Faith Omoniyi, Briter
Our latest Media Spotlight is with Faith Omoniyi, formerly from TechCabal, now at Briter. He shared his thoughts on why it’s important for African businesses and founders to tell their stories, how AI is changing the way we think about media products, how he chooses to work on a story, and more.
What led you into journalism, and what would you be doing if you weren’t a journalist?
I like to think I got into journalism by accident. I have always had a passion for writing. During my penultimate year at the university, I joined the union of campus journalists. At the time, I didn’t even know what the union was about, but I just knew they wrote and told stories. I wasn’t really familiar with journalism at the time (although I had read tons of newspapers as a kid), but I just knew the union gave me a platform to practice my writing skills and tell stories. So that was my entry into journalism.
If I weren’t a journalist, I’d probably be a creative designer or a product manager. I started off my career at a digital agency as a creative designer. I studied computer science, and I have always loved the concept of human-computer interaction, so I would have been a product manager otherwise.
When you’re researching stories, what compels you to work on sharing a particular story with your audience? Any hot trends we should look out for in the coming months?
To be honest, when choosing a story to work on, I generally gauge it on a “fun radar”.
Is this story idea cool or interesting? Is it something that I have never heard of in the past? “What’s different/unique or clever about the way the startup is solving the problem?” “Would a reader come across the startup (or an article written about them) and say ‘wow, I’d never thought of that?!”
I know the general guide is to measure by market size, traction, how much money they’ve made, etc. But 9 out of 10 startups will fail anyway, so why not spotlight those who are experimenting with really bold and difficult ideas?
Why is the African business landscape unique, and what makes it exciting to report on?
I wouldn’t say the continent’s business landscape is unique in a sense because we can always draw parallels from other emerging markets like Latin America, for example. (And that also makes it easier when you’re reporting on certain startups because you can always read up on the same startup doing similar things in other emerging markets and learn a thing or two that can help your reporting become better).
But the way the African business landscape truly stands out is that businesses often need to marry Silicon Valley concepts with local context. Entrepreneurs on the continent know that we just cannot copy and paste what’s working in other developed markets. So this often brings about a different kind of innovation not seen elsewhere (which then makes my job as a journalist very interesting, because in some cases you’re often the first to report about this particular thing happening in the world).
Which sectors or industries do you like to cover most, and why?
At TC, my job entails managing some of our newsletter products and covering new and emerging startups, which cuts across multiple sectors. I would say I love AI, because its application on the continent is still evolving. So there are still multiple possibilities. Fintech, too, because that’s what people care about the most on the continent.
Why is it important that people around the world get to hear about young, growing companies on the continent?
As you know, African entrepreneurs are tackling some of the most audacious problems under mindboggling constraints. It’s important to hear about the uniqueness of their approach to these problems. They aren’t just copying established models; they’re adapting them with nuance and local context and, in some cases, generating entirely new playbooks while at it. I think that deserves recognition.
How can we encourage more people to tell stories about African tech and business?
I think it’s important to let founders/builders know that they have to tell their own story wherever they are.
(We are moving into the world where founder-led marketing/branding is crucial, and you know storytelling is crucial to that.)
They don’t necessarily have to wait for a journalist to tell their story. A journalist has their own angle anyway. But the startup itself should have a catalog of its own story, whether it’s on YouTube or on its website. A number of prominent startups already do this well, and other startups can learn from them as well.
Ideally, there should be a story about how the startup was formed, how the founder came together, what problem they’re trying to solve, and all that. Those things should not be relegated to just pitch decks, pitch competitions, and presentations to investors. Ideally, it should be housed in the company’s blog or YouTube page so that anyone researching the company can be fed enough to know about the company before even reaching out.
So celebrate your milestones; tell us how you got there. Your product launches shouldn’t just be a ribbon-cutting event or a virtual launch. What’s the story behind it? Why did you launch the product? What problem is it solving for your users? Please tell us that story as well.
What are your thoughts on Artificial Intelligence in journalism?
Of course, AI is changing the way we think about media products. It’s no longer news that news traffic has taken a hit thanks to AI overview and summaries. But this has also forced us to think (about what really matters) and how to properly define success.
AI has also helped improve our productivity, creativity, and workflows as journalists. You can use AI to generate headline copy or take your existing headline copy from 1-1000. You can use AI to generate ideas or fine-tune existing ideas. You can also use AI for your completeness of article guide, where you ask it to help you point out potential angles or voices you’re missing in a story. We are also seeing applications of AI products in newsrooms where AI is used to write fast news pieces. That gives the newsroom more time to focus on tedious investigative or feature pieces.
