Inside Big Cabal Media’s Ambitious Plan to Build Africa’s Next Great Media Company
CEO Tomiwa Aladekomo explained how a company that started out as two blogs expanded into live events, a research firm, and even a film studio.
When Tomiwa Aladekomo took over Big Cabal Media eight years ago, the company consisted of two promising but financially shaky digital publications—TechCabal, a technology news site, and Zikoko, a vibrant youth-culture outlet. Both had a devoted readership within Nigeria, but neither had figured out a sustainable business model. What Big Cabal did have, however, were founders with vision and a media ecosystem on the brink of explosive growth.
Today, the company has grown into one of Africa’s most prominent digital media players, boasting more than 100 employees, multiple revenue lines, a video production arm, a research consultancy, and a suite of live events that draw thousands of attendees from across the continent and beyond. It has built editorial hubs in Lagos, Nairobi, and Johannesburg, expanded into Francophone Africa, and begun experimenting with film, books, and prestige video content.
But the journey, Aladekomo emphasizes, has never been linear.
“I don’t know if I’d say we’re incredibly successful,” he joked. “I think we’ve done a lot of really cool things. But the media business… it is always dicey.”
This is the story of how the company got here, and where Aladekomo believes the future of African media is heading.
A Non-Founder CEO With a Full-Stack Media Background
Unlike many digital-media success stories, Big Cabal Media wasn’t built around a visionary founder-CEO. Aladekomo joined the company after years spent working across nearly every corner of the media and brand landscape.
“I’ve been all up and down the media chain,” he explained. “I’ve been a concert promoter. I’ve worked for a record label in New York. I’ve worked for ad agencies. I’ve sold beer. I was head of digital for Heineken Nigeria.”