Lagos-based newsletter Communiqué, founded by David Adeleke, has been punching way above its weight for most of its four-year existence. It has been praised by other creators, like Platformer’s Casey Newton, who says it has introduced him to companies and entrepreneurs who are as fascinating as they are unfamiliar. Now, Communiqué is more than a newsletter, building into a sustainable media business that sits at the heart of a developing creator economy ecosystem.
When I first spoke with founder David Adeleke back in 2021 he was running Communiqué as a solo side-project newsletter. On The Publisher Podcast this week David told me that although Communiqué still publishes a weekly long-form look at Africa’s creative economy, it has added a weekly news digest of the African media scene and regular profiles on the continent’s key players.
Communiqué has also published research into Nigeria’s creator economy, is building a database of creators and has run networking events in Lagos, Nairobi and Johannesburg, with Paris pencilled in as a future location.
David has always wanted Communiqué to be more than a newsletter, “I just wasn’t sure how that was going to manifest,” he explains. The turning point came last year when he left his job as Africa editor for non-profit tech publisher Rest of World. “I was told that my contract was not going to be renewed,” he says. “I didn’t see it coming, but in hindsight, it’s a massive, massive blessing in disguise.”
He describes the 12-plus months since he left full-time employment as ‘a gruelling journey’. However, David says: “I was able to convince a handful of other curious young people to embark on this journey with me. I like to think that they are enjoying the process as much as we are all suffering together. You know, it’s positive suffering.”
Creating a culture
The plan was never to stay a solopreneur. “I didn’t just want to build a newsletter company. I wanted to build a proper media business,” he says “I wanted to build a culture and you cannot build a culture on your own, right?”
Casey Newton, founder and editor of leading indie tech newsletter Platformer, praised Communiqué’s ‘sharp analysis’ and ‘quality-over-quantity’ approach.
David wants his team to learn his way of doing and seeing things. “I am essentially replicating myself, or to sound less egotistic, replicating a way of seeing the world and a way of doing business that I think is much better than what I see in a lot of places around me,” he explains.
Hiring for fit is crucial to David’s ‘replication’ vision and he describes a structured four-step recruitment process. It involves an initial application form designed to surface how candidates see the world. Interviewees, selected based on their answers, are invited for a first interview with Communiqué’s two existing team members. “[They] can give them the ‘Tea’, so to speak. They can give them the actual gist of how Communiqué operates,” says David.
Candidates who make it past the initial interview are asked to complete a short assessment and based on how they do, the final candidates will have an interview with David himself.
While he accepts that the hiring process could be seen as rigorous for a business of just three people, he says: “We are filtering for culture fit. Filtering for adaptability. How open and welcoming are you to our vision? Those are all the different things that we are able to draw out during the interview process.”
Passing the torch
David hopes that eventually Communiqué’s alumni will be able to take what they’ve learned to other parts of the world, saying people regularly tell him, ‘We need a version of Communiqué in this place’. “My response is, ‘Yes, but we can’t be everywhere at the same time’. “The hope is that in building the way that we are building, we’re able to replicate some of these things.”
He uses the analogy of the Olympic torch: The original leaves Athens and is used to light another torch in another city and then ‘on and on and on’. “It’s one flame that has been replicated on multiple torches.”
The idea of ‘replication’ is clear in the company’s event series, Communiqué IRL and having run events in three leading African cities – Lagos, Nairobi and Johannesburg – David believes he has a model that works. “There’s literally a template that we follow for every city. There will be some adaptations based on culture and language, but the fundamentals are the same everywhere.”
At their core, the Communiqué IRL events are designed to cut through the digital noise and bring online conversations into the real world. “What we are trying to do is to take the things that we talk about online and bring them into physical spaces,” he explains, emphasising the importance of open spaces, finger foods and drinks.
Billed as networking events, David spotlights the conversational elements, from panel discussions or fireside chats to informal discussions among the audience. He even uses bingo cards designed to gently force participants to speak with fellow audience members. “The goal is, before the event runs out, you’ve ticked at least two thirds of all the questions. Meet someone who has done this, who has done this, who has done this. You’re forced to talk to people.”
Communiqué’s IRL template still leaves room for local variations and David says that could range from event timings to subject matter. “Kenyans are more likely to show up to an event early than Nigerians,” he explains. “In Lagos, we had a conversation about the film industry. In Nairobi, the creative industry; there was an element of film, there was an element of creators, there was an element of media. Different markets call for different things.”
Collaborating for success
The Johannesburg event was focused on creators, because the Western tech companies that are operating in Africa have their headquarters in the city. “[In Johannesburg] you need a conversation that brings all of these big tech companies into the room, but you also need to bring the creators, the actual people that are using the platforms.”
To underline the point, David notes that TikTok was the headline sponsor for Communiqué’s Johannesburg event. While he clearly values commercial support, he is careful to say that collaborations don’t always need to be about cash.
“I like to think I am an ecosystem builder,” he explains. “I can always tell when people are doing things in isolation and it grinds my gears.” He recalls speaking to a VC company that had released a report without speaking to potential partners. “I said to their face, ‘You didn’t think to come to us to help?’ I don’t want the glory. The report was so good and, unfortunately, hasn’t travelled as much as it should have because they chose to do it alone.”
The list of organisations Communiqué is working with is long and impressive, from local media companies and government to TikTok. The business is even being supported by the United Nations to scale its African creator economy research under UNIDO’s programme to develop an inclusive digital economy through innovation acceleration and knowledge sharing.
David, who documents many of his business learnings on Communiqué, explains that knowledge sharing, collaboration and partnerships are ‘a very big deal’ for him.
With partnerships in particular, he is not dogmatic about how they work: “Some partnerships are straight up exchanges -‘We do this for you. You do this for us’. Some are literally us saying ‘Let’s help you do this. You don’t need to pay us. You don’t need to give us any credit’. I know that in doing this for them, the ecosystem is better for it. And if the ecosystem is better for it, I am better for it as well.”
Listen to the full conversation with David Adeleke in this week’s episode of MediaVoices’ The Publisher Podcast above, or wherever you find podcasts.
