Sam Wilson

Izimvo has the pleasure of introducing the Editor-in-Chief of Women24, Parent24 and Food24: Sam Wilson.

Sam, who began her career as a commercial lawyer, became a freelance writer after the birth of her sons. Sam rejoined the corporate world as a strategist at a publishing company once her sons were at school. Today, Sam is the Editor-in-Chief of three of the largest Women’s websites in South Africa namely Women24, Parent24 and Food24.

Women24 attracts over 200 000 visitors each month and is focused on becoming a discussion hub for South African women.

Website: http://www.women24.com
Blog: http://blogs.women24.com/editor
Twitter: http://twitter.com/samwilson1
Location: Cape Town

Sam was kind enough to answer the following questions:

Personal

Q: The all important personal profile. How would a close friend introduce you at a social event? i.e. Name, age, company, interesting fact etc.

A: “This is Sam. She’s loud and rude, but fun. Don’t let her drink all the tequila.” I can’t imagine any of my close friends introducing me more formally than that.

Bio info though: I’m Sam Wilson, I’ve just discovered that I am 36 and not 37 (as I have believed for much of this year), I work at 24.com and steer chick chat for a living.

Q: Tell us something that not many others know about you. This could be anything from a phobia to your favorite movie.

A: My full name is Samantha Patricia Wilson-Spath. When I was an attorney they had to get an especially long Commissioner of Oaths stamp made for me.

Q: What do you enjoy doing when you want to get away from it all?

A: I’m an extremist so I either like tucking myself into my family – camping, reading, knitting and cooking – or spending a night kicking off the stress by dancing til dawn with The Wedding DJs at LB’s on Long St.

Q: How would you describe your dream holiday home and where in South African would you like it to be?

A: A wooden cabin in Nature’s Valley with a foofy slide into the river, and a canoe to take me to the beach.

This question was proudly sponsored by Private Property. - Looking for the ultimate home only a stone’s throw from the beach. How about this 7 bedroom, 6 bathroom, double story house with a self-contained 1 bedroom flat in Jeffreys Bay?

South Africa Online

Q: Having worked online for 5 years now, tell us a little about your background and how did you first get started in the online space?

A: I practised commercial law until my sons were born, and then I switched to being a freelance writer so I could work from home. Once the boys were old enough to go to school, I got a job as a strategist at a customer publishing company, after which Media24 recruited me to give their women’s online products more personality… and I have been with 24.com ever since.

Q: Give us an insight into the daily running of not one but three popular women’s websites in South Africa?

A: I manage a team of truly fabulous women who actually do the day-to-day running of the websites… I do more steering and seagulling than editing these days. But it’s quite fast-paced, honest, very down-to-earth and a lot of fun. I manage via the spontaneous team allocation of the Tiara of Fabulousness, the Plastic Pig of Shame and the Smock of Despair.

Q: Women24 covers various topics including fashion, beauty, gossip, wellness and parenting. How do you go about selecting the topics to be covered and what are some of the sources that you and your team follow to keep up-to-date with issues concerning the average South African woman.

A: Over 200 000 SA women visit Women24.com each month, and we have hundreds of active bloggers. Our job is not so much to select topics and tell them things from on high, as a print magazine would do, but more to listen to what’s already being chatted about on our site and feed into those conversations.

Q: What are your predictions for online publications such as Women24 and Parent24 here in South Africa and what impact do you feel devices such as the newly launched Apple iPad will have on the industry?

A: I think unless women’s websites crack the conversation challenge (too many women’s magazine websites still talk at women, rather than with them)… growth is hard. Women24 and Parent24, I feel, HAVE cracked that – so I am excited about the future.

I am not sure yet that the iPad is a game-changer. My favourite iPad quote so far is: “At last! An iPhone that doesn’t fit in my pocket!” Tablet technology is still so new here (I don’t have a Kindle or an iPad yet)… but I think being community-focused and device-agnostic is the only way to stay flexible in this industry.

Q: What can we look forward to from Women24, Food24 and Parent24 in 2010 and beyond?

A: More chat, more honesty, more connections… and more breaking of stereotypes. Women are so much more interesting than we’ve been allowed to explore together and online is the perfect medium for chick chat: collaborative, circular and multi-tasking.

We’re hoping to continue to build on our 500 000+ readers, while adding new and dynamic threads to the conversation all the time.

Life in South Africa

Q: Have you or any of your immediate family been affected by crime? If yes, has it changed your perception of the country and the way you and your family live your lives?

A: Yes, I’ve been mugged and burgled before, but we prefer to live bravely and in the sunlight, rather than behind self-imposed bars, both literally and figuratively.

Q: What advice would you offer new parents who have concerns about the future of the South African education system?

A: There are alternatives to traditional schooling, if you need them… or additional methods of keeping your children from either turning into sheep or losing their own vitality. This I think, is the most important thing for all parents, in any country: to try to bring up children who are secure enough in themselves to be able to embrace difference. I don’t think enough parenting discussion turns on that… but, at Parent24, we sure try!

Q: With less than 60 days to the first African Soccer World Cup, what advice would you offer to first-time visitors looking to sample the best South African cuisine has to offer?

A: Food24 has the largest database of restaurants and recipes in South Africa. My own advice would be to be adventurous. Oh, and to visit the Winelands.

Q: What advice would you offer the president if given the opportunity of sitting down with him?

A: Dude. Being Captain Shagaplenty is seriously undermining the ANC’s lip service to women’s equality. If you can see women as equals, maybe more men in South African could follow your lead. And who knows how that may impact domestic violence, single-mother families and society’s respect for unpaid work ‘outside the capitalist, economic paradigm” (i.e.: at home)?

Life in Cape Town

Q: What do you most enjoy about living in Cape Town?

A: The mountain, the sea, the forests… and the idea that it’s not all about the money.

Q: Favorite restaurant for a Sunday lunch with the family?

A: I’ve actually just returned from a lovely Sunday family lunch at The Annex, the new restaurant behind the Kalk Bay Bookshop. Fabulous views, delicious food… and books! What more could you want?

Q: If you were tasked with commissioning a postal stamp depicting the beauty of Cape Town and it’s people, which image would you select?

A: Gosh. Um. Children of all races frolicking together in the Sea Point pool, with Robben Island in the distance?

General

Q: If you could invite any three South Africans to a dinner party, who would you invite and what would you serve?

A: Antjie Krog, Pregs Govender and Ferial Hafajee. And what would I serve? Well, I’m having a Terrior moment, so probably Michael Broughton‘s prawn risotto, his signature slow-roasted pork belly and cider jus, finished off with pear soufflés and Frangelico. That’s of course, if my guests do shellfish and pork… otherwise I do a good butter chicken and yellow lentil dhal. Ooh, with a stuffed naan! And… (don’t get me going on menu planning. I have a weakness there.)

Q: Which book would make required reading for all school-leavers and which book would you say has influenced you the most?

A: ONE book? Aargh, that’s impossible! Right now, I’d say all South Africans should read Ellen Kuzwayo’s Call Me Woman (now there was an ANC YL president!). And the book that’s influenced me the most? Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places by Ursula K Le Guin.

Q: Given a free hour at home, which would you rather do, put your feet up and relax or look for something productive to do?

A: Put my feet up. Definitely!

Q: What advice would most like to give the 18-year-old you?

A: Relax. You’re not as weird as you think. And bravery is really important in a woman.

Q: Who would you most like to read about on Izimvo and what would you ask them?

A: Lucien van der Walt from Wits. He’s recently co-authored a really interesting book on anarchism, The Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism… I’d like to ask him to explain how to get anarchists and trade unionists talking in South Africa.

We’d like to thank Sam for taking the time to answer our questions and wish her and her team at 24.com every success for the future.

Reminder to follow @izimvo on twitter for regular updates and our Facebook page to submit question and interviewee suggestions. You can also follow all our previous interviewees on Twitter at http//twitter.com/izimvo/interviewees