ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY IMPALA CELEBRATES THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF JULIANA KORANTENG
Brussels, 8th March 2023
This year, IMPALA dedicates International Women’s Day to Juliana Koranteng, journalist and media specialist, a prominent voice in the music sector who sadly passed away last month after a short illness.
During her career, Juliana made her mark in the music sector by reporting on huge range of international issues and as founder and editor of UK-based B2B content media agency JayKay Media Inc. Her journalism covered many topics relating to investment in the creative industries and media technologies. She provided regular contributions to media outlets such as Billboard magazine and Boutique Edition’s MIPTV, MIDEM, MIPCOM as well as Cannes Lions news magazines.
At IMPALA, we got to know Juliana not only as a journalist, but also as a diversity advisor, as well as curator and host of the podcast series launched for our 20th year anniversary, 20MinutesWith. Juliana interviewed over 30 key players in the independent music sector to shine a light on the people that drive the sector and projects inspiring change.
Helen Smith, Executive Chair, IMPALA fondly remembers Juliana “We remember Juliana’s big smile, infectious laugh and searching questions as an inspiration to all of us. Juliana had always been a strong advocate for equity and championed the principle behind the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day – embrace equity”.
In IMPALA’s podcast interviewing Juliana, she talked about her career, and work on the 20MinutesWith podcast series. She also discussed her experience working with independent music sector executives during the pandemic context and what she learnt from making IMPALA’s podcast series. Juliana also flagged her future projects and shared what is on her playlist. Click here to listen to Juliana’s interview.
The aim of this year’s International Women’s Day 2023 #EmbraceEquity campaign theme is to get the world talking about Why equal opportunities aren’t enough. People start from different places, so true inclusion and belonging require equitable action. Read more about this here.
More about IMPALA
IMPALA was established in 2000 and now represents nearly 6000 independent music companies. 99% of Europe’s music companies are small, micro and medium businesses and self-releasing artists. Known as the independents, they are world leaders in terms of innovation and discovering new music and artists – they produce more than 80% of all new releases and account for 80% of the sector’s jobs. IMPALA’s mission is to grow the independent music sector sustainably, return more value to artists, promote diversity and entrepreneurship, improve political access, inspire change, and increase access to finance. IMPALA works on a range of key issues for its members, runs various award schemes and has a programme aimed at businesses who want to develop a strategic relationship with the independent sector – Friends of IMPALA.