Speakers | Digital Media Africa 2018
Digital Media Africa 2018
Digital Media Africa 2018 will host leading minds in the digital media space for a day long discussion on trends and best-practice.
Executive Vice President & Managing Director, Viacom International Media Networks Africa, BET International
Alex Okosi is the driving force behind Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) Africa, home to Viacom’s powerhouse entertainment brands MTV Base, MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., NickToons, VH1 Classic and BET on the African continent.
An 18-year veteran of the entertainment industry on 3 continents, with a broad background in marketing, affiliate sales, events, strategy and management, Okosi achieved a personal and industry milestone when he launched MTV Base, MTV’s 100th channel internationally, and Africa’s first bespoke MTV channel on 22 February 2005. His tenacity and belief in Africa soon paid significant dividends. VIMN Africa has become Viacom’s fastest growing international operation in terms of revenue growth - thanks to the rapid expansion of its footprint across Africa as a multi-portfolio brand distributed on multiple platforms including pay-TV, FTA, internet, SVOD and mobile platforms. Now in its thirteenth year, VIMN Africa delivers more channels to Africa than any other international network. Its collective footprint reaches 52 territories and more than 100 million viewers.
Africa Director of the Media Development Investment Fund
Bilal Randeree is Africa Director of Media Development Investment Fund, a mission-driven investment fund for independent news businesses in countries with a history of media oppression.
MDIF provides affordable financing and technical assistance to independent news and information businesses in challenging environments, helping them to become financially sustainable. We invest in media that provide the news, information and debate that people need to build free, thriving societies.
MDIF has provided more than $164 million in affordable financing to over 113 businesses in 39 countries, media that provide the news, information and debate that people need to build free, thriving societies. Our clients range from small local newspapers to national multi-platform broadcasters, in countries as diverse as Bolivia, Zimbabwe, Ukraine and Nepal.
Head of Media - Digital, Sub-Saharan Africa, Kwesé, South Africa
Carl Jordan is an advertising technology specialist who has worked for Yahoo UK, Google UK, Thomson Reuters UK and Outbrain South Africa. Jordan has more than a decade of experience selling advertising technology solutions to media and digital agencies, brands and publishers.
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.
Consultant – media development, training, operations, marketing & sales, digital newsrooms
Gary is an experienced media executive with 30 years in the business.
He is skilled in strategic & operational management in media, news media & broadcasting, channel launches, television production, editorial and content quality, workflow management, training & mentorship, performance management, motivation and people skills.
Consultant, Subscriptions & Membership Marketing, UK
Joss is a subscription and membership-marketing consultant with over 20 years’ experience of acquiring and retaining customers in the media and e-commerce sectors.
During the course of her career, Cripps has developed hundreds of marketing programmes designed to reach, acquire and engage audiences, and has worked for several blue-chip brands including Amazon, the Financial Times (FT), News UK and Sky.
At the FT, in the role of EVP, B2C Global Marketing, she was responsible for print and digital subscriptions revenue growth. During her tenure, she commercialised the FT digital subs paywall globally, conducted testing and analysis that led the publisher to make its successful transition from metred access to paid access and
Whilst at the FT, over the course of a decade, Joss undertook several global assignments taking her to Asia and North America. Joss returned to the UK in 2015 and joined Amazon to run their loyalty engagement programme ‘Subscribe and Save’ with a pan-EMEA remit.
In 2017, recognising the emergence of a new subscriptions-based economy, Joss established a consultancy business which helps brands optimise their recurring revenues. Given her background, not surprisingly, much of her focus has been on servicing clients in the publishing sector - devising paywall strategy and how to efficiently acquire and retain digital audiences.
When she’s not consulting, Joss lectures on digital marketing strategy and customer insight for the Institute of Direct Marketing (IDM) and enjoys mentoring and guiding the pivotal career decision points for professional women.
Founder & CEO, frayintermedia, South Africa
Paula Fray has worked in media for more than three decades as a journalist, editor, trainer and media manager. Paula was the first female editor of the Saturday Star newspaper in South Africa. She is currently the managing director of the pan-African media training organisation frayintermedia, which she founded in 2005. The organisation has trained journalists, media leaders, civil society organisations, government officials and corporate leaders during its decade-long existence.
She is a trustee of Media Monitoring Africa and IRIN independent news agency. She is a Print and Digital Media SA fellow and a public representative on the Press Council of South Africa.
Paula graduated with a BJourn degree from Rhodes University and has a Woman and Law Certificate from UNISA. A recipient of the prestigious Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University, she is a former member of the Nieman Foundation Advisory Board at Harvard.
Head of Digital Media, Arena Holdings, South Africa
Riaan Wolmarans is Head of Digital for the media division of Arena Holdings (formerly Tiso Blackstar Group), the publisher of the Sunday Times, TimesLIVE, Sowetan, SowetanLIVE, Business Day, BusinessLIVE and Sunday World, among other titles. He previously worked for the Mail & Guardian, the Financial Times in London and MetropolitanRepublic, the Johannesburg-based advertising agency, and has experience in both print and digital publishing.
Editor, Africa Journal
Serena Chaudhry is Reuters Editor of Africa Journal, a broadcast and digital service focused on telling the stories of the African continent, from the street to the boardroom. In her 11 years at Reuters and the BBC, she has worked in a range of roles and locations, reporting from across Africa, the Middle East and the U.K. She notably spent two years in Iraq, covering the war. Born in London and brought up in South Africa, Serena also has family ties to Kenya, India and Pakistan. She has a Bachelor of Journalism from Rhodes University and speaks French, Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi, and is working on Arabic.
Head of Plus, Aftonbladet, Sweden
Fifteen years ago from now (fall 2003) Aftonbladet (Schibsted Group) launched its digital paid content offer. "Plus" was at the time a very unique initiative in the industry, as only the business papers at that time were asking for money for their digital content. The news brand now has 250,000 digital subscribers, either to a basic Plus offer or to a more Premium one.
One of the key reasons for the constant growth of digital subscribers is that Plus is not only driven by the business division. It has a Chief Editor, Ted Kudinoff, with a journalist background, working with the newsroom, the business team and the readers to constantly finetune the Plus offer.
Before he joined Aftonbladet some 14 years ago, Kudinoff worked for the daily local newspaper, Ålandstidningen. He is from Åland, a small island between Sweden and Finland.
