Verashni Pillay is a South African journalist who is passionate about digital and the future of journalism. She is the founder of explain.co.za, a WhatsApp driven portal aimed at making the news more accessible to neglected audiences. She was previously the Head of Digital at talk radio station, POWER 98.7, editor-in-chief of the Mail & Guardian and inaugural editor-in-chief of HuffPost South Africa. Under her helm, all site's traffic consistently grew, as did the M&G print circulation – despite a depressed climate. She cut her teeth in digital journalism with Media24 for several years before joining the M&G digital team in 2009 as a reporter. She has also worked as a media consultant and trainer in various newsrooms, specialising in digital journalism, social media and convergence. Verashni is a recipient of the CNN African Journalism Award, several Standard Bank Sikuvile Awards and an Open Society Foundation journalism fellowship. She was awarded a Mandela Washington Fellowship in 2018 and is a council member of the South African National Editors Forum.