Herman Manson

Editor at MarkLives.com

Kenton on Sea, South Africa

About me

Herman Manson (@marklives) is the founder and editor of MarkLives.com - a trade news site which covers adland and marketing without fear or favour. The result? A fresh, independent and investigative view of southern Africa’s changing comms landscape and a must-read for top-level advertising, marketing and media execs.

He was the founding editor of media.toolbox (1998–2006) and Mobile.Works, and the co-founder of Brand magazine. He has served on the editorial boards of The Journal for Convergence, as well as of Fast Company South Africa.

Winner of the 2011 Vodacom Social Media Journalist of the Year award, he was also a finalist twice in the Highway Africa Award for the Innovative Use of New Media in Africa (2003 and 2004).

Over his 20-year-plus career, Herman has contributed to numerous journals and websites in South Africa and abroad, including the Mail & Guardian, .net, Intelligence, AdVantage, Men’s Health, Computer World and African Communications. He has consulted on web architecture to several financial institutions.

Skills

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Positions

Editor

MarkLives.com

South Africa

August 2008 - Present (16 years 4 months)

Description

MarkLives.com covers South African advertising design and marketing.

Publisher

Brand Magazine

June 2006 - July 2008 (2 years 1 month)

Description

Co-founder, associate editor and later Publisher of Brand magazine. In 2005 I co-founded Brand Africa Media, publishers of BRAND magazine. BRAND was a business-to-business magazine for professionals in the brand building business including the advertising, marketing and media industries. The magazine launched in November 2005. It won South Africa's top publishing award - the prestigious MPASA SAPPI PICA Award for best Business Management and Communications Magazine in 2006, only a year after launch.was involved in all levels of the publication, including management, strategy, content, production and design. The magazine closed in 2008.

Editor

media.toolbox

June 1998 - July 2006 (8 years 1 month)

Description

media.toolbox was one of the first South African news sites covering local media, new media and ebusiness. It launched in 1998 and ceased publication in 2006. It was followed by MarkLives.com.

Highway Africa Award for the Innovative Use of New Media in Africa Finalist 2003
PC Magazine South Africa Top 100 website 2001

Editor

Mobile.Works

January 2001 - December 2002 (1 year 11 months)

Description

Conceptualised and launched mobile.works, a print magazine title dedicated to covering the mobile and wireless commerce arena in Africa and world-wide. Functioned as editor of mobile.works, managing the editorial diary of the magazine and liaising and commissioning artists and contributors.

Publisher

Media Africa

1998 - 2000 (2 years)

Description

Publisher - online consumer and business titles. Media Africa`s consumer titles included Gadget, a popular online consumer technology magazine and kidzGadget, a magazine for wired kids and their parents. Media Africa`s business titles included iStrategy, a magazine focusing on all aspects of Internet and IT strategy, and media.toolbox, the acclaimed news magazine for South Africa`s online publishing and marketing industry. It also published TheCompany.co.za with content licensed from Fast Company magazine.