About us
experience
Established broadcast journalists Daniëlla van Heerden and Mia Spies co-founded Direct Media Training in 2020. They boast some 25 years’ experience in South African media combined. The pair’s award-winning work spans TV and radio, print, online and digital news. News insiders Daniëlla and Mia know what it takes to communicate strategically, from developing a powerful message to interviewing like a pro.
Direct Media Training is the best way to gain first-hand insight into “the media mind” of newsrooms in order to target your communications and guarantee coverage. Daniëlla and Mia know what reporters look for in an expert and will show you how to offer it. Direct Media Training will partner with you in creating and driving a standout message that grabs an editor’s attention and ensures audiences listen.
Meet the team
Daniëlla van Heerden
…is a well-known author, journalist and news anchor based in Johannesburg. She is a leading anchor who reads primetime eNuus bulletins on KykNET. Daniëlla holds two degrees cum laude. In 2006 she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communications from North West University. In 2007 she was awarded a Media24 scholarship to study honours in journalism at Stellenbosch University.
On completing her studies, Daniëlla joined Beeld newspaper and was named Young Journalist of the Year in 2009. Daniëlla advanced to TV as a field reporter for eNuus when it launched on KykNET as South Africa’s first independent Afrikaans news bulletin.
Daniëlla’s work has earned her several distinctions, including the National Press Club TV News Journalist of the Year award in 2013 and 2014. Her report on an attempted land speed record in the Kalahari Desert won an ATKV Media Veertjie Award for best TV insert.
Not only does Daniëlla have experience as a freelance magazine writer and fiction author, her several years as a part-time media lecturer have refined her coaching skills. She is an engaging trainer one-on-one and in group settings.
Mia Spies
…is an award-winning freelance journalist in Cape Town. Her passion for telling stories is especially strong when it comes to the environment and social justice. Mia works as a multimedia reporter on the current affairs show KykNET Verslag. She is an Eyewitness News (EWN) anchor and producer for Cape Talk. Mia is the creator of a weekly news podcast, Nuus met Spies, which she produces and hosts.
She began her broadcast career in 2012 as an EWN news anchor and reporter. Mia naturally progressed to TV. She joined KykNET Verslag in 2015 as a multimedia reporter. In 2017 she moved to Johannesburg and became a field reporter for eNuus and eNCA. She next distinguished herself as a news anchor.
In-depth coverage of the Vaal River pollution crisis won Mia an ATKV Media Veertjie Award for best TV insert in 2019. She qualified with a bachelor’s degree in languages and journalism from the University of Pretoria in 2010. She holds honours degree in journalism from Stellenbosch University, where she then obtained a master’s degree and now lectures broadcast journalism.
