Johnnic e-ventures into jobs

Johannesburg, 05 Jun 2000

Johnnic e-Ventures has acquired a controlling stake in CareerJunction.co.za and will create its first aggregated hub around the site. The company will use its stakes in various printed publications and Web sites to turn CareerJunction into one of the largest recruitment portals in the country.

CareerJunction was launched with the backing of Adcorp and Dimension Data in August last year. The shareholders have diluted their holdings to allow Johnnic`s R3.8 million acquisition of 51%.

Bringing Johnnic on board as a media player will have enormous benefits for the business, says CareerJunction MD Kris Jarzebowski. "Our two-year projections show that revenues will more than double and it could increase tenfold," he says.

The site will aggregate the jobs advertised in Times Media Limited (TML) publications like the Sunday Times and Computing SA, and BDFM publications Business Day and the Financial Mail. Johnnic owns 57% of TML, which in turn owns 50% of BDFM. Also involved is the Ananzi search engine, which Johnnic acquired earlier this year from I-Net Bridge, in which it holds an effective 62.5%.

The publications are to provide CareerJunction with exposure and advertising in their established markets.

Johnnic e-Ventures is a R240 million Internet foray which is aimed at aggregating the Johnnic publication assets into a common hubs during this year. "We have a lot of sites but they are all over the Internet space," said group CEO Paul Edwards at the e-Ventures launch in April. "We want to bring them together in a coherent whole and prevent duplication of infrastructure."

Jarzebowski says incorporating the job-ads in the printed publications will not require a new system or capital expenditure. "We will capture the information out-stream, which will make it more effective for everyone."

CareerJunction currently deals with subscribing recruiters and display-ads, but Jarzebowski says it will expand into classified advertising as and when the market demands. Johnnic has various holdings in CTP Holdings and Caxton Publishers, which owns small community publications such as the Alex Times and Brits Pos.

e-Ventures has indicated that it wants to create a common consumer Internet hub out of its disparate media holdings during the second half of this year, probably centred around the Ananzi site.