How Alec Hogg's 45 years in journalism culminated in BizNews and its loyal "tribe"
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This interview was livestreamed on Conscious Caracal on 11 September 2026. Find Ernst van Zyl's Conscious Caracal Podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/@UCeNFLCUJ2lM1S_H32ICVs4w
Before BizNews, there was a bank job Alec Hogg quit within three years, a company called Moneyweb he built from a room above his garage and then lost control of, and a High Court letter that convinced him to start all over again rather than retire. In this conversation with Ernst van Zyl, Hogg walked through the full history: the SABC newsroom he ran the year Nelson Mandela was released, the corporate takeover that pushed his stake in his own company down to 18 percent, the year of gardening leave that turned into a second startup, and the decision to own almost all of BizNews himself this time. He also covered what BizNews has become since 2013: a newsroom that moved from Bryanston to Hermanus, a YouTube and podcast audience of around a million people a month, and two annual conferences that now sell out within weeks of opening.
Before BizNews, there was a bank job Alec Hogg quit within three years, a company called Moneyweb he built from a room above his garage and then lost control of, and a High Court letter that convinced him to start all over again rather than retire. In this conversation with Ernst van Zyl, Hogg walked through the full history: the SABC newsroom he ran the year Nelson Mandela was released, the corporate takeover that pushed his stake in his own company down to 18 percent, the year of gardening leave that turned into a second startup, and the decision to own almost all of BizNews himself this time. He also covered what BizNews has become since 2013: a newsroom that moved from Bryanston to Hermanus, a YouTube and podcast audience of around a million people a month, and two annual conferences that now sell out within weeks of opening.
