Journalism Innovation and Leadership 2021

Programme Participants

Olivia Crellin is a producer, reporter and documentary maker for the BBC World Service and World News. Her reporting to date has focused on mental health, gender, sexuality and the family unit. Before working for the BBC she freelanced in South America writing for The Economist, The Guardian and TIME Magazine among others. Alongside her journalism work she also runs the media diversity social enterprise, PressPad, which focuses on lowering the financial barriers of entry into journalism. She was named a Big Issue Changemaker (2020) and won the Georgina Henry Award for Innovation in Journalism for her work on PressPad (2019).

Rosi Doviverata is one of the pioneering women in leadership roles in the biggest media market in the Pacific Islands. As Managing Editor Digital and Readership Development at the Fiji Sun – biggest daily newspaper in Pacific – she heads the development of digital/subscription readership to address Covid-19 pandemic issues. At the same time, she leads the Fiji Sun’s groundbreaking weekly Shine A Light investigative project focusing on violence against women, corruption, and other issues. She is also acting President of the Fijian Media Association, a professional body for Fijian journalists. She is a key member of the Fiji Sun management team. Rosi joined Fiji Sun in 2013 after returning from living in Japan with professional rugby player husband. Took leadership in digital development. Pre-Japan included Business Editor on another daily and editor of sports monthly.

Naeemah Dudan is the news editor at Hashtag Our Stories, a mobile journalism company telling stories about people changing their world. She produces, scripts and publishes stories on health, body positivity, racial injustices and the environment. Before Hashtag Our Stories, Naeemah completed her Honors In Journalism at Wits University working as a student journalist at the Wits Vuvuzela. At Hashtag Our Stories, she has also helped produced ‘First Person’ – the first show shot with Snapchat Spectacles which is a Snapchat Originals featuring stories of people creating innovative solutions to environmental problems.

Catherine Edwards is Europe Editor at The Local, a news site reaching 7 million readers per month across nine countries. She focuses on building engaged communities and writing about diverse issues affecting this group, from work permit bureaucracy to long-distance relationships. She is part of the two-person editorial team at The Local Sweden, named Popular Digital Publication of the Year in 2018 by the Swedish Magazine Publishers Association. In 2020, the same organisation named Catherine its Rising Star of the Year, and she was one of three winners of global media network FIPP’s Rising Stars in Journalism awards.

Katherine Gallo is an experienced Digital Content Lead for Special Broadcasting Service, Australia’s multicultural and multilingual public broadcaster. In her role as a Digital Projects and Video Lead, she supports the SBS Audio, Language and Content team on development and implementation of digital editorial and content projects for Australia’s local communities and international audiences. She’s responsible for all divisional video projects including innovations, workflows and guidelines and facilitates video training, workshops and best practice in video content for 68 language teams. Katherine was part of the team that recently won the Mumbrella Publish Award for Best response to COVID-19 for SBS’s Multilingual Coronavirus Portal.

Christopher Goko, 43-year-old journalist, who has worked for both the state and private media in Zimbabwe. Having trained at the Harare Polytechnic College, my first job was at the weekly Sunday Mail, moved to the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, then the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe’s Daily News and finally the Financial Gazette.

Andrew Kilmurray is the editor of the St Helens Star in Merseyside. Andrew has held the position at the Star for the past seven years, having come through the ranks since joining the title as a trainee in 2001. He has been pivotal the Star’s digital transformation and rapid online audience growth over the past decade. He also led the title to the O2 Free Newspaper of the Year awards in 2013 and 2014 and saw it shortlisted at the UK Regional Press Awards in 2018 and 201.

Marcela Kunova is the editor at Journalism.co.uk covering media news, organising Newsrewired conferences and media training courses. Prior to this, she was an assistant editor at financial news website Citywealth, trained at CNN in London, and worked as a freelance journalist with work published in The Guardian, The Independent, CNN and the Huffington Post, among others. Before journalism, she worked as a communication officer, adviser, and project manager for non-profit organisations in Strasbourg, France.

Guthrie Munyuki is the Editor of the Daily News, Zimbabwe’s largest circulating private daily. I have been practicing for nearly 30 years, having started my career as a freelancer for ZimFootball in 1994. I have previously worked for Zimbabwe Mirror and Parade – before joining the Daily News which has been my home for two decades. During this period I have won several awards such as Entertainment Reporter of the Year, Human Rights Watch – Helmann’/Helmet Award, Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Media Diversity award and the National Arts Merit Award (NAMA).

Una Murphy is Publisher and Co-founder of VIEWdigital, an independent community media social enterprise which specialises in social affairs journalism in VIEW magazine and on the VIEWdigital.org website. She is responsible for business development including revenue raising to support journalism production. Una also lectures in journalism and has developed media training courses. She has worked as a journalist and producer for broadcasters including the BBC and RTE and as a reporter for national newspapers including the Daily Mirror and The Irish Times. She also produced and directed information films for organisations including the Irish Hospice Foundation, Queen’s University and BBC.

Kamila Rymajdo is a Manchester based journalist and academic, predominantly writing about music, popular culture and the Polish diaspora, but also about film, television, environmental issues, crime, activism and travel. She is a contributor to magazines including Vice, i-D, Dazed, Mixmag and DJ Mag, and previously worked as music editor at The Skinny North. Several of her articles have been high profile and high impact assignments. She has written three Mixmag cover stories, and was commended by Chantelle Fiddy for her Vice longread on ageism in club culture, earning a spot on Complex’s list of Best Music Writing from 2019.

Hamadishe Saburi is the Chief Operating Officer for the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), whose key responsibility is that of guaranteeing the survival of the integrated media group. He worked as a journalist for a period spanning 25 years, 18 years of which at editorship level. An accomplished business and financial writer, Hamandishe won several awards in his career, among them the Export Development Media Award (2000 & 2001); Zimpapers Features Writer of The Year (1999); Business Writer of The Year (2002); Transport Communications & Travel Writer of The year (2002) and Industrial Writer of The Year, 2002. He led the launch of ANZ’s electronic news service (News on The Go) and the e-paper. Before that, he had led the rebranding of the Financial Gazette (Fingaz) and the Daily News in 2013 and 2019, respectively while spearheading the revival of the CZI Manufacturing Sector Survey and the Fingaz Top Companies Survey.

John Simmonds has over 20 years’ experience in sales and marketing roles across newspaper and magazine publishing. Formerly the Circulation and Trade Marketing Director at Independent Newspapers, John now divides his time between smaller independent magazine publishers as a part-time employee and consultant. His time in publishing has seen him successfully establish a new national newspaper brand and drive brand awareness and sales for niche magazines. He is currently working closely with two magazines in the mental health space and Positive News, a pioneer of constructive journalism. Working across publishers enables him to share best practice, ideas and contacts.

Jenny Simpson is a content editor at the Lancashire Post and Blackpool Gazette. She manages a team of regional news journalists working across print and online operations. She is also an examiner for the National Council for the Training of Journalists. She has previously worked as a business producer at BBC 5 Radio Live in Salford and as a district reporter at the Press and Journal in Scotland.