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The Globe and Mail’s Sophi.io Wins Digiday Media Award

Digiday awards Best Publisher Platform to Sophi.io, a suite of artificial intelligence-powered automation, optimization and prediction tools developed by The Globe and Mail

TORONTO, June 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Sophi.io, The Globe and Mail’s artificial intelligence-based automation and prediction engine, won the 2021 Digiday Media Award for Best Publisher Platform, which recognizes technology that is most successful in helping publishers achieve their goals.

“AI is an essential technology for helping publishers add authentic value to stories — extending their measure of success beyond page views and virality. For example, Sophi is able to provide data on how much each article on The Globe and Mail contributes to subscriber retention, acquisition, registration potential and advertising dollars. Additionally, to effectively deploy machine learning, around 10% of The Globe and Mail’s workforce is now data scientists and engineers, hired to develop Sophi and grow the strategy even further,” Digiday said.

The awards honour companies, technologies and campaigns that have stood out throughout the media over the past year. “This year, the competition was fierce and the programs robust. Innovation and big ideas expanded the playing field for many of the winners, even in a year when quarantines limited where and how people could work — and play,” according to Digiday.

Phillip Crawley, Publisher and CEO of The Globe and Mail, commented: “It’s an honour to be chosen as the winner of Digiday’s Media Award for Best Publisher Platform. We aren’t often up against companies in both the media and marketing industries but our investments in Sophi have been driven by the understanding that our technology can directly drive performance and economic growth for companies across a large range of industries.”

The other finalists in the Best Publisher Platform category were: Piano, Connatix, Insticator, Duration Media and Adapex LLC.

Sophi is an artificial-intelligence system that helps publishers identify and leverage their most valuable content. It has powerful predictive capabilities – using natural language processing, Sophi Dynamic Paywall is a fully dynamic, real-time, personalized paywall engine that analyses both content and user behaviour to determine when to ask a reader for money or an email address, and when to leave them alone.

Sophi Site Automation autonomously curates digital content to find and promote the most valuable articles. It places 99% of the content on all of The Globe and Mail’s digital pages, including its homepage and section pages. Sophi has been so successful that it is now being used for print laydown as well. Sophi is available to publishers across the globe to enable their content producers to focus on creating the best content possible.

Earlier this month, Sophi won the 2021 International News Media Association (INMA) Global Media Awards for Best in Show in North America and Best Use of Data to Automate or Personalize. Sophi has also won the Online Journalism Award (OJA) for Technical Innovation in the Service of Digital Journalism, handed out by the Online News Association (ONA), and both the World Digital Media Award and the North American Digital Media Award awarded by The World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) in the category of Best Digital News Start-up.

About Sophi.io

Sophi.io (https://www.sophi.io) is a suite of AI-powered optimization and prediction tools that helps content publishers make important strategic and tactical decisions. Sophi solutions range from Sophi Site Automation and Sophi for Paywalls to Sophi Analytics, a decision-support system for content publishers. Sophi is designed to improve the metrics that matter most to any business, such as subscriber retention and acquisition, engagement, recency, frequency and volume.

Contact

Jamie Rubenovitch
Head of Marketing, Sophi.io
The Globe and Mail
416-585-3355
[email protected]
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Alberton police station closed for decontamination

Alberton Police Station will be temporarily closed for decontamination due to COVID -19 related case.

The Community Service Center will be temporarily operate from George Corrie Building, 2nd Floor, 59 Voortrekker Avenue, Alberton CBD.

Telephone lines at Alberton SAPS Community Service Center will not be accessible during closure.

The SAPS management apologise for any inconvenience that may arise during the closure. The community can call 10111 for emergencies and assistance.

The community is advised to contact the following numbers:

Station Commander Col Doctor Sibuyi: 082 411 6572

Support Commander Lt Col Makgakga: 082 570 2721

Detective Commander: 082 461 3495

Vispol Commander Lt Col Makopo: 082 461 3495

Operational Commanders: 082 558 2662

Relief Commander: 071 67 56872

Source: South African Police Service

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Nine apprehended for illegal mining

LIMPOPO – The Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation members arrested nine suspected illegal miners aged between 23 and 73 in the Giyani area on Monday, 28 June 2021.

A multi-disciplinary operation led by the Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation team assisted by Giyani Cluster, Public Order Policing, Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, Department of Home Affairs and Department of Environmental Affairs swooped in on illegal miners who were caught in the act of mining gold concentrate.

During the operation, nine shovels, fifteen spades, seventeen picks, one bicycle, one axe and six bush knifes to the value of R4 000-00 were seized.

The suspects are expected to make their first appearance in the Giyani Magistrates’ Court today on 29 June 2021 for charges relating to illegal mining. More operations to address the scourge of illegal mining in the Province are still going to be conducted.

Source: South African Police Service

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Magareng protests delay R83 million water project

The Department of Water and Sanitation has urged communities in the Magareng Local Municipality to allow the process of the construction and upgrading of Magareng Water Treatment Plant to be completed.

Department spokesperson, Sputnik Ratau, said the department in the Northern Cape, in partnership with Magareng Local Municipality is currently implementing a R83 million water project in the Warrenton area.

The project commenced in April 2020 and was scheduled to be completed in June 2021.

However, due to community protests for various service delivery issues, including water shortages, the project has been delayed.

The project includes upgrading the capacity of the 9 Megalitres per day (9ML/day) water treatment plant to a 12ML/day capacity.

A new water reservoir is currently under construction as well as the installation of new flocculation channels and sedimentation tanks.

“The upgrade will improve water treatment and production processes to acceptable water quality standards in line with the South African National Standards (SANS241). The project will further reduce water losses from 33% to less than 10%, making available sufficient and sustainable water supply to the people of Magareng Local Municipality,” Ratau said.

The community is urged to allow the construction of the Water Treatment Plant to be completed, as “this will address the issue of water shortages and provide the much needed bulk water supply to the community”. – SAnews.gov.za

Source: South African Government News Agency

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Gauteng ramps up bed capacity to deal with COVID-19 patients

Acting Health Minister, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, has reassured the citizens of Gauteng that government is working around the clock to ramp up bed capacity to deal with the third wave of COVID-19 infections.

While the Nasrec Field Hospital has been closed, Kubayi-Ngubane said other health facilities have been “activated” to deal with the influx of patients.

“The province had challenges [with field hospitals] and there were limitations in terms of utilisation of the hospitals – that’s why they were no longer used because we couldn’t justify the cost,” she said during a briefing of the National Coronavirus Command Council on Tuesday.

The 1000-bed Nasrec Field Hospital was set up to help alleviate the burden of COVID-19 patients at clinics and hospitals across the province during the first two waves.

In the meantime, the Minister said more work has been done to ensure there is enough bed capacity in Gauteng, which is currently the epicentre of the pandemic.

The province will benefit from the newly opened AngloGold Ashanti Hospital, Jubilee Hospital, Bronkhorstspruit Hospital, and the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital that has recently been extended.

“These hospitals are doing exactly what the field hospital at Nasrec was doing. The information I’ve been receiving is that they have not been full to capacity,” the Minister explained, adding that the 300-bed Jubilee Hospital has not been full beyond 50%.

“We do have the capacity in terms of the general wards and work continues,” she added.

In addition, Gauteng is working on providing more resources to recruit more healthcare workers.

She said government was monitoring beds in Gauteng and the entire country and that they are seeing more pressure in the private health sector.

In addition, she announced there are no oxygen supply challenges.

Oxford-AstraZeneca

Meanwhile, the Minister addressed the decision to terminate the usage of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in light of the Delta variant, which was first discovered in India.

In February, South Africa suspended the rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine after studies showed that it was less effective against the mutated COVID-19 501Y.V2 variant, which was common in South Africa.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases of South Africa (NICD) said Gauteng remains the epicentre of the resurgence, accounting for an average of 65% of daily new cases.

In Gauteng, 64% of 244 genomes sequenced from May 2021 are attributed to the Beta variant, while in June 2021 this dropped to 37%. In contrast, during June, 53% of genomes from Gauteng were the Delta variant.

“The growing prevalence of Delta doesn’t mean that Beta no longer exists in the country. The decision was correct at that time because the efficacy of AstraZeneca against Beta variant seemed very low. That’s why the decision was taken.”

This comes after new studies show that two doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca may be highly effective in preventing hospitalisation due to the Delta variant.

Kubayi-Ngubane said the Alpha and Beta variants are still circulating in all provinces.

Vaccine rollout

The Minister acknowledged the country will not be able to meet the target of vaccinating over five million senior citizens by the end of June.

This is mainly due to vaccine hesitancy, lack of technology for some of these citizens to sign up and the vaccination centres that are located far from people’s residences.

However, she said her department was addressing all these issues.

She said there was still an issue around the payment of overtime for those who will be vaccinating on weekends.

The Ministers who serve in the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) were outlining measures to ensure compliance with the regulations in the fight against the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa. – SAnews.gov.za

Source: South African Government News Agency

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Rietgat SAPS temporarily closed for decontamination

All communities serviced by Rietgat Police Station are advised that the station has been temporarily closed for decontamination after one of its members tested positive for COVID-19.

Rietgat Police Station will be serving all its clients from Phuthanong Satellite Station in Block HH during this decontamination period.

The community is advised to call 10111 for all complaints and emergencies since the CSC number will be inaccessible.

The premises will be undergoing decontamination and the community will be informed when the station will resume operations again.

The Rietgat SAPS’ management apologises for any inconvenience that may arise from this closure.

The management of Rietgat Police Station can be reached at the following numbers:

Station Commander: 082 856 1143

Detective Commander: 067 192 2365

Acting Vispol Commander: 083 535 6059

Shift Commander: 071 675 6250

Duty Officer: 082 778 9427

Communication Officer: 079 694 6515

Source: South African Police Service