INMA's second of three summits in 2026 will focus on newsrooms and technology — notably how African media can smartly embrace digital products. In this welcome,
we will set the context for today's summit.
For two years, most news organisations have focused on using AI to do existing work faster. The next phase is different: building products, workflows, and journalism that create value in ways machines cannot. Learn how leading news organisations are preparing for a world of liquid content, AI-assisted reporting, and experiences designed around audience needs.
Nation Media Group spans newspapers, television, radio, and digital platforms across East Africa — and for years, each operated in its own silo. No longer. Harry Misiko takes you inside NMG's push to fuse editorial, broadcast, digital, and audience teams into a single modern newsroom, where audience data shapes editorial decisions and every story is built for cross-platform life. A candid look at what convergence at this scale actually takes: the structures, the culture fights, and the results.
Punch built its reputation over five decades in print. Now Nigeria's most-read news brand is rebuilding its newsroom around cameras and microphones — investing in podcast and video studios, retraining reporters as multimedia storytellers, and integrating workflows so every story is conceived across formats. Oyetunji Abioye shares how the shift is pulling in younger audiences, what it demands of editors and journalists, and why video-first thinking is strengthening rather than diluting Punch's editorial impact.
Legit.ng and Briefly News reach tens of millions of readers across Nigeria, South Africa, and beyond — with no print heritage, no broadcast tower, and no legacy cost base. Rianette Cluley shares how SEO discipline, social-first storytelling, AI-enabled workflows, and audience intelligence combine into a playbook for building digital news brands at scale in the world's fastest-growing media markets.
Daily Maverick tore up the subscription rulebook: no paywall, no metered access — just investigative journalism compelling enough that readers pay to keep it free for everyone. Rowan Polovin unpacks how South Africa's digital powerhouse fuses newsroom impact, product innovation, and radical reader trust into one of the industry's most distinctive membership models — and what publishers everywhere can steal from it.
Vision Group has successfully transformed Uganda's largest media company into a digital-first, converged multimedia newsroom. Penlope Nankunda will share practical lessons on integrating print, television, radio, websites, and social media into a single editorial workflow, using audience insights, analytics, and collaborative newsroom practices to improve speed, efficiency, and audience engagement across multiple platforms.
BusinessDay has transformed itself from a traditional business newspaper into Nigeria's leading business intelligence platform — one that executives, investors, and policymakers pay for because they cannot afford to be without it. In this session, Innocent Unah shares how specialised journalism, premium research, conferences, and deep audience insight built revenue streams that strengthen rather than dilute editorial authority — and what other African newsrooms can borrow from the playbook.
Seven newsrooms, one thread: African media companies are not waiting for permission to reinvent themselves. In this closing session, we distill the day's sharpest lessons — on convergence, multimedia reinvention, reader revenue, and AI-era innovation — into practical takeaways you can bring back to your newsroom on Monday morning.