IOL and e-Media24 pull out of ABCe

Below is the open letter to the ABCe:

To: Craig Farham
Chairman
ABCe South Africa

From: Russell Hanly - GM e-Media24
Howard Plaatjes - MD IOL

Subject: Future participation in ABCe quarterly reporting

It is with regret that as longstanding participants of the ABCe audited reporting process, a decision has been reached by both IOL and e-Media24 to discontinue this involvement until further notice.

The reasons behind this decision are as follows:

• The inability of the ABCe to provide the market with a clear and unambiguous report through their quarterly publication of audited unique users and page impression metric's by site owner.
  
• The apparent inability of the ABCe to gain any credibility amongst marketing and advertising decision makers in a manner, which positively impacts on our online revenues.
  
• The gradual decline in ABCe membership over the past two years supports the perception that the organization isn't representative of the industry and has failed to effectively serve the interests of the online publishing community.

We look forward to your response on the above issues and remain open toreconsidering our position on future participation once the necessary action steps are taken to rectify the current situation.

Yours faithfully,

Russell Hanly: Howard Plaatjes: