Collaboration aims to help independent media achieve business sustainability
Report for the World and the International Press Institute have partnered to launch a revenue roadmap program for independent and local media that offers step-by-step guidance on how to overcome challenges and achieve business sustainability.
The roadmap brings together research by IPI with best practices and case studies at Report for the World’s 32 host newsroom partners in 20 countries. A workshop at the African Investigative Journalism Conference last month that brought together African newsrooms from South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe is one of many such exchanges that will inform the roadmap.
“As a collaborative program, we are delighted to partner with the media innovation department at the International Press Institute, whose team is helping us convene peer-to-peer workshops among our newsrooms and extracting the best practices in audience engagement and sustainability,” said Preethi Nallu, Report for the World’s executive director. “By identifying the most successful approaches to revenue diversification among our newsrooms we hope to strengthen local media landscapes and make them more self-sufficient.”
Following an analysis of various successful strategies employed by participating media outlets to overcome threats, including digital transformation, diversification of revenue streams, and audience engagement, our partner IPI is mapping out the critical factors contributing to business sustainability in the media industry, such as innovation, agility, and strategic partnerships.
IPI will then develop a practical, step-by-step sustainable roadmap for media companies to consult in order to advance towards financial and editorial sustainability, including actionable recommendations, best practices, and questions to ask at different stages of development.
“The International Press Institute builds communities of journalists, editors, and publishers around the world to defend press freedom and create space for independent, fact-based media to thrive. Partnering with Report for the World emboldens this vision, leveraging IPI’s specialization in delivering media innovation support, combining our networks of investigative and niche media to develop editorially and financially resilient media,” said Ryan Powell, IPI’s head of media innovation. “IPI is eager to deepen its relationship with partners like Report for the World to grow its shared network and contribute together to media ecosystems that thrive and can fulfill their public function.”
The resulting report will be launched at the International Journalism Festival as a resource for all independent media. In the next phase, Report for the World will facilitate an accelerator that helps newsrooms incorporate context and theme specific learnings on audience engagement and revenue diversification into their editorial practices.
Report for the World is made possible by partners including the MacArthur Foundation, Google News Initiative, Microsoft, JournalismFund Europe, East-West Center, and ClimateXchange, along with family foundations and individual donors around the world. To follow or support Report for the World’s work, visit reportfortheworld.org.
About Report for the World
Report for the World is an international journalism program that matches local newsrooms with talented journalists to report on undercovered issues around the globe. By creating a more sustainable and impactful media ecosystem, Report for the World informs, engages, and enables communities through public service journalism. Report for the World is an initiative of The GroundTruth Project, an award-winning nonprofit journalism organization dedicated to rebuilding journalism from the ground up.