Kerry Bundy Palmer

I have spent nearly two decades in South African newsrooms — starting out covering school sport for The Star and working my way up through sub-editing, production, and regional editing to my current role as National Sports Editor at Independent Media. That progression wasn't linear — it involved running production hubs, reporting at regional and national levels, acting as news and sports editor across multiple titles, and figuring out how to keep quality high when deadlines are brutal. Right now, my focus is on the national editorial picture: keeping sports coverage consistent across Independent Media's print and digital portfolio, curating content for IOL.co.za, reporting on breaking stories and leading the editorial and social media direction for The Clutch, our YouTube sports channel.

The shift from print-first to video-first has been the defining challenge of the past few years, and it's one I've found genuinely interesting to work through.

National Sports Editor & Coordinator at Independent Media (2024-12 – Present)

• Set the sports editorial direction across Independent Media's national titles, deciding what gets covered, how it gets framed, and which platforms get priority.
• Manage the flow of sports copy to IOL.co.za — not just volume, but relevance and reader engagement, with real-time judgement calls on what the audience wants to read.
• Co-ordinate across the Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg hubs — different audiences, different editorial cultures, same deadline pressure.
• First point of contact for national federations, rights holders, and commercial partners — as much relationship maintenance as editorial work.

Social Media Editor: The Clutch (YouTube) at Independent Media (2024-12 – Present)

• Running the editorial and social strategy for The Clutch, Independent Media's dedicated sports YouTube channel.
• Built a video-first workflow alongside reporters trained for text — the integration between the written product and channel content is still being actively developed.

Sports Editor – Gauteng at Independent Media (2018-09 – 2024-11)

• Ran the day-to-day editorial operation for The Star and Pretoria News sports desks, with syndicated content feeding Cape Times, Cape Argus, The Mercury, and Daily News.
• Covered international rugby, cricket, football, and netball directly; filed match reports, analysis, and opinion; maintained a weekly Op-Ed column in The Star.
• Kept production on track: page layout, final proofing, sign-off across multiple titles and six years of print deadlines.
• Brought through several junior journalists and sub-editors who have since moved into senior roles at Independent Media and elsewhere.
• Acted as Sports Editor for the Saturday Star and Sunday Independent during extended leave periods.

Sports Production Editor at Independent Gauteng (2014-06 – 2018-08)

• Chief Sport Sub-editor and Senior Layout Editor for The Star and Pretoria News — responsible for the quality and look of the sports section, start to finish.
• Worked closely with sports reporters on story selection and angles beyond page design to the editorial thinking behind it.
• Supervised production staff and co-ordinated with group production hubs to hit nightly deadlines across multiple editions.
• Produced government and commercial supplements freelance during this period: Sport, Science & Technology, and Labour departments, among others.
• Trained several interns in sub-editing and layout.

Earlier Roles at Various (2006 – 2014)

Production Editor at The Star Africa; Chief Sports Sub-editor at Independent Gauteng; Senior Sports Sub-editor across The Star, Saturday Star, Sunday Independent and Shoot; Junior Layout Editor; and freelance sports reporter for The Star. Full details available on request.

BA Honours in Journalism in Journalism – University of the Witwatersrand (2016)