by Thinus Ferreira
South Africa's struggling and beleaguered government-funded film body, the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) has put out a tender for someone - anyone - to help it know who its stakeholders actually are and what they're thinking about the NFVF.
And you have to wonder: Does the NFVF even remotely see The Media in South Africa as one of its so-called stakeholders, given the shocking and embarrassing way the NFVF has been dismissive towards the media covering it and its activities, and hasn't had any real relationships with the media in years.
In a new tender, the boardless NFVF whose entire council got fired last month, and just got its 8th CEO in 3 years, is looking for a company to give it a "review" of who its stakeholders are, and what they're thinking and require from the NFVF.
This is information the NFVF should already have. It is information the NFVF should be able to collect and research and tabulate itself, in-house.
It's another prime example that the NFVF is floundering forward, having no real idea who the film body's stakeholders are, how to serve them, what their needs are.
As far as the media go, the NFVF's "stakeholder management" is deplorable - and has been for years - in my opinion.
For years the NFVF has done nothing to actually really engage with the media and trade journalists covering South Africa's TV and film industry, and by implication with the NFVF.
Things the NFVF used to do media-wise shamelessly got dropped and disappeared (SAFTAs nominees announcement media event, anyone? Yes, the examples are legion).
I'd bet there's nobody inside the NFVF left who can even mention 5 journalists or publications in South Africa covering the NFVF, and who would be able to identify them from a physical line-up and give their basic platform or publication deadlines, interests and target markets.
How do you even have a media strategy to try and get coverage, if you don't even know what (and who?) the media are about?
Because nobody inside the NFVF is able to pick up a phone and, uhm, actually call people and talk to them, in a new NFVF tender, the film organisation is now looking for a "service provider" that it wants to "review, assess and evaluate the NFVF's relationship with, and impact on, its categories of stakeholders".
The NFVF says it needs the stakeholder review to be compiled for it because it wants to assess their relevance, and "understand the objectives, interests, expectations, involvement, and the varying needs of its different stakeholders".
The NFVF purportedly wants to "ensure the right people receive the right information and participate, at the right time, in the right way" and wants to "proactively manage the pace and extent of change that each stakeholder must be informed about".
It also wants to "maximise the potential for successful communication, collaboration and empowerment of the stakeholders".
Then the NFVF want "Based on its assessment, to provide recommendations to the NFVF in respect of its stakeholder engagement strategy".
A last note regarding "the media" (if the NFVF even considers "the media" a stakeholder): The NFVF hasn't had a PR company or dedicated publicist or media liaison office for years.
The NFVF's communication and media liaison on something like the SAFTAs has been excruciatingly bad to non-existent for years. While it had at times, the NFVF hasn't employed an external PR agency to deal and interact with the media in years.
One of the proposed outcomes is supposedly to "Review stakeholder engagement strategy in order to effectively engage stakeholders".
Hopefully, whoever does this "review" of the NFVF stakeholders and this stakeholder survey, will eventually flag the massive problem the NFVF has with the media as stakeholders, how the NFVF's relationship has deteriorated to basically nothing with the media, and just how damaging it is for the NFVF, and everything that it tries to accomplish.
