When Eleanor Douglas-Meyers lost access to the social media audience she had spent years building, she could have simply started again.
Instead, she built something bigger.
The Gqeberha-based journalist, published author, digital content specialist and former award-winning blogger is the founder and Managing Editor of 041Online, an independent digital magazine telling the stories of Nelson Mandela Bay and the people who call it home.
For Douglas-Meyers, storytelling has been the thread connecting a career that has taken her from traditional newsrooms to bookshelves, blogs, digital marketing and, eventually, her own publication.
“I studied journalism because I wanted to tell stories. The platforms have changed dramatically since then, but that part hasn’t.”
From journalism to books and blogging
Douglas-Meyers trained in print and broadcast journalism and went on to work across newsrooms, newspapers, magazines and websites.
Her love of writing also took her into fiction, becoming a published novelist, while online she built another audience under the name JustEllaBella.
As part of South Africa’s early blogging community, she wrote about fashion, beauty, motherhood and everyday life, earning blogging awards and opportunities that included magazine and television appearances and brand collaborations.
Then her social media accounts were hacked.
She lost access to thousands of followers and an audience she had spent years cultivating.
“It was devastating, but it also changed the way I thought about building something online,” she says. “You don’t own a social media platform. I wanted to create something that had a life beyond an Instagram account.”
That something became 041Online.
Putting the Bay at the centre
Named after Nelson Mandela Bay’s 041 dialling code, the digital publication covers local personalities, business, lifestyle, entertainment, events, sport, motoring and community stories.
At its heart is a simple idea: local people shouldn’t have to leave their hometown before their stories are considered worth telling.
“There are incredible people doing incredible things here, but so often you only hear about them once they’ve made it somewhere else,” Douglas-Meyers says.
“I wanted to create a platform where being from Nelson Mandela Bay was enough reason for us to pay attention.”
That philosophy is particularly visible in 041Online’s People of the Bay series, while the publication itself was recognised with a community journalism award during its first year.
Storytelling, just on different platforms
Today, Douglas-Meyers moves between roles as editor, journalist, author, digital strategist and entrepreneur.
Alongside 041Online, she runs Kismet Media, working across websites, content and social media, while continuing to work professionally in digital content.
She sees those roles less as separate careers and more as different expressions of the same one.
“Journalism taught me to find the story. Writing books taught me how to stay with one. Blogging taught me how to build a community, and marketing taught me how to get that story in front of people,” she says.
It is also the thinking behind 041Online, where a single interview can become a written feature, short-form video and conversation across multiple social platforms.
“I think we’re sometimes taught that a career should make perfect sense when you look at it on paper,” Douglas-Meyers says. “Mine probably hasn’t always done that, but every strange turn has given me a skill I use now.”
Perhaps that is what makes her journey fitting.
A journalist who became an author, a blogger who became a digital strategist, and a woman who lost the online platform built around herself only to create another dedicated to telling other people’s stories.
“I still love magazines. I still love a beautifully written feature. I still love writing books. I still believe people want good stories,” she says.
“The format might change, but for me it has always come back to storytelling.”
