In December 2023, INMA and Google News Initiative (GNI) awarded their fourth annual Elevate Scholarship to 50 news media professionals from 31 countries. This series features these impressive media professionals who are shaping our industry.

Hannatu-Favour Asheolge began her journalism journey in 2021 when she joined the news magazine CIO Africa as a West African correspondent. There, she made her mark by quickly publishing over 25 stories to the platform. That led to her being hired by Africa’s leading tech publication, the Nigeria-based TechCabal. 

Initially joining as an editorial assistant, she played a pivotal role in supporting TechCabal’s newsroom leadership with strategy and administrative roles. Her contributions were instrumental in the launch of two newsletters, “Entering Tech” and “TC Weekender.”

Within a year, Hannatu’s hard work and dedication were recognised with a promotion to reporter. In this role, she has published over 70 high-impact stories on the African tech and business ecosystem. Her writing contributions extend to co-writing two newsletters, “TC Daily” and “TC Weekender,” which boast a combined 390,000 subscribers.

Hannatu’s work has not gone unnoticed. In August 2023, she won an award for the most gender-balanced reporting from a news media company. She also earned a place in the prestigious West African Journalism Fellowship organised by the Wole Soyinka Foundation in partnership with the United Nations. Adding to her accolades, “TC Daily,” a newsletter she co-writes, won the award for the best startup ecosystem newsletter at the StartupSouth Awards.

“As a journalist, one of my key roles is to report on stories that delight the audience,” Hannatu said. “This means that I’m constantly looking for ways to elevate the quality of stories we put out, distribution, types of images used, and the overall experience of Web site users.”

She also is always on the lookout for ways to attract more readers and keep them engaged. And, since ads are the biggest source of revenue for her organisation, they play a significant role in her work: “Being part of the newsletter writing team, I provide useful info on what kind of companies will benefit from advertising in our newsletters depending on the content we have scheduled,” she said.

Looking to the future, Hannatu sees the Elevate Scholarship as an opportunity to gain invaluable skills pertaining to how media businesses are run. She aims to learn how data can be effectively used to improve how stories and newsletters are conceptualised, published, and distributed, and she is particularly interested in tackling distribution challenges to grow page views and increase potential ad revenue. Hannatu is also eager to learn how to grow subscribers for some of the company’s new newsletters. 

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