Kickstart #AMP2026 with a warm welcome, coffee, and light refreshments. Connect with media professionals from around the world and start building relationships that last beyond the event.
09:30 - 09:40 Opening remarks
09:45 - 10:15 Fireside chat: African conflicts through the press lens
Reporting from conflict zones demands courage, integrity, and precision. Tesfalem Waldyes, founder of Ethiopian Insider and 2025 World Press Freedom Hero, speaks with Nompilo Simanje about how journalists across Africa navigate danger and ethical dilemmas to deliver stories that inform, challenge, and resonate with global audiences.
Facilitator: Nompilo Simanje – Africa Advocacy and Engagement Lead, International Press Institute
10:20 - 10:45 Panel: Rebranding journalism – Thriving under pressure in African media
Journalism is under pressure and its value is being questioned. Join African media leaders as they share how newsrooms are rebranding journalism: proving its relevance, innovating for audiences, and finding new ways to inform, engage, and earn trust in a changing world.
Facilitator: Sanja Gohre – Host of AfricanOptimist & Founder of StoryBanking, South Africa
Khadija Patel – Director & Journalist-in-Residence, International Fund for Public Interest Media
Argaw Ashine – Managing Editor and Founder, Wazema Radio, Ethiopia
Dara Ajala – Programme Manager for West and East Africa, Media Development Investment Fund, Nigeria
Slindile Khanyile – CEO at Likhanyile Group | Editor of Umbele & Umkhanyisi, South Africa
10:50 - 11:05 Coffee & networking break:
Recharge with light refreshments and informal networking, exchanging insights and ideas with fellow journalists, editors, and media innovators.
11:10 - 11:50 Panel: Podcasting as a business – Turning voices into revenue
Podcasts are not just for fun, they are becoming real businesses. In this session, we will hear from creators who have turned their shows into income through sponsorships, advertising, and live events, and explore practical ways to grow an audience and make podcasting pay.
Dan Aceda – Founder and CEO, SemaBOX Africa, Kenya
Selly Thiam – Founder and CEO, AQ Studios, Kenya
Roland Perold – CEO, Volume Podcasts, South Africa
Patricia Tembo – Specialist Journalist, Food For Mzansi Group, South Africa
11:55 - 12:45 Lightning rounds: 5 ideas shaping African media
Five sharp ideas, ten minutes each. This fast-paced session shares bold experiments, smart tools, and practical lessons from across African media that businesses can apply immediately.
How to make news accessible on low-data mobile: Scrolla in South Africa shares how their team created Scrolla Data Lite, a mobile-first platform delivering news in English and isiZulu using 90% less data than the full site. See how innovation and smart design are reaching underserved readers.
How to build a digital audience in deep rural areas: Pondoland Times, an award-winning community newspaper in the Eastern Cape, is growing its digital following while staying true to print. Learn how youth-focused, locally relevant content can engage audiences, bridge the digital divide, and expand reach without losing the publication’s core identity.
How we used niche media to build a 5-figure professional audience network: The mass media era has peaked. Instead of chasing vanity metrics, Businessfront is scaling a network of hyper-focused outlets. In just one year, we launched two niche publications that reached thousands of African professionals on a shoestring budget using a repeatable playbook of newsletters, webinars, and industry reports. By 2030, we aim to expand to 20 publications. I’ll break down our practical steps for identifying niches, choosing high-growth content formats, and replicating this model without a massive marketing budget.
To Be Confirmed
Mungo Soggot – CEO, Scrolla, South Africa
Múyìwá Mátùlúkò – CEO, Businessfront, Nigeria
Quan Dambuza – Publishing Editor, Pondoland Times, South Africa
To Be Confirmed
12:45 - 13:45 Networking lunch:
Connect, collaborate, and share experiences with peers over a delicious lunch. Build partnerships that could become the backbone of future investigative projects.
13:50 - 14:20 Panel: Lessons from Africa’s rising media entrepreneurs
Some of the continent’s most inspiring media entrepreneurs come together to share their stories. What worked, what didn’t, and the ideas that are shaping the future of journalism in Africa. The panel offers practical insights and lessons that newsrooms can apply to grow, engage audiences, and explore new revenue opportunities.
Facilitator: Ivor Price – Managing Director & Co-founder, Food For Mzansi, South Africa
Caleb Maru – Founder and CEO, TechSafari, Kenya
John Bailey – Owner of Sunday World and Sunday Sun newspapers, South Africa
Donald Mumba – Founder & Managing Director, Zambian Business Times, Zambia
14:25 - 15:05 Panel: What’s next for community journalism?
As advertising revenues dry up and print titles disappear, community and grassroots media are facing an existential reckoning. This panel confronts the hard realities behind shrinking newsrooms and closed doors, while asking what comes next and whether there is still room for hope. From new business models to digital innovation and deeper community trust, the discussion explores how local journalism can adapt, survive and re-imagine its role in a changing media landscape.
Facilitator: Harlan Cloete – Founder of Radio KC, South Africa
Khutso Tsikane – Manager: Print and Digital Media, Media Development and Diversity Agency
Ben Burger – Executive Director, Forum of Community Journalists, South Africa
Anetta Mangxaba – Publisher, Dizindaba Media, South Africa
Ananias Ndlovu – Journalist, entrepreneur and author of “The Real Death of Community Media”
Shirley Govender – Founding Publisher & Editor-in-Chief: Solutions Journalism Institute SA
15:10 - 15:25 Coffee & networking break:
Recharge with light refreshments and informal networking, exchanging insights and ideas with fellow journalists, editors, and media innovators.
15:30 - 15:55 Panel: Product thinking for journalists
Great journalism isn’t enough anymore. Newsrooms need product thinking. This panel dives into how media teams can design content, tools, and experiences with their audiences front and centre, use data to make smarter decisions, and turn insight into impact that sticks. Bold, practical, and unapologetically real. This is how journalism stays relevant.
Facilitator:Dr Kate Skinner – Executive Director, Association of Independent Publisher
Kathryn Kotze – Head of Operations, Daily Maverick, South Africa
Deji Adekunle–Program Director for West and East Africa, Media Development and Investment Fund, Nigeria
Gareth Davies–Head of Product & User Experience, Food For Mzansi, South Africa
16:00 - 16:25 Panel on AI & other new tech
AI is already changing journalism. Fast, fierce, and unstoppable. This panel cuts through the hype to show how newsrooms can use new tech to work smarter, reach audiences harder, and stay ahead, without losing sight of ethics, creativity, or impact. Bold, honest, and unflinching. This is the future, now.
Facilitator: Sisanda Nkoala – Lecturer in Media Studies, University of the Western Cape
Dylan Bettencourt – Head of Operations, Scrolla Africa
Zandile Mcinziba – PhD student in Ethics and Faculty Officer, University of the Western Cape
Amanda Strydom – Senior Sensemaker, Code for Africa, South Africa
Mischka Lewis – Research Specialist, Media Development and Diversity Agency
16:30 - 16:45 AMP wrap-up & day 1 closing remarks
As we close Day 1 of AMP, let’s hear what you want to hear more of.
Thursday, 26 March 2026
08:30 - 09:15 Registration & welcome coffee
Kickstart day 2 of #AMP2026 with a warm welcome, coffee, and light refreshments.
09:20 - 09:25 Opening remarks
09:30 - 09:55 Panel: Unlocking capital for media sustainability
As media across Africa face a funding crisis, this panel moves from problem to solutions. It explores practical ways to unlock capital and bring banks, DFIs, investors, and impact-makers together to commit real resources. The goal is simple but bold: turn concern about media sustainability into measurable change.
Facilitator: Michael Markovitz – Director, Media Leadership Think Tank, Gordon Institute of Business Science
Harlan Mandel – CEO, Media Development Investment Fund
Shoeshoe Qhu – CEO, Media Development and Diversity Agency
10:00 - 10:30 Ads and Subs: A Brief History of The New York Times
How The New York Times moved from an ad‑dependent newspaper in crisis to a subscription‑led, diversified digital business, and what that journey can teach independent media about building sustainable revenue. Presented by Dao Nguyen, Senior Vice President and Head of Digital Advertising Products.
Dao Nguyen – Senior Vice President and Head of Digital Advertising Products, The New York Times, USA
10:35 - 10:50 Coffee & networking break:
Recharge and network informally with peers, mentors, and collaborators.
10:55 - 11:30 Panel: The rise (and risks) of Africa’s news creators
From viral podcasters to razor-sharp comedians, Africa’s digital creators are rewriting the rules of news, politics, and public debate. They are reaching audiences that traditional media struggles to engage, shaping narratives in real time, and turning content into conversation that spreads across the continent. But with influence comes risk: how do creators balance speed with accuracy, satire with accountability, and engagement with trust? This panel explores the rise of the creator economy, the opportunities for shaping public opinion, and the credibility challenges in a digital media landscape that moves faster than ever.
Facilitator: Ayabulela Poro, Communications & Marketing Lead, Media Development and Diversity Agency
Fathiya Nur, Commissioning Editor, Faces of Africa, Kenya
Nicola Bergsteedt, Founder, NB News Wrap
Stephen Horn – Founder, Politically Aweh, South Africa
David I. Adeleke, Founder/CEO, Communiqué, Nigeria
Tired of hearing only the glossy success stories? This fast-paced session turns the spotlight on failure. Five African media leaders share the mistakes that set them on a new course, the lessons learned, and how missteps can spark innovation, reshape strategy, and uncover unexpected opportunities. Short, sharp, and brutally honest, this is learning through experience like you’ve never seen it.
Verashni Pillay – Founder, explain.co.za, South Africa
Styli Charalambous – Co-founder & CEO, Daily Maverick, South Africa
Joseph Mwenda – Founder & Editor-in-Chief, News Diggers, Zambia
Rob Rose – Co-founder, Currency, South Africa
12:35 - 13:45 Lunch
13:50 - 14:20 Same-same, but different: Comparing the newswork of journalists around the globe
Citizens and media audiences often make assumptions about what motivates journalists to do what they do. To complicate matters, journalists are not all created equal, nor are the countries they work in the same. For us to really understand what makes journalists tick, we need to study their own perceptions and the newswork they do. This discussion will look at selected findings from one of the biggest international- comparative academic projects that systematically analyses the way journalists perceive ethics, their roles in society and the threats that make it difficult for them to do their work. Special attention will be paid to South Africa and other African countries.
Dr Marenet Jordaan – Chair of the Department of Journalism, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
14:25 - 15:00 Fireside chat: Reporting from conflict – Journalism and Gaza
Journalist Yusuf Omar, who was aboard the Gaza aid flotilla during a suspected drone attack in 2025, joins this conversation alongside Dina Aboughazala, founder and CEO of Egab in Egypt, to unpack the realities of storytelling in times of crisis.
Yusuf reflects on reporting from conflict under extreme pressure, sharing the challenges and moral weight of covering the mission firsthand. Dina brings a strategic communications and digital media lens, exploring how narratives are shaped, amplified, and contested in moments of geopolitical tension.
They examine the blurred lines between journalism and activism, the ethical dilemmas facing reporters and content creators, and how media can responsibly convey both the human impact and the wider geopolitical context of crises like Gaza.
Facilitator: Crystal Orderson – Executive Producer at AJ+, former SABC West Africa bureau chief & former Ruth First Fellow and a fellow of the University of Chicago
Yusuf Omar – Co-founder and CEO, Seen.TV
Dina Aboughazala – Founder & CEO, Egab, Egypt
15:05 - 15:30 Data journalism that makes a difference
Trust in journalism is under attack, but data can be a powerful tool to cut through the noise. The Outlier shows how journalists can use numbers, evidence, and insights to tell stories that matter, spark action, and give communities the tools to understand the world around them.
Laura Grant – Managing Editor, The Outlier | Managing Partner, Media Hack Collective, South Africa
Alastair Otter – Co-founder, Media Hack Collective, South Africa
15:35 - 16:45 Grab a coffee and a snack, then join us for one of two workshop sessions!
Option 1: Masterclass: Leveraging audience intelligence for revenue and impact
Join Adriana Peña Johansson, MDIF’s Revenue Expert-in-Residence, for a hands-on session that shows how understanding your audience can transform your newsroom. Media organisations that truly know their readers can create content that resonates, uncover new revenue streams, and prove their value to sponsors and partners. This masterclass will guide you through practical frameworks and real-world examples to turn audience insights into sustainable growth, stronger engagement, and smarter editorial decisions — all while keeping your journalistic mission at the centre.
Adriana Peña Johansson – Revenue Expert-in-Residence, Media Development Investment Fund
Gareth Davies – Head of Product & User Experience, Food For Mzansi, South Africa
Option 2: Masterclass: Reporting climate change with context, humanity and hope
Led by the Climate Media Lab programme of Fossil Free South Africa, this masterclass uses the Climate Reporting Guide to help journalists report on climate, energy, and development issues with clarity, depth, and balance. Participants will focus on three key principles: contextualise, humanise, and solutionise. They will learn how to place stories in political, economic, and historical context, centre lived experiences, report on solutions responsibly, challenge common myths in African climate coverage, and explore global and local energy transitions. The session will include examples of strong storytelling and conclude with an interactive Q&A to help journalists apply practical tools in their own newsrooms.
Jo-Anne Smetherham – Media Manager, Fossil Free South Africa
Ozayr Patel – Communications and Media Associate, Fossil Free South Africa
