It was confirmed that neither IOL nor e-Media24 had resigned their membership of the ABCe, but had decided, in fact, to temporarily withdraw from reporting their site-activity statistics until such time as their concerns had been satisfactorily addressed.
A three-month review period was proposed to provide the ABCe with sufficient time to respond. Both parties then would make a decision on whether they would report their figures for the last quarter of 2002.
Should they decide to do so, their historic statistics for the third quarter will become part of the audited results published at that time for the sake of continuity and consistency.
Clearly a thorough review of the ABCe's objectives and processes will now be undertaken with the participation of all its members.
IOL's Howard Plaatjes and e-Media24's Russell Hanly acknowledged that it might be considered unreasonable to expect the ABCe to raise the profile of the online publishing industry among key decision-makers, due to their lack of resources.
The necessity of forming an online publishers association in South Africa has become evident judging from the level of interest and debate, which has taken place of the past week. It is envisaged the ABCe could well play a complementary role to such an association by single-mindedly focusing on providing advertising and marketing decision-makers with credible and consistent site-performance metrics.
