Paddi Clay is Head of the Journalism Training Programme at the Times Media Group in South Africa and is involved in a variety of digital and development projects in the company. She has been in journalism for 37 years and has worked in print, television, radio
and online as journalist, manager and consultant. She has an MA
in Journalism Leadership, from the University of Central Lancashire
in the United Kingdom. After graduating from the University Of Cape Town, South Africa with a BA in 1975, she trained as a journalist through the cadet programme of South Africa Associated Newspapers. She was part of the launch news team at the first independent radio station in South Africa, Capital Radio, in 1979 and went on to be a news correspondent for foreign radio
networks, including the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, covering southern African news and the release of Nelson Mandela. She assisted in the transformation of the public broadcaster, South African Broadcasting Company, and was involved in the turnaround and startup of numerous radio newsrooms when the commercial radio landscape was opened up in 1991. She has been a manager, trainer lecturer and consultant in radio and news reporting since 1990. Since 2001 she has headed the editorial training programme of one of South Africa’s leading newspaper groups and played an editorial management role in its flagship website. She won Columnist of the Year award in 2007 and is a long-standing member of the council of the South African National Editors Forum.