Key data about the media afrol News

Dear advertiser or potential partner,

Please find here some key media data about the online daily afrol.com

The profile of afrol News

afrol News is an online media, founded in the year 2000. Indeed it is the first and foremost independent news agency exclusively covering the African continent. Our strongly independent profile and high media ethics have provided afrol News with a high credibility and a devoted readership.

afrol News content is marked by its analytical strength, probably due to the high density of historians in its team, and by its search for different angles and news items. While not hiding any scandal, abuse or disaster, afrol News is proud to also be the leading international media to present the many positive news from Africa, a continent that indeed is going through a staggering development.

If you have a need to place us politically, you could call afrol News a "liberal media" in a European tradition.

afrol News is published as a daily online media mainly in an English and in a Spanish version (no print edition exists). The company headquarters are in Norway, and consequently, afrol News is governed by Norwegian legislation and strictly following Norwegian press ethics. Our publications however are strongly based on journalists and partner media in Africa.

A short history

Founded in Norway in the year 2000 by a group of independent journalists having worked much with and in Africa, afrol News already in 2001 started building media networks in Africa. The responsibility of managing an established news exchange network between Southern African independent media in that year was given to afrol News, which took the network onto a continental level. From the start, one of our aims has been to promote independent and professional journalism in Africa through several media development programmes (also supported by European Union funds).

While our journalism in the early 2000s to a large degree was based on works in headquarters and news copy by our African partner media, we started expanding into Africa and Spain around 2005, employing an increasing numbers of own journalists throughout the continent. Our Spanish offices, which had become the main centre of activity, were hard hit by the economic crisis in Spain and were slowly winded up from 2008 to 2011. Since 2012, structure is more centralised around the Norway head offices (also serving Spain), keeping in contact with journalists on the ground and partner media.

Great technological advances have been made on the afrol.com website since its early html-based start-up. Since 2003, we use php-technology. Since 2008, we have professional statistics and ad servers. Since 2012, with new looks, our options to serve a more demanding advertisement markets are at the technological edge.

Besides the afrol.com online platform, the media house afrol News has developed more media outlets since year 2000. Since 2007, we publish the monthly pdf-magazine "Futuro Africano" in Spanish language, especially dedicated to African development issues and subscribed to by a majority of the Spanish language development cooperation sector. In 2009, the online media afrol.com and the news agency platform were separated, with African Online News (AON) being established as our media house's news agency. The website afrol.com therefore now is purely a news media. Since 2010, afrol News is focusing especially on the African travel and tourism market, with its travel section soon to be made a new site/media. And in 2012, the Norwegian language daily online newspaper "Kureren" (The Courier) was established by the media house afrol News. "Kureren" is focusing on international (global) news coverage.

afrol News has over a decade of experience on the online news market, with all its ups and downs. And we continue to invest in the future.

Our readers

Our typical reader is European or American (North and South), dedicated to Africa. There are also many readers in Africa, South Africa being a leading country.

Feedback from our non-African readers tells they are typically highly educated, many specialised on Africa-related issues. One could call them "insiders". They therefore belong to the group travelling much to Africa and interested in Africa-related cultural and educational products. Many work in government agencies, NGOs, educational institutions and international companies, and "decision-makers" are overrepresented among our readership. We have more male than female readers.

Feed-back from our African readers suggests they are from the upper middle class, typically having service, government or intellectual employment. Education and income is therefore far above the African average. Also in Africa, "decision-makers" are overrepresented among our readership and male readers outnumber female ones.

Broken down on geographical location and language, our readership is more complicated. Basically, as afrol News is published in English and Spanish language, these are our two dominant language users (English representing around 50-60% of total page views). Our English language users are located in the US, UK, South Africa (in that order), followed by a long list of European and African countries, and with fewer readers in Oceania and Asia. Around half of our Spanish language users are located in Spain. Thereafter follow several Latin American countries (some with a big readership), Portugal, North African countries and Equatorial Guinea. Many other countries are also represented, especially in Europe.

Volume

It is difficult to give meaningful site statistics for the afrol.com website. The main reason for this is that afrol News first and foremost covers "foreign news" - it does not cover domestic news for readers of any country. Therefore, traffic on afrol.com strongly depends on the current news situation in Africa and whether African stories are a "hot topic" internationally at the moment. Within a 12-onth period, traffic can vary by several hundred percent.

To get an indication of the traffic level, top and bottom numbers from 2011 can give a hint. The best month saw over 550,000 unique page views, while the worst month saw around 150,000 page views. Hosni Mubarak's fall coincided with the best month.

When advertisers ask for even more specific statistics, we can of course provide an exact answer about the past, but it becomes even less meaningful. In 2011, Egypt-related page views varied by several thousand percent from the best to the worst month. However, sections (economy, travel, politics, etc) are a bit more stable, and there we can give more meaningful answers on demand.

Because of the great fluctuations in statistics on the afrol.com website, our basic policy is to offer advertisement campaigns only on a CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions) basis. CPM-based campaigns always give advertiser full value for their money and both parties can rest assured a fair deal has been made.

More information for advertisers

In 2012, we revamped our advertising information pages, trying to be as open as we can online, for everyone to see. Indeed, the secrecy around advertising campaigns, rates and policies is only annoying for every party in a world so used to advertisements. So basically, you will find all information needed to order an ad campaign on this site, under the "Advertising" front page. There you will also find our basic rates, which are put well under the market average.

See also the FAQ page for advertisers. Any remaining question regarding advertising on afrol News can be sent to marketing@afrol.com. Using the same mail address, you can also order a pdf-rate card for afrol News, containing a resume of the information you will find online.

More information for potential partners

For media and other companies or organisations wanting to enter into cooperation with afrol News, we hope these key data have answered some questions. Independent African media wanting to enter a news exchange cooperation with afrol News (and other media) can find more information on this page. For any other possible cooperation or project, please send us an e-mail to mail@afrol.com.

We hope these key data about afrol News increased your interest in our media and wish to welcome you as a business partner or advertiser within short.

Kindest regards,
Rainer Chr Hennig
chief editor