obvious acquisition target

"Career Junction had been built into one of the most effective sites of its kind in the world, so made an obvious acquisition target," Goldstuck told Fin24.

"From a Times Media perspective, recruitment falls outside its media focus, so it was an obvious option to cash in on Career Junction's market position.

"Online recruitment has become a commodity business, as the various operations learn best practice from each other and differentiation diminishes," he explained.

"That makes it more difficult to grow revenues, and it becomes a volume game. That means, in turn, that the market leaders are continually looking for ways to grow, and making acquisitions is an obvious if costly route."

End of an era

“The sale also means the disposal of the last of the old Johnnic e-Ventures properties, and the end of an experiment by traditional media to diversify into digital ventures as a potential spin-off business,” said Goldstuck.

“The world has moved on, and a media business has to have digital at its core today, rather than spinning it off at the edge.

“The cutting edge can no longer be experimental; it has to be operational.”


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