Alec Hogg is one of South Africa’s Internet publishing pioneers, having started the country’s first online business publication, Moneyweb, in 1996 in an office above his garage.
Before his foray into online journalism, Hogg worked as a business journalist at some of South Africa’s top publications.
He started his career in 1980 as a trainee financial journalist at The Citizen newspaper, which gave him a good grounding in the media field.
Hogg quickly rose through the ranks and held senior positions at many of South Africa’s national newspapers and magazines.
He launched his first business, a financial news agency, in 1988 and started an unsuccessful horse racing newspaper.
After this failed endeavour, he returned to the media space in 1992, first as economics editor and subsequently head of news input at SABC Television News.
He joined the corporate world soon after, where he served in executive management at Absa Bank for two and a half years.
However, his entrepreneurial spirit remained strong, and in 1996, he launched the Internet publishing company Moneyweb Holdings.
It started as a one-man show above his garage at home. However, it quickly became a must-read among South Africa’s business sector and enjoyed strong growth.
Moneyweb’s rapid growth led to its listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in July 1999, at the height of the Internet boom.
Hogg ran the business as chief executive for fourteen years, during which he introduced business radio to South Africa.
Through his radio shows, Hogg delivered a revenue stream that funded the development of Moneyweb’s online operations.
Between 2010 and 2011, he took a break and decided to farm horses in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands — a part of his family tradition.
He returned to Moneyweb as CEO in April 2012. However, seven months later, a dispute with the company’s controlling shareholder, Caxton, led to his departure.
When Hogg left the business, Moneyweb was the only survivor of more than a dozen initial Internet listings, was debt-free, and had R25 million in cash resources.
Apart from being an online pioneer and building an excellent business, Hogg trained many of South Africa’s top business journalists.
They include Bruce Whitfield, Byron Kennedy, Belinda Anderson, Hilton Tarrant, Ana Monteiro, and James Myburgh.
Hogg’s second rodeo – Biznews
On 4 August 2023, Hogg launched BizNews.com. His nephew, a marine biologist, was the webmaster and his wife, Jeanette, handled many parts of the business.
Just like Moneyweb, BizNews became a big success. Within ten years, 700,000 people a month watch videos on the BizNewsTV channel and 500,000 people read articles on the website.
Hogg has also created the successful annual BizNews conference, which attracts over 500 delegates from around the country.
The BizNews conferences, hosted in Hermanus, featured the who’s who in South Africa’s business and political arenas.
Previous speakers include Paul Mashatile, Helen Zille, RW Johnson, WeBuyCars founder Faan van der Walt, Pick n Pay CEO Sean Summers, Magnus Heystek, Kokkie Kooyman, and Gayton McKenzie.
BizNews has a particularly strong digital video presence. Its YouTube channel has 262,000 subscribers, and many of Hogg’s interviews have received over 500,000 views.
He views online video as the next growth area for online media. “You can reach far more people through YouTube than through a website,” he said.
“I currently see news websites in the same way as I saw newspapers in the nineties. People don’t read any more.”
He now spends most of his time focusing on podcast interviews and videos, and it is producing exceptional results.
Over 1 million people watch BizNews videos each month, and the platform has garnered over 82 million views since its launch.
BizNews has given Hogg, who is widely viewed as one of South Africa’s premier business journalists and podcast hosts, a big voice in the country.
Despite having worked in the field for 45 years, he remains enthusiastic about his work and the growth of his company.
“I have been able to apply my knowledge of digital publishing and business journalism to the Biznews venture,” he told MorningShot.
“Every day I wake up, I am as excited to do what I do as I was that very first day in 1980 as a trainee financial journalist.”
Alec Hogg’s awards and achievements
In July 2013, Alec Hogg’s contribution to his industry was honoured by the Sanlam Financial Journalism competition, presenting him with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
This came 30 years after the 23-year-old Hogg became the youngest overall winner of the Financial Journalist of the Year Award, a record that still stands.
While at Moneyweb, his programme, Moneyweb Power Hour, won the prestigious Vodacom Journalist of the Year award.
Hogg and the Moneyweb Power Hour dominated the industry, earning numerous accolades at the Sanlam Radio Awards and the Citadel Radio Awards.
He serves his community through Scouting. He is a board member of South African Scouting, the governing body for the country’s Boy and Girl Scouts.
As a schoolboy, he was a devoted Scout, representing his country at the World Scout Jamboree in Norway in 1975.
A South African citizen, Hogg travels widely, including annual trips to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway AGM in Omaha, USA.
Alec Hogg’s impact on South Africa’s business journalism sector is unmatched. It spans digital, print, and radio, and he continues to break barriers in the field.
Photos of Alec Hogg
Annual Biznews Conference
