Media Lead · Audience Strategist · Creator
Kelly
Christine
I build audiences from zero. Then I build the systems that keep them.
Media Lead · Audience Strategist · Creator
I build audiences from zero. Then I build the systems that keep them.
I have spent 12 years inside News24 — Africa's largest subscription news platform — building the audiences, teams, and systems that kept millions of readers coming back. Not just following. Paying.
I've led TikTok from zero to 350K, WhatsApp from zero to 1.2 million. I've built recurring content formats that became annual newsroom fixtures. I've changed how a national newsroom thinks about social video.
Right now, I'm assisting with AI integration across my team and building an internal audience intelligence system on top of 2M+ reader comments — using AI agents to surface sentiment, story gaps, and trust signals at scale.
I think like a director. I measure like a growth marketer. And I'm an active creator myself — because the best instincts come from actually doing the work.
"Trust compounds and trends decay."
How I see the industry
"The algorithm dictates format, not voice."
How I approach platforms
"Content must be useful. Everything else is secondary."
How I make decisions
"When you put people first, quality work naturally flows."
How I lead teams
Recognition
Poynter Leadership Academy
for Women in Media
Poynter Institute · 2023
When News24 launched on TikTok, almost nobody in the building thought it would work. News on TikTok? For a brand built entirely on trust? The scepticism was loud — and, to be fair, reasonable. Journalists didn't want to be on camera. The multimedia team didn't want to assist. Senior leadership didn't believe we should be giving paywalled content away on social.
Strategy and scripting — and a significant amount of internal politics. I developed a content approach that respected TikTok's native language without compromising News24's credibility, scripted and briefed content, and spent months making the case to leadership with data and patience. The result wasn't just a channel. Vertical social video is now embedded in News24's journalist KPIs, a social-specific video editor has been hired, and the social team has a dedicated studio built inside the newsroom.
An annual microsite that functions as a love letter to paying subscribers — showcasing the journalism that made a tangible difference in South Africa that year, a video year-in-review, and a direct message of thanks to the people who fund it. It exists to answer a question nobody had formally asked yet: how do you show subscribers the concrete value of their money in one place?
There was no brief. No budget. No template. I pitched the idea, built the microsite, wrote the copy, handled the graphic design, and led the project from concept to publication in 2022. It landed. It's now heading into its fourth year as an annual newsroom fixture, has won a Bookmark Award, and has become one of the most anticipated subscriber communications News24 produces.
Built News24's WhatsApp channel from zero to 1 million members — providing the team with a way to instantly get news alerts on a platform that nearly every South African uses. The channel became the most effective social driver of paid subscriptions across the platform, and also serves as a quick way to surface audience insights through polls.
End-to-end ownership: strategy, launch, content programming, system design, growth tracking, and iteration.
Using News24's 2M+ reader comment dataset to build an internal AI-powered audience intelligence system — surfacing sentiment patterns, identifying story gaps, and detecting trust signals at scale. The goal is to translate what millions of readers are actually saying into editorial strategy, in real time.
Leading the build — from identifying the opportunity in the data, to designing the agent architecture, to integrating outputs into editorial workflow. Also leading broader AI adoption across the team: introducing AI-assisted workflows for research, scripting, and production, and upskilling team members on practical tool use across Claude, Gemini, and Magnus.
"People are there to be entertained or learn something — not to be sold a product."
The platform doesn't owe you attention because you bought a slot. You earn it by being genuinely useful or genuinely interesting.
"Data tells you what people want. It doesn't always tell you what they need."
The most important stories in a newsroom are rarely the most-clicked ones. The best content strategy holds both truths at once — optimising for engagement without abandoning editorial judgment.
"The biggest mistake brands are making right now is devaluing writers because of AI."
They're losing context, cultural nuance, and the ability to produce copy that doesn't sound like everyone else's. AI is a tool. Taste is still the competitive advantage.
The best platform instincts come from being on the platforms — not just studying them. I'm an active creator on TikTok, handling everything from ideation to scripting to editing. Comfortable on camera. Comfortable behind it.
Currently based in Cape Town, South Africa.
Open to fully remote roles globally.