Washington, DC — AllAfrica Global Media founders, Reed Kramer and Tamela Hultman, have been selected by the Africa America Institute (AAI) to receive the prestigious AAI Award of Special Recognition for Lifetime Achievement in Media. The D.C. based media executives will be presented their award at AAI's 17th annual awards dinner, New York's largest annual event focused on Africa, on November 13, 2001 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.
Established in 1953, AAI is a non-profit, multi-racial, multi-ethnic organization whose mission is to promote African development, primarily through education and training. AAI is headquartered in New York with offices in Washington, D.C., and a presence in 19 African countries.
In selecting Kramer and Hultman, AAI President Mora McLean noted the exemplary and often unheralded work of the husband and wife team, who have been making the case for increased media coverage of Africa for more than 30 years.
Kramer and Hultman serve as the Chief Executive and Chief Strategy Officers, respectively, of AllAfrica Global Media, a multi-media service provider, systems technology developer and the largest distributor of African news and information worldwide. Headquartered in Washington, DC, the company serves clients, including Comtex News Network, Lexis Nexis, Bloomberg, Reuters Business Briefings, Financial Times and AvantGo, with over 500 stories daily in English and French, from its own award-winning reporters and from over 90 African news organizations. AllAfrica's web site, allAfrica.com, is the leading Africa destination on the Internet, serving a user base, which has this year topped 8 million monthly page views.
Prior to founding AllAfrica, Kramer and Hultman operated Africa News Service (ANS), a non-profit U.S.-based agency that was created to generate public and policy attention to the least-covered continent. ANS produced award-winning news and information for broadcast and print media. ANS was an early adopter of communications technologies, including, in 1994, Africa News Online, the first Africa-related online information source, which pioneered a cost-effective content aggregation partnership with news organizations throughout Africa. As a result of the success of its online effort and to further develop the initiative, AllAfrica was created in February 2000.
Kramer and Hultman have also led distinguished journalism careers, reporting regularly for the Washington Post, National Public Radio and the BBC. They have also served as news consultants and on-air guests for CNN, the "Today" show, Court TV and NewsHour on public television.
At this year's dinner, other AAI honorees will include President John Agyekum Kufuor of Ghana and President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, on behalf of the peoples of Ghana and Senegal. The Institute will also honor Dr. Mathilde Krim, founder of the American Foundation of AIDS Research, with the AAI Award for Individual Initiative, commemorating her 20 years of leadership in the battle against AIDS; Rosa Whitaker, the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Africa -- the first in U.S. history -- for her successful efforts to focus U.S. trade policy on Africa; and Kenneth Walker, a veteran journalist who is currently National Public Radio's Africa bureau chief.
