How To Build Sustainable Media Business In Africa — ICIR Panelists

Media organisations have been enjoined to leverage the power of collaboration with local and international platforms to create the desired impact for change in Africa.

The suggestion was made during a media gathering for the 10-year anniversary of the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja on Wednesday.

The ICIR in commemoration of the event, organised a conference on ‘Media Sustainability in Nigeria,’ to dissect the existential challenges facing both legacy and digital media in the country.

The event had as keynote speaker, Bongani Siqoko, Chairman, Arena Holdings, South Africa, who was represented by Tshepo Mahloele.

A communique issued at the end of the event highlighted ways through which the media business can thrive in the era of evolving technologies, calling on the media to join tables where conversations on global investigations such as Wikileaks, Panama Papers and so on happen.

Panelists at the event resolved that media organisations must not be seen as purchasers of global content but must take their places as generators of global content.

The communique read: “Building a sustainable media business is associated with being purpose-driven, therefore, media organizations, like other business concerns, must clearly define their purposes, from which they must come up with definite strategies for growth, development and sustainability models.

“Naturally, media organisations should be change agents in the society, therefore, media platforms must establish themselves as being relevant to the development of the society, else they will not attract patronage.

“Media organisations must deliberately ensure that their staff are competent and be able to deliver on the jobs in the best and competitive standard.

“Media organisations must emphasize excellence, openness, integrity, transparency, accountability, and must invest in exclusive and investigative content in order to survive in the hostile business environment.

“To become commercially viable, media owners must invest in news gathering and effectively fund journalists to do good stories. Journalists must not shy away from holding the government accountable, as that is one of the ways media could become relevant as the Fourth Estate of the Realm.

“Editors and media owners should become crusaders for media freedom and this starts by reassuring journalists that the integrity of the media will never be allowed to be tampered with.

“The independence of the media must as such be held sacrosanct, most importantly by editors and media owners. He called on African media owners and editors to stay vigilant and ensure that the voice of the media is not stifled.

“The media, in view of sustainability discourse, needs to explore new content generation opportunities and must be ready to diversify into areas where they have core competence, by coming up with products like music, movies, documentaries as well as other educational and entertainment concepts.

“The media needs to leverage the power of collaboration. At tables where conversations on global investigations e.g Wikileaks, Panama Papers and so on happens, African media must collaborate and ensure it is ably represented. African media must not be seen as purchasers of global content but must take its place as generators of global content.

“In thinking about media sustainability, African media must transit beyond news generation into knowledge generation, as part of its drives for diversification and sustainability.

“The media needs to address the challenge of trust deficit, as sub-standard news contents, misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information have threatened the confidence of the people in the media.

“The media should engage with media regulators on the need to re-evaluate the punitive approach to media regulations. It is believed that a closer working relationship with the regulators is important while encouraging them to see the media as partners in progress.

“In order to improve the business environment and enable the media to thrive, the media must draw the attention of the government to the challenges of infrastructure deficit, like the lack of electricity, insecurity apparatus, and bad road network, etc, to ensure they are addressed.

The ICIR is an independent, non-profit news agency that promotes transparency and accountability through robust and objective investigative reporting.

Its mission is to use excellent, investigative journalism to promote good governance by building a culture of critical reporting in the media.