Experts task media houses to broaden revenue sources

Media houses in East Africa have been urged to look for other alternative revenue sources instead of reliance on traditional advertising.

According to researchers, traditional advertising is shrinking and can no longer sustain operations of media houses.

This was revealed during the launch of the report dubbed ‘The State of Innovation and Media Viability in East Africa Research Project’ in Kampala yesterday. 

The research was conducted by DW Academy together with Media Challenge Initiative (MCI) and Aga Khan University between September 2020 and August 2021.

According to Ms Rose Kimani, the lead researcher from DW Academy, report findings indicate that most media houses in East Africa have failed to sustain their work force because of limited revenue collection.

According to the report, most media houses across the region over rely on commercial advertising followed by sponsored content and government funding yet they are not sustainable.

“There over reliance on commercial advertising as a key source of revenue yet the advertising base is smaller than the number of media houses because they are growing every day,” she said.

Ms Kimani urged that media houses to start thinking on alternative revenue sources such as grants, sponsored content, subscription and crowd funding to support their operations.

“We have found out that even new media houses are still thinking in the old way of depending on advertising and it’s a big problem because they are not thinking innovatively even though they are new in the industry,” she said.

Mr Moses Wetasa, the commissioner-in-charge of communications at the Ministry of ICT,  suggested that media houses begin operating like hubs where there is sharing of content, equipment and production. 

“As government, we encourage media to consider working together, including mergers, because we have realised that upcountry media houses fail to hire professional journalists, which also reflects in quality of journalism we have in the country,” he said.

The commissioner explained that for print media, there can be sharing of printing facilities and office space so as to reduce operating costs.

Mr Wetasa noted that under the Information and Communication Bill, 2022, currently under review, they want to clearly define who should be a journalist so as to bring order in the profession.

At the same event, about 100 journalists from across the region participated in the East Africa Storytelling Festival under the theme, ‘Local change, Global Impact: Building Informed and Thriving Communities through Journalism.’

The festival brought together media experts, journalists and analysts to discuss future of journalism. 

Methodology

During the research, 273 media managers and 814 journalists were contacted.

The key areas of focus in the research were on newsroom structure, ownership/ business model, organisational structure, financial performance and revenue models, and innovation culture, among others.