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During the COVID-19 pandemic, Nigeria’s media plunged into a currency crisis. Many newsrooms across the country have laid off their journalists or reduced the length of their print editions, while others have cut salaries or stopped publishing altogether.
These are just a few of the many challenging situations affecting the media in Nigeria today. ” Many other people no longer buy paper newspapers, which means that print media sponsorship has declined. This is because other people have migrated to virtual media,” said Lekan Otufodunrin, editor-in-chief of the Media Career Development Network.
With the aim of helping Nigerian newsrooms develop their editorial independence and monetary viability, the MacArthur Foundation’s Media Development Investment Fund founded the Nigerian Media Innovation Program (NAMIP) in February 2022.
NAMIP is a multi-year initiative that provides funding, specialized mentoring and technical assistance to newsrooms. This is done through product progression workshops, networking calls and mentoring, said Deji Adekunle, NAMIP program director.
The initiative has “encouraged experimentation with new business models and products,” Adekunle noted: “Ours is helping newsrooms diversify their profit streams, expand monetary strategies, and decrease their reliance on a single source. “
To help newsrooms move toward their goals, a NAMIP trainer conducts regular visits to newsrooms for implementation. The program also hosts a monthly network call to talk about issues affecting media organizations and review their activities.
For Haruna Mohammed Salisu, monetary sustainability wasn’t an immediate priority when he founded WikkiTimes in 2018.
Salisu took on many of the responsibilities when he started working in the newsroom, he recalls. He raised money to pay the site’s editors and struggled to raise money to pay for domain names and hosting packages.
“[Initially] we strongly believed that public service journalism deserves to be supported financially through nonprofits. This stance is rooted in the popularity of significant and demanding situations that newsrooms, especially in emerging countries, face in maintaining robust research. journalism and at the same time rely heavily on advertising profits as the main source of profit,” Salisu said.
Participation in NAMIP helped challenge this for his editorial staff, as it prompted him to explore different sources of profit to ensure sustainability. The program helped Salisu realize that journalism can thrive as a business while firmly maintaining its core project of keeping journalism current. to the account.
NAMIP’s strategic role in aiding WikkiTimes’ monetary independence has been paramount to its editorial independence. “Without monetary autonomy, editorial decisions can be subject to external pressures or influences, compromising the integrity of the journalism produced,” Salisu said.
Abdullateef Jos, editor-in-chief of Solacebase, has had difficulty identifying his media outlet on falsified bases. With a team of 4 workers and 3 freelancers, he struggled to pay his workers on time and didn’t have the resources to fund critical research.
“Honestly, there is no business progression strategy before joining NAMIP,” Jos said, adding that this may simply be due to the low priority he placed on sustainability efforts.
Since joining NAMIP’s 2022 cohort, Jos has expanded his team to nine full-time journalists and six freelancers. “In one year, we now have [more than] earnings generation streams and lately we’re on track to ensure earnings sustainability. ” said Jose.
NAMIP has also recognized a growing need for editorial strategists and product development professionals, and launched its Media Product Fellowship to tame this talent.
The fellowship, designed to develop newsroom skills to think about products, run and expand businesses, brings together trained fellows with coaches in their newsrooms for the purpose of generating results.
NAMIP also aims to foster long-term collaboration between media organizations and help newsrooms adapt to the changing demanding situations of the media landscape. Editors of interested media outlets can meet and discuss tactics to collaborate or work in long-term combination to achieve desired outcomes in the Nigerian media landscape.
“The NAMIP concept comes at the right time, at the time when the media wants it most,” Otufodunrin said.
Photo as of Sunday Abegunde on Unsplash.
Mohammed Taoheed is a freelance journalist in Sokoto, northwest Nigeria.