Her Media Diary Episode 5: Diana Neille

This week on #HerMediaDiary Podcast, I interview South African award-winning journalist, documentary and film director, Diana Neille. Diana discusses business models, taking storytelling for brands to a new level by involving journalism in traditional advertising and building credibility. She challenges journalists to dig deep and find new ways of making the profession sustainable again.

In her quest to find sustainable business models for journalism, she left the safety of her mainstream media job at eNews to start Chronicle, an Editorial Production company in 2015, which saw her co-directing her first feature film documentary which chronicled the Bell Pottinger scandal.  Diana attributes her success to her passion, hard work and determination. Follow her on Twitter @DianaNeille

Biography

Diana Neille is an award-winning journalist from Cape Town, South Africa. Born in Johannesburg, she lived in Germany for a short stint before completing her Master of Science degree in journalism and documentary filmmaking at Columbia University in 2011.

Back in South Africa, she worked as the Executive Multimedia Producer at 24-hour eNews Channel Africa where she was instrumental in the setting up of their online division as Executive Multimedia Producer. She left corporate journalism in 2014 and moved to Cape Town where she freelanced for the Daily Maverick, an award-winning news and opinion website.

In 2015, she founded Chronicle, a production agency and subsidiary of the Daily Maverick which focused on storytelling and producing branded content.

In 2019, she co-directed her first feature documentary, Influence, which chronicled the Bell Pottinger scandal. Influence was invited to the Sundance Film Festival where it held its world premiere in January 2020.