More than Money: Rethinking Media Viability in the Digital Age

"If a media outlet does remain financially sustainable but stops delivering high-quality content, it will fail to achieve its core mission: serving as a watchdog over the government, holding the powerful to account, defending minorities, and reporting honestly and accurately on developments that affect the society as a whole."

Digital communication has disrupted the media's traditional business model, as classified ads, a crucial revenue source for newspapers, moved to online sites. Google and Facebook control 57.6% of the digital ad market, a figure that is growing. Though this and other challenges posed by the era of the internet and smartphone (e.g., a change in news and information consumption habits) are a concern, DW Akademie has created a media viability model that goes beyond the individual media outlet level and its revenue streams.

DW Akademie defines media viability as "the ability of media outlets and media landscapes to produce high-quality journalism in a sustainable way". This paper presents a holistic model for media viability that considers the environment around the country's entire media sector, looking at 5 - economics, politics, content, technology, and community - and 3 levels: media organisations, networks, and the overall framework. It takes a particular look at small and mid-scale media outlets in developing countries and countries in transition whose primary goal might not be profitability but, rather, staying in operation and making a difference in their communities.

A chart on pages 7-8 of the report elucidates the 5 dimensions, which often intersect. In short:

• The economic dimension relates to economic and funding-related aspects, often the primary or sole consideration taken into account in media viability strategies.
• The political dimension refers to a country's political and legal frameworks, both national and local, that can affect the media sector. It can also relate to internal dynamics and decision-making processes within media outlets or networks.
• The content dimension focuses on the journalistic side of the endeavour - from media practitioners to the content they produce.
• The technology dimension looks primarily at (digital) delivery systems - from the production workflows that can cut costs to users' access to the internet.
• The community dimension considers aspects related to the media outlet's audience, such as its general makeup and capacities as well as its relationships with media outlets themselves - its level of trust or emotional attachment, which might be a the powerful defense against political interference.

Case study examples throughout the report - from Ecuador, Ukraine, and Uganda - demonstrate how media viability goes hand in hand with free expression and community connection. "If access to information is difficult due to a restrictive legal environment, even a healthy revenue stream will not enable reporters to provide quality coverage. If a local community loses trust in a media organization, its stories will not reach the intended audience."

At the level of individual media outlets, the authors suggest that an important step for media viability is to broaden the perspective beyond the isolated search for new sources of income. A viable strategy, they say, finds a balance between the 5 different aspects of media viability. For example, "[a] community radio station in a rural area might always face funding challenges, but can remain viable because it enjoys a supportive legal framework, has close ties with other stations, and is part of a network working in its interests. It has developed a diverse group of modest revenue streams and is deeply rooted in the community, whose members help ensure its survival."

However, they stress that media viability challenges "will not be solved at the individual outlet level. Rather, it is necessary to bring different stakeholders together to look at the bigger picture and assess the health of a country or a region's media ecosystem. Then, partners can strategically plan projects that contribute to creating an enabling environment for the media...Networks can go far in boosting viability, acting as bulwark against political influence as well as helping outlets share resources and scale their potential to access all sorts of revenue sources."

The authors recommend:

• Research and share knowledge about specific economic challenges facing the media in a specific country - e.g., the experiences of journalistic start-ups in the Global South.
• Conduct audience research, which is a building block for the establishment of a common currency in advertising markets and enables media outlets to build their communities. Use not only the available digital analytics tools but also more traditional face-to-face research methods.
• Foster an entrepreneurial spirit in journalism education or workshops, which can support media outlets in having a strategic business plan in place from the very beginning.
• Take the risks related to audience trust into account, cultivating the relationships with users that are key to sustainability.

In conclusion, the authors assert that there is no "silver bullet" for media viability, but one thing that cannot be tolerated is threats to freedom of expression. "Therefore, within this transforming environment all efforts should be focused on finding partners, structures and practices that support journalists in fulfilling their fundamentally important role in society."