Communique? Digest 06: Big Cabal Media’s reunions + CcHub’s new creative economy adventure
Written by Oritsejolomi Otomewo and Favour Olaiya
Presented by
Hi there,
Did you know that trying new things makes you more creative?
In Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind, Scott Barry Kaufman and Carolyn Gregoire reviewed multiple scientific studies and found a strong link between openness to new experiences and creative thinking. They posited that “the drive for exploration, in its many forms, may be the single most important personal factor predicting creative achievement.”
That may seem obvious, but let’s be honest—how often do you step out of your comfort zone just to try something new?
Sometimes, it’s worth the leap.
(We’re taking our advice—check out the brand-new section in the Digest!)
In today's Digest, we discuss:
Center Spread ???
BCM’s boomerang employees
In January, Daniel Orubo, Zikoko’s former editor-in-chief, and Kosisochukwu Ugwuede, a former TechCabal writer, returned to Big Cabal Media (BCM), the publications’ parent company, to take up key editorial roles.
Orubo returned to his former role, which had been vacant since Ruth Zakari resigned in July 2024. Ugwuede returned as the publication’s standards and features editor to lead an expansion in its African coverage.
This is the latest in a series of returns by former employees who helped shape BCM’s identity during its first and second growth phases.
In April 2021, a managing editor job vacancy at Nigerian fintech Paystack inspired one of this publication’s most popular essays. That essay highlighted the threat tech companies, which were hiring journalists for various communication and marketing roles at an unprecedented rate, could pose to the media industry.
“By positioning itself as a media company, Paystack will (knowingly or unknowingly) become a competitor with the same media platforms that have told its story until now. If it executes this strategy well, it will become a headache for these traditional media companies. If a company with little to no pressure to monetize its media properties begins to tread deeper into the territory that was erstwhile occupied by traditional media companies whose livelihoods depend on reporting news and creating content, what happens then?”
Big Cabal Media, which was still recovering from the pandemic’s effects at the time, was one of the hardest hit by this talent onslaught from tech companies. Fu’ad Lawal, another former Zikoko editor-in-chief, left the company to lead growth at home services startup Edenlife; Ope Adedeji, Zikoko’s managing editor at the time, got the Paystack job; and Orubo, the editor-in-chief who succeeded Lawal, later headed to the fintech Piggyvest to build out its content marketing engine.
In 2022, Big Cabal raised a $2.3 million seed round. According to BCM’s COO, Anita Eboigbe, the raise provided a vote of confidence in the company’s future, reassuring employees that the company was not just surviving but thriving. Following that, Adedeji returned as Editorial Director (2022–2024). Also, Olumuyiwa Olowogboyega, another former TechCabal writer who had left the company for stints at GT Bank and LemFi, returned in 2023 as news editor, later becoming editor-in-chief.
But beyond the raise, BCM has also grown its business in the last few years, building a thriving events business that has helped fund other creative and editorial projects for which the company is known. It has doubled down on its ethos of media specialization, positioning it as one of the best places for media talent to hone their craft and contribute to the industry. This has helped attract former top talent back to the company with the promise of more opportunities to do important work.
“It happens that some of the people who care about the work that we are doing are people who have done this work before and [had] to go, and now they’ve come back to the business in tranches,” Eboigbe told Communiqué.
CcHub launches creative economy hub in Lagos
Co-Creation Hub (CcHub) has launched a new Creative Economy Hub in Lagos, Nigeria, a significant step in its mission to drive growth in Africa’s creative industries. The hub, part of CcHub’s Creative Economy Practice (CEP), is designed for film and TV storytellers, and creators. It offers facilities for filming and editing, training programs, and funding opportunities to foster “gender-equitable and inclusive narratives.”
The creative hub mirrors CcHub’s pioneering efforts with its Yaba tech hub, launched in 2010, which became a cornerstone of Nigeria’s tech ecosystem. The Yaba hub incubated startups like LifeBank, Wecyclers, and BudgIT, fostering innovation and attracting investment in the sector. With this new venture, CcHub aims to replicate that success in the creative economy.
CcHub’s foray into the creative economy began in 2021 with the launch of its Creative Economy Practice, led by Ojoma Ochai, a former British Council executive with over 15 years of global creative economy experience. Under Ochai’s leadership, the practice has launched initiatives such as the Createch Accelerator, which supported startups at the intersection of technology and creativity, including FanBase Africa, Nollydata, and Twiva, providing them access to networks, funding, and technical support.
The creative economy’s prominence within CcHub grew further after its CEO, Bosun Tijani, was appointed Nigeria’s Minister of Information, Communication, and Digital Economy in 2023, and Ochai was promoted to Managing Director. Since then, the creative economy has become a central focus of CcHub’s strategy, culminating in the launch of its first creative hub in Nairobi, Kenya, in December 2024, and now one in Lagos.
The Lagos hub features two podcast studios, a media room, an editing suite, and collaborative workspaces. It is part of a broader program funded by the Gates Foundation and delivered in partnership with Africa No Filter. The initiative has already trained over 250 storytellers through virtual workshops and incubated 60 emerging creators in Nigeria and Kenya.
Crunch Time ??
How “Cruise” is sailing YouTube’s stormy waters
Ibidunni Oladayo’s YouTube channel Cruise has become a cultural phenomenon in Nigeria, amassing over 14 million views and 190,000 subscribers in just one year.
Bootstrapped and running from a modest Lagos studio, Cruise has grown from three to ten team members, with 70% of its audience based internationally. The channel adapts Jubilee Media’s formula of creating dialogue across differing perspectives but with a uniquely Nigerian twist.
While Jubilee aimed to bridge America’s political divide, Cruise tackles Nigeria’s culture of silence by encouraging people to voice controversial opinions on topics like pre-marital sex and emigration (“Japa”). Shows like “Face to Face” and “Playing Cupid” have resonated deeply with viewers.
This kind of success in the African context (and everywhere really) will surely attract competitors, and most times, the ones with big pockets. The big cat and small cat story has played out many times in Nigeria’s media sector and will happen in this new niche Cruise has carved for itself. But can its first-mover advantage and fantastic execution sustain the success?
Read more in our latest Communique? essay.
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Curiosity Cabinet ???