During a panel session moderated by PREMIUM TIMES' Editor-in-Chief Muskilu Mojeed, experts, including publishers and media managers, said funding an accountability platform that holds power to account is a difficult path to tread.
To end the second day of the West African Journalism Innovation Conference (WAJIC 2023), experts have again appraised accountability journalism and media sustainability.
For years, the discussions around sustainable revenue models in the media have dominated conversations, and it was no different at WAJIC 2023.
During a panel session moderated by PREMIUM TIMES' Editor-in-Chief Muskilu Mojeed, experts, including publishers and media managers, said funding an accountability platform that holds power to account is a difficult path to tread.
The panellists included Frank Aigbogun, the Publisher of Business Day; Okewale Sonaiya, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Women Radio; and Fran Scarlett, Principal of Scarlett Ink Media.
Others are; Rosemary Egabor-Afolahan, Head of Commercial, News Central TV; Mohammed Ali, Deputy Director, News Operation, Nigerian Television Authority (NTA); and Deji Adekunle, Programme Director, Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF).
Funding challenge
Mr Mojeed shared his experience on how an accountability platform he worked for between 2008 and 2011, Next234, went defunct.
Managing PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Mojeed said there are instances where a story about an advertiser or their ally would lead to the withdrawal of an advertisement partnership.
"There have been times when we sign business partnerships with people, and then we write about them the next day, and they call off the advertising," he said. "So, that has happened over and over again."
Another panellist, Ms Egabor-Afolahan of News Central TV, narrated how a 24-hour television she worked for went defunct in two years due to its insistence on practising accountability journalism.
Mrs Sonaiya said accountability journalism is expensive and dying, adding that it needs to be saved urgently.
"Accountability journalism, in my opinion, is dying," she said. "It is suffering, and I hope somebody somewhere will be able to invest and put in money for us to support people who go out to do the work."
Articulating problems
On his part, Mr Adekunle said the inability of media owners to articulate the problems remains the crux of the issue.
He said many founders do not, at inception, understand the challenge before them, not to talk of how to solve them.
"Many people say there is a dearth of reporting in an area, and then they get a team together -some people are so passionate they start doing it themselves, and they start reporting," he said. "However, by the time they want to expand on that and pay the salary, it becomes a problem."
He said platforms need to start looking at journalism first of all as a media product.
He added that journalism has been slow to innovate around the information echo system it found itself.
"If we articulate and spell out all our risks, do our source analysis, and we look at the environment, we would know that some people will take advertising from us, they will criticise the work we do, and that some people will even use the same media to combat the accountability work that we do. These are clear and real risks that we know and have to prepare for," he said.
According to him, the eco-system is constantly changing from the monopoly of publishing to the internet age and now to artificial intelligence.
He said: "You have to continue to change, roll out products, build your audiences and tackle your revenue deliberately. Whether it is donor-funded or advertising. You have to create your way of tackling the problem in front of you as a media organisation."
Long-term over short-term gains
Ms Afolahan, however, explained that investors need to see investing in the media as a long-term investment that needs constant funding before yielding a return on investments (ROI).
"They (media investors) need to understand that if you are going to do this, they need to understand that it's going to take a long time for you to break even. Not to even talk about making a profit. It's going to take about 10 years," she said.
According to her, having investors who understand the ecosystem would reduce the rate at which media startups go defunct due to a lack of funding.
"I think one of the solutions is that we need more media investors that understand the media, that understand accountability journalism. And then if they're coming to invest in your business, they know that it is long term, so that after two to three years, people like us that are heads of commercials are not hitting our heads on the wall because we need to give them a return on investment," she added.
Also speaking, Mr Aigbogun said media platforms need good managers who would adopt good business models to sustain the revenue base of the organisations.
"I don't think it is good to think or suggest that a bank should be better managed than any media organisation," he said. "They both demand and deserve top-level management. You need to have good management and a good business model...You need to be sure that your organisation is being managed properly."
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He added that media platforms need to look inward beyond advertisement and philanthropist funding, which he said is unsustainable.
He suggests that media platforms include reader-centric revenues to their revenue based either as an alternative or as complementary to their existing revenues.
"Even if you were to concentrate on philanthropist funding, my experience has been that many of the foundations don't fund you forever," he said.
WAJIC 2023
The maiden edition of the West African Journalism Innovation Conference (WAJIC 2023) was held for three days, from 24 to 26 July. It began with an Art Exhibition and Fundraiser for Journalists' Psychosocial Support #Safe4Press.
The second and third day features multiple panel sessions with speakers worldwide.
The conference also drew over 400 in-person participants from different West African countries.
Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe
