In profile: Akosua Annobil-Dodoo

by Akilah Russell

"This is so weird for me, I am so used to being on the other side of the dictaphone,’’ says experienced journalist and LCP HND journalism graduate – Akosua Annobil-Dodoo.

She carefully takes a seat to begin the interview and after a few minutes fiddling with her laptop, phones,  and other miscellaneous journalist paraphenalia, she announces freely: ‘‘I am ready!"

Annobil-Dodoo, 28, graduated from London College of Printing, now the London College of Communication, in 2001, priding herself on her ‘‘fantastic education’’ she admits: ‘‘Of course I am glad I went to LCP, I learned so much and it is well recognised within the industry. They know if you went to the LCP you got proper training – because they went there too.’’

Now more than ten years into her career as a print journalist, Annobil-dodoo has taken what she admits to be a ‘‘big risk,’’ and lauched an online career with her website www.overgroundonline.com.

Although a self-confessed print lover she believes that online journalism has begun to ‘‘takeover print’’. Another glance at her laptop and she smiles to herself: ‘‘I credit the LCP I think my year was the first year to get taught about online, which was so crucial to me. We learnt the ins and outs of it all, and I guess it stuck,’’ she laughs.

In fact, Annobil-Dodoo credits the LCP for a lot of her success, while reminiscing about her own experiences at the college: ‘‘All the things I learned there were, and are still, so important to me. Nearly everything you’re taught is completely relevant and necessary even Teeline,’’ she insists.

Like a master scolding their apprentice, she laughs, but still drives home the message one more time to make sure I have understood: ‘‘Go to every lesson, it is important.’’

She continues by saying: ‘‘Everything I have done in different fields, no matter what, it comes back down to journalism. Journalism is at the root of everything I do.’’

However, she is adamant that the launch of the website was a natural progression rather than a calculated one: ‘‘I am a print lover, and I don’t think it will ever go away. But for me, it is about where the people are, and they are on the Internet more than ever.’’  

She becomes slightly more serious as she looks down at her notes, and looks back up through her glasses, clearly with something she wants to get off of her chest: ‘‘The thing is African-Caribbean people are some of the most internet savvy people out there. I truly believe that newspapers like The Voice and the New Nation [two of the biggest African-Caribbean newspapers in the UK] were very slow in picking upon that. African-Caribbean people are not solely my target audience, but they should not be ignored.’’

Journalism first steps

First involved in publishing at the tender age of 14, Annobil-Dodoo’s approach to journalism proves that the early bird does indeed get the worm: ‘‘I started work experience from a quite young age on my local paper, The East End Lite. Once I had the taste of journalism, I literally just called up and harassed everybody that I knew and ended up getting work experience on The Financial Times, and then The Sunday Times as a sub editor – all this and I was still only in my early teens,’’ she says.

‘‘My grandfather was a journalist in the UK and Ghana [so] I think it is in the blood.’’ she adds. On leaving college Annobil-Dodoo established herself as a credible journalist by captivating people with her weekly column The Gist in the New Nation newspaper.

She also had her own radio show on Choice FM, presented for BET UK, and freelanced on African-Caribbean issues for The Observer, before moving on to her latest endeavour; becoming the co-founder and editor of overgroundonline.com. The online newspaper aims to: ‘‘discover, nurture and promote new talent.’’

Overgroundonline began as an events company in 2004, alongside her public relations and communications business Fine Media, working as a: “Bridge between the urban underground music scene and mainstream media.”
Last year, however, Annobil-Dodoo took the big leap and decided to turn it into a full time blog and then expanded it into the idea of the online newspaper.

She explains: ‘‘We decided to divide the site into sections, so it is different to your average blog. I call it an online newspaper because of the quality and diversity of the content, but it has a twist with the videos and audio uploads.”

The new venture meant that she would have to leave her ‘‘glitz and glamour’’ career of working for all the big names behind: ‘‘Getting it all off the ground was a lot of hard work and a lot of sacrifice. It is not a joke. It took so much patience, and focus to get it to where it is today,’’ she said.

One year on, she admits with a grin that the ‘‘long, hard slog" was definitely worth it in the end, as she reveals that the site’s unique user traffic has gone up by at least 20 per cent each month since its September 2008 launch.

It is clear that her ambition and vision to have "something for all British adults’’ is a goal that she has taken thoroughly into her grasp. The straightforward layout of each section allows options for the clicker-happy, without making it too far removed from the simplistic style of the traditional newspaper.

Never one to think small, Annobil-Dodoo speaks excitedly about future plans for the ever-growing site: ‘‘This year was like a pilot. For 2010 we are revamping, developing and expanding.’’

When asked about the secret to her success, she smiles at the flattery of the question, pushes away her laptop and says modestly: ‘‘It is all about having focus…that is the secret. In ten years I will be planning the next ten years that’s just how I roll.”