Martina Madali

Decades ago, when I was training to be a journalist, people were gloomily predicting the demise of the printing press. Yet here we are, with physical newspapers and magazines still in business despite today’s plethora of online information.

But there’s no doubt that print media is dying, so what attracted tech-savvy Martina Madali to join media company Arena Holdings as its CIO? Especially after working in the banking sector, where IT is the lifeblood of the business? “It’s never boring for me to be in this environment because it’s something I haven’t done before,” she says. “I’m familiar with banking, government and retail, so this is completely different. It opened my mind to this business.” Arena is controlled by the black-owned Lebashe Investment Group, and its stable includes the Sunday Times, Business Day, the Financial Mail, The Sowetan, the Daily Dispatch and The Herald. They all have an online presence, with some content behind paywalls.