Speakers | Digital Media Africa 2021
Digital Media Africa 2021
Founder and CEO of DailySocial.id, Indonesia
Founding Editor, The Conversation, South Africa
Deputy Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, United Kingdom
Project Manager Accelerator, Women in News, Botswana
Boitshepo Balozwi is a 2016 WIN Cohort member, with an MA in Journalism acquired via a Fulbright Scholarship in 2018. Boitshepo, is a Health HIV Communication specialist who is also a certified Coach as supported by WIN and gained via the International Coaching Federation (ICF). In 2020, she served in her capacity as the WIN Country Coordinator and Coach for Botswana, and as of 2021 she holds the position of Programmes Manager for the WIN Leadership Accelerator for Africa.
Boitshepo, received Presidential recognition in 2014 for her reporting on HIV and Health issues and has previously served as editor of Flair (Magazine) and The Midweek Sun (Newspaper). Her media experience also includes working as news reader and new editor for the Gabz Fm radio station in Gaborone and managing and editing a Facebook page titled ‘HIV Health News and Updates’. She currently continues to provide health communication consultancy services and also serves as a Board Member for the Botswana Network on Ethics, Law and HIV and AIDS (BONELA).
Executive Director World Editors Forum, WAN-IFRA, UK
Cherilyn Ireton heads up the World Editors Forum, the global network for editors within WAN-IFRA. She is a seasoned newspaper professional, having spent more than 20 years on South African newspapers, as journalist and editorial manger on the country's leading titles, the Sunday Times and Business Day. She rose to be Chief Operating Officer of BDFM Publishers, the business media joint venture between Pearson, owners of the Financial Times, and Times Media in South Africa which published Business Day newspaper, the Financial Mail magazine and Summit TV. She relocated to the UK in 2005 and owned an ran a London-based media consultancy, Presslinks, which advised a variety of international organizations and foreign governments.
Deputy CEO at Code For Africa, South Africa
Chris Roper is deputy CEO for the continent’s largest federation of civic technology and data journalism labs, Code for Africa (CfA).
Using over two decades of insights from building Africa’s largest online news and content portals, Chris shapes CfA’s civic engagement and scaling strategies. He also serves as director for CfA’s forensic data initiative, the African Network of Centres for Investigative Reporting (ANCIR). From 2015 - 2019, Chris’ role at CfA was underwritten by a Knight International Fellowship, with the International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ)
Prior to joining CfA, Chris was editor-in-chief of Africa’s first newspaper to establish an internet presence, the Mail & Guardian. Before M&G, Chris was editor-in-chief of Africa’s largest online publisher, 24.com, where he managed the merger of MWEB and News24 editorial content into the biggest digital content offering in Africa.
Chris has taught journalism courses at the Universities of Pretoria, and the Polytechnic of Namibia. Chris has served as a judge on, among others, the SA Bookmark Digital Awards, the British Council Future of News competition, the NuMedia Plum Awards, the WAN-IFRA Digital Media Awards, and the PICA Awards. He frequently consults to publishing houses in his capacity as a Code for Africa strategist.
Program Manager, Google News Initiative, United Kingdom
Co-Founder, Food For Mzansi, South Africa
Project Manager Advisory, Women in News, Zimbabwe
Susan Makore has been a media trainer and coach for Zimbabwe for the past 5 years under the World Association of Newspapers’ Women in News project (WIN). Susan is a registered coach with the International Coaching Federation (ICF). Her areas of expertise include coaching on career and media management, managing sexual harassment and gender balance in the media. Susan is also the current country lead and coach for Zimbabwe for the Women in News programme.
Susan Makore had been at AB Communications for 12 years, 7 of them as Chief Executive officer, leaving the company on 31 December 2020. Having won a number of accolades over the past 5 years, Susan championed the growth of the business into radio, newspaper industry and outdoor advertising. Prior to joining the private sector, Susan worked for the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation for five years (leaving when she was Chief Executive of Zimbabwe Television) and worked for Zimbabwe Open University and University of Zimbabwe as a lecturer.
Susan was sworn in as a Commissioner of the Zimbabwe Media Commission in October 2020 and this will be for a 5-year term. She is also Vice Chairperson of Gender Media Connect, board member for Zimbabwe Aids Prevention and Support Organisation.
Co-founder of FoodForMzansi.co.za, South Africa
Director for Africa, Women in News, Kenya
Freelance Journalist, Zambia
Coach, Women in News, Malawi
Dr. Limbikani Sarah Kamlongera is a versatile, results-driven professional with over 15 years’ experience in broadcast communications. Limbikani has a Doctorate in Education, Master’s degree, Advanced Media Management certificate and Bachelor’s degree, with the latter three all focused on Media and Communications at management level (most of which is also development-oriented). She also holds an International Coach Federation (ICF) Certification in Leadership Coaching.
Limbikani has a strong background in creating, writing, and producing communication pieces, as well as comprehensive experience in developing exceptional relationships with clients, peers, senior leadership, students, and communities to provide successful programs and solutions. She has exceptional skills in critical thinking, community outreach, and public relations stemming from her experience as a news editor, researcher, and educator. She is very passionate about people, especially marginalized groups, development work, health, climate change, girls and women empowerment and broadcasting, areas in which she has a very strong set of skills.
Limbikani is a Women in News Alumni of 2016 Cohort for Malawi. She credits the Women in News programme with teaching her about demanding a seat at the table and affirms that the Programme taught her to be okay with leading; and, to be intentional about advocating and finding the ‘female voice’ within a story or situation. She is honoured to pay this forward in her position as Women in News Coach for Malawi as her contribution to the development of more female leaders in journalism.
Managing Director, The New Times, Rwanda
Collin Haba works with The New Times, Rwanda’s only English daily, as the Managing Director. He has been with The New Times for more than 10 years. He has also worked as the managing editor, features editor, business editor and investigative reporter at The New Times.
Currently, his main task is to rethink the business model, focusing on how best to leverage technology in building sustainable and profitable operations while maintaining the highest possible ethical standards and quality of journalism.
He has an interest in how news organisations and their stakeholders can collaborate to address the challenges that journalism is facing today. He is also keen on positioning the media to be a major player in the building of the new Africa.
Product Manager, Stears Business, Nigeria
Yvette has spent her career delivering positive business outcomes for media organisations by solving customer problems.
She is currently the Product Manager for Stears Business, a Nigeria-based publication providing long-form insight pieces focused on Nigeria’s economy. Stears Business is part of Stears, a digital information & data company with a straightforward mission of making it easy for customers to find valuable information on Africa. At Stears Business, Yvette launched and continues to deliver on business objectives for the flagship subscription product.
Before Stears Business, Yvette was Head of Audience Engagement at BusinessDay, Nigeria’s oldest business daily. She was responsible for making the audience more legible to the newsroom and the newsroom legible to the audience. She also led the digital transformation of the newsroom.
As a Product Manager, Yvette is passionate about harnessing empathy and context to deliver strong business performance. Yvette loves to talk about African fiction, technology and the media. In her spare time, she welcomes a challenge in table tennis.
Chief Operating Officer, Visual Point Creative Group, Zimbabwe
Vincent Kahiya is Zimbabwean-based vastly experienced Communications Practitioner with over twenty-five years of practice covering Reporting, Editing, Public Relations and Public Information Management. He is an International Trainer in Journalism, Change Management, Media Strategy, Social Media Policy & Governance, and Digital Media Project Development. He holds qualifications in Journalism and Communications, Public Relations, Public Information Management and Business Leadership.
Vincent was Editor of the Zimbabwe Independent (theindependent.co.zw) for six years (2004-2010) before becoming Founding Editor of NewsDay (newsday.co.zw) in 2010. Between 2015 and 2017, he led publishing company Alpha Media Holdings as Managing Director before joining Oxgn PR as Managing Consultant and currently he is the COO of Corporate Communications firm VPCG (vpcg.co.zw). In this role, he advises on Corporate Communications Strategy and Reputation Management to local and international organisations.
Vincent T Kahiya is a Steering Committee Member under WAN-IFRA Women-In-News programme and Lead Trainer in WIN-Advisory.
Project Director - Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI), Germany
Editor, Africa Uncensored, Kenya
Emmanuel Chenze is an editor at Africa Uncensored where he oversees the work of a team of reporters and personnel assigned to the Data and Fact-checking desk.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Informatics from Moi University's School of Information Science. His work and interests revolve around technology and media and their intersection.
He has a decade’s experience in Kenya’s digital media space and has been involved in the ideation and development of several projects including Africa Uncensored’s Piga Firimbi project which recently received funding under the Google News Initiative’s Innovation Challenge in Africa.
Head of Events, Arena Holdings, South Africa
Online-Sub-Editor, The Africa Report, Kenya
Head of West Africa, BBC, Nigeria
Toyosi Ogunseye is the Head of West Africa at the British Broadcasting Corporation. She manages the operations and five language services of the BBC in Francophone Africa and Anglophone West Africa. An international presenter, she hosts the BBC World Service’s international debate programme, World Questions.
Ogunseye, who is presently the Vice President of the World Editors Forum and sits on the board of the World Association of News Publishers has over 15 years’ experience as an investigative journalist. She was the first female editor in the 41-year history of Punch Newspaper; Nigeria’s most widely read newspaper and has won over 40 local and international awards.
Digital Development Manager, TelQuel, Morocco
Director of Media Development and Head of Women in News, Canada
Melanie is a gender and media development expert with more than 10 years’ experience leading capacity building and advocacy initiatives which place gender equality at their core. As director of Media Development for WAN-IFRA, Melanie oversees the organisation’s media development portfolio, which includes management of a multi-million euro budget to support media in 25 countries around the globe. Melanie is a creator of WAN-IFRA’s sector-leading Women in News programme, an ambitious multi-year initiative to promote women’s leadership and voices in the news with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Melanie has previously held various leadership, programme development and social investment strategy positions in North America and Europe, including four years with the Toronto-based Women’s Executive Network, where as Vice President International, she led the company’s expansion to its first international market with the launch of WXN Ireland. Melanie has a BA (Hons) from Kings College, Dalhousie University, and holds an Msc from the London School of Economics, University of London.
Journalist and media lecturer, South Africa
Pontsho Pilane is a journalist, editor, media lecturer and trainer with a focus in health, race and gender and how they intersect. She’s interested in using communications as a tool for social change. Prior to that Pilane was the senior writer at Health-eNews, and was formerly a health reporter at Bhekisisa, the Mail and Guardian’s centre for health journalism. She debuted as a journalist at The Daily Vox, where she wrote primarily about gender, race and how they intersect. Pilane holds two degrees in media studies from Wits University.
Chief Membership Officer, Malaysiakini, Malaysia
A graduate in English Literature from the University Malaya, Lynn D'Cruz started her career lecturing in English for 10 years. After which, she left and joined the media.
In 2014, she spearheaded Malaysiakini’s first crowdfunding campaign. The Buy a Brick campaign raised RM 1.7 million towards financing Malaysiakini’s first self-owned premise @Kini, in Petaling Jaya. She also led the interior design of @Kini which promotes a productive and engaging working environment.
She implemented Malaysiakini’s internship programme, which is aimed at helping the younger generation understand the importance of independent media.
She has a Masters in Managerial Psychology and is a 2019 Google News Initiative Newsroom Leadership Programme Fellow. She joined Malaysiakini in 2011 and today heads its Membership Development department.
Her policy in life is quite simple “It’s not a job, it’s life.”
Editor, The Standard, Kenya
Mark Oloo is a senior editor at Kenya's oldest daily, The Standard.
Prior to this, he worked for Nation Media, the Capital Group, Kenya News Agency and Kenya Times. He also worked for the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper (a Gannett publication) in Florida, U.S. as part of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the International Centre for Journalists’ mentoring programme.
In August 2017, he was named a World Press Institute fellow. Twice, he was an EJN/Internews climate journalism fellow in Morocco and Spain. He is an alumnus of the University of Nairobi’s School of Journalism, the International Institute of Journalism in Germany, Radio Netherlands Training Centre and Sweden’s Fojo Media Institute. He’s also lectured at the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication.
This year, he spent time at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom on a fellowship at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. His research project assessed the place of peer review in ethical journalism and self-regulation. And while at Oxford, he examined the impact of digital media on political news consumption among young audiences and how media houses are responding to the crisis of content quality and trust.
Director, Innovation Centre- The Aga Khan University, Kenya
Dr. Chege is the Director, Innovation Centre at the Graduate School of Media and Communications- Aga Khan University. The Innovation Centre is aimed at enhancing media viability in East Africa. Based in Nairobi, the center provides training, coaching and mentorship to media innovators in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Njoki has over 9 years’ experience in the media as a journalist and editor. As the Editor, Lifestyle (Pishi) at Nation Media Group, she was responsible for Pishi, an innovative lifestyle content project. Her research interests focus on media innovation and sustainability. She has previously taught graduate courses at Daystar University.
Editor-in-chief, News24, Johannesburg, South Africa
Adriaan Basson is editor-in-chief of News24, South Africa’s largest website with an average monthly audience of 8 million people across mobile, app and desktop. An experienced investigative journalist and author, Basson leads a team of journalists, content producers and video journalists who lead coverage of news, business, sports and entertainment in South Africa.
Managing Editor, Digital, Standard Media Group PLC, Kenya
Subscriptions Growth Manager, Gazeta Wyborcza (AGORA), Poland
Katarzyna joined Gazeta Wyborcza in 2017. Her first job title was Social Media Manager, working in the newsroom editing their social media channels and running Facebook campaigns. But also, at that time she was close with digital subscription actions.
Since 2019 her role changed into Subscriptions Growth Manager - where she manages the acquisition team which is responsible for gaining new subscriptions, acquisition strategy and the offer itself.
A key achievement during her 4 years work-life at Gazeta Wyborcza was definitely changing their subscription offer from on-off payments to recurring ones, which have changed the business model completely. Currently they are working on new packages and pricing, Katarzyna says, "I reckon it is going to be a next major change and I am proud to be a part of this project".
Katarzyna likes to share knowledge, and delivered a presentation at a September 2019 WAN-IFRA workshop in Copenhagen, where she told global publishers about their so-called “operation Netflix”.
Director (Project Coordinator), Jamlab Africa, South Africa
Tshepo Tshabalala is the Director, responsible for the growth and strategic direction for Jamlab. He was previously the interim project director, as well as founding digital editor for the Jamlab digital publications and web editor for www.journalism.co.za both based at the journalism and media studies department at the University of the Witwatersrand. Jamlab is the continent's first journalism and media lab which aims to support more and better innovation in journalism and media in Africa.
Tshepo’s work has appeared in radio, print, wire services and online in South Africa and various other countries in Africa. He has worked as a reporter at Thomson Reuters’ Johannesburg bureau, Forbes Africa publications and as a web producer for Business Day, Financial Mail, BusinessLive and Wanted Online.
He was awarded the Chevening Scholarship to study an MA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of York in the United Kingdom and is currently reading for an MA in Journalism at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
Deputy Director, Digital Revenue Network, WAN-IFRA, France
Since joining WAN-IFRA in 1997, Valérie has accrued more than 20 years of experience as a media journalist. Currently, she is a team member of WAN-IFRA's Global Advisory division where she works with the Advisory Team in leading global consulting projects. She is also the Programme Lead for WAN-IFRA's top global conferences including: World News Media Congress and our Digital Media Event Series. She has contributed to numerous research reports, including Alternative Revenue Streams for Publishers. As part of her research, Valérie interviewed numerous publishers who had found success discovering new business models - whether its through events, e-commerce, video or marketing services - Valérie has experience taking the pulse on what generates revenue for publishers.
Marketing & Programming Lead, WAN-IFRA, Germany
