Sunday, March 18, 2007

Cat Out of the Bag on African Business Media

OK, for me the cat has been let out of the bag on dedicated African business media being still in its infancy stage and being driven in large part by foreign owned media. Perhaps, this is something that is not new to you though. So in this final installment of the Media Industry in Africa series I have a question for you...

So, here's whats been on my mind ever since starting this series-Africa's business bloggers might be the missing link. Even though, across SSA we don't see a preponderance of business publications, there are so many business blogs springing up either in Africa or by Africans in the Diaspora. By region we have:

East Africa region

Jackfruity
Coldtusker
Bankelele
Start Ups in Kenya
Odegele
Kenyan Entrepreneur

Pesatu
Riba Capital
AfricanPath


West African region

Annansi Chronicles
Africa Unchained
The Entrepreneur

Timbuktu Chronicles
Africaincorp
Upnaira
Stockmarket Nigeria
Dibussi


Southern African region
Cherryflavor
Dave Duarte
South Africa Business Hub
Tomorrow Today
Ideate

Do you think that together we, the Africa business bloggers, can fill in the gaps that exist today in Africa's business media?


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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

In south Africa, mainstream media is starting to pay attention to the bloggers - and some of us are getting our blog posts republished for more people to see in newspapers and big online newsletter... although, of course, this increases the lagtime in delivery of news.

I very much respect the mainstream business media, but I believe that the citizen business journalists offer a very valuable perspective and break stories that would otherwise be missed.

Anonymous said...

I believe that the African business bloggers fill the news/information void much in the same way that bloggers in general do with news media. The emphasis when it comes to African business is in highlighting unconventional business ideas. In my experience much of the business news/information that is covered by African business publications is about big corporations and the politics they are involved in. Many of us African business bloggers are involved in small businesses and so are more involved in exploring new business ideas and practices to help us compete with the larger corporations. In exploring an area to differentiate our businesses we adopt and explore unconventional ideas which makes our business reporting different.

pesa tu said...

Yes,blogger can fill the void.Most biz news is made up of wire stories from Reuters or something similar

pesa tu said...

Yes,bloggers can fill the void.The lack of info is one reason why i started my blog

Benin said...

Pesa tu:

Thanks for that. I am in the process of trying to make a deadline for a local Kenya Diaspora news publication that I write for and your comment is what the article part of what it is about.

To me what stands out about Africa bloggers and makes this group stand apart from the conventional media is that it is fresh, it is not orchestrated, it is local, and it is unabashedly opinionated.

Those to me give this community a heavy advantage.

So, I agree with you. Thanks for stopping by!

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