The official first anniversary of Akoroko Premium is TODAY—April 28, 2025. This wouldn’t exist without those who continue to subscribe, kept reading, suggesting, questioning, sticking around, and even those who canceled, particularly those who canceled and came back!
Akoroko itself launched in April 2022. Two years later, in April 2024, the subscription, Akoroko Premium, went live.
One year ago, I posted the tweet you see above: “… even one subscriber would be a win. I can build on that over time.”That wasn’t marketing. That was the truth.
I had no idea if this would land. No projections, no guarantees, and a few naysayers. Just a conviction that there was a different kind of work worth doing. And a hope that someone out there might value it. To be fair, I already had some indication: I saw how some industry professionals were using what I posted on LinkedIn, Twitter, and elsewhere — for free. That wasn’t discouraging. It was clarifying.
I didn’t dive in right away. Akoroko launched in 2022, but the subscription didn’t follow until two years later. That gap wasn’t because I was indecisive — or unaware — but because I was building this from the ground up. Deliberately. Methodically. This is infrastructural work. Foundational work. Laying groundwork for a system of record, not a stream of noise. This takes time. Trial, error, course correction, progress. That’s the rhythm.
Still is — for now. When I sense that the environment is truly starting to change in a meaningful way — and I suspect it will — subscribers will be the first to know.
This Wasn’t Just a Year of Reporting
It was a year of…
- Early-morning Cannes dispatches and 11-hour time zone adjustments from Nairobi.
- Public surveys and private consultations.
- Backchannel WhatsApps and longform Q&As.
- A growing global subscriber base, from Lagos to London to Los Angeles.
- Of course, the formation of African Film Press (AFP) — the relatively new alliance with Sinema Focus (East Africa) and What Kept Me Up (Nigeria) — which led to the Moving Pictures Incubator (in 2024), and, soon after, Berlinale’s EFM Startups 2025.
- And much more…
It was a year of learning how to balance news flow with knowledge flow. Some days were pure headlines. Others were strategic assessments. A few were quiet. A few landed hard.
And yes, there were mistakes — misspelled names, delayed dispatches, oversights I’m still catching. But the intent never changed: to build a system of intelligence with integrity.
What’s Next?
It’s an ongoing process. But a few things are clear:
- Akoroko Premium will keep growing—carefully.
- Continuing to streamline day-to-day operations for Akoroko, Sinema Focus, and What Kept Me Up, with the umbrella African Film Press (AFP) company in focus.
- Plenty of travel and learning, starting in one week.
- African Screen Intelligence (ASI) is developing amid a rapidly shifting tech landscape.
- An AFP Southern African platform will be launched soon.
- A French-language Akoroko Premium edition is coming.
- So is a new wave of original reporting, collaborations, and on-the-ground coverage.
And much more. But one thing at a time…
Akoroko’s future is also deeply tied to AFP, which is slowly becoming the connective tissue between distinct editorial voices across the continent. It’s not just a media brand — it’s a new kind of infrastructure. That’s the direction we’re heading.
If the first year was about proof of concept, this next one is about consolidation, clarity, and scale.
And we’re only just getting started.
