Russell Southwood worked for The Leveller before founding the Publications Distribution Cooperative. He then became one of the four founding members of Comedia, where he co-authored the influential 1985 book What a Way to Run a Railroad.

He founded Balancing Act Africa in 2000, which became “the primary source for information on the telecoms, Internet and audio-visual media industries in Africa”. In 2012 he founded SmartMonkey TV, which he continues to run.