What is Adamela?
Our journalists shine a light on the world. We handle the paperwork.
Our programmes include fellowships, specialist reporting hubs, freelancer funds and even full-fledged publications. These undertakings may differ from one another in form, but in order to succeed on their own terms, they require administrative support that is outside the traditional scope of for-profit newsrooms.
Adamela was created to bridge this divide, combining the services of a fiscal agent - payroll, bookkeeping, audited financials, fiscal accountability and regulatory adherence - with project management, operational support and budgetary oversight and engagement.
Crucially, Adamela was set up in order to guarantee to funders, programme managers and beneficiaries that their funds would be ring-fenced, managed and reported with transparency and up-to-the-minute reporting that is not always possible for newsrooms operated by for-profit media companies, whose commercial imperatives and constraints oblige them to follow a more corporate organisational rhythm.
Notably, Adamela's services are provided by experienced journalists and newsroom managers who understand both the technical requirements of the funders and the operational needs of the journalists - whose ethos and ethics they not only support but fundamentally share.
In practice, this means meticulous alignment of budget and spending to satisfy funders and auditors; up-to-the-minute operational reports for programme directors; stable and reliable salary and HR support for project staff; production capacity development and problem-solving for its projects; and - perhaps mundanely but in truth integral to its mission to support journalists - fast and efficient turnarounds for freelancer payments, not just in South Africa but across the African continent and, indeed, the world.
Adamela also specialises in creating bespoke tools for running individual journalism projects that allow us to do more with less, and for less, in financial terms. These have included production diary planners, budgeting tools, invoicing solutions for freelancers, and dashboards for admin, programme directors, funders and for the governance exercised by its board of trustees.