25 Questions Media Entrepreneurs Must Ask Themselves

"Unfortunately, a good idea plus passion are not the only ingredients in building a long-term, sustainable business."

This article and accompanying presentation, published by the Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF), explore some of the questions media entrepreneurs should ask themselves when launching a startup or when transitioning from non-profit to for-profit status. In particular, the author looks at some of the basic truths that, in MDIF's experience, need to be considered around issues such as product, finance, positioning, audience, and access to markets.

As stated in the article, "Media is a business, and just like any business, the fundamental skills one needs remain pretty much the same - these range from the reason you became an entrepreneur to critically analyzing your market to knowing your audience and knowing how to make the business sustainable. The best way to arrive at these fundamental truths is to not have a set of prescriptive instructions, but rather asking the right questions because the right answer will always be contextual."

As a media investment fund, MDIF receives dozens of funding applications for media projects and start-ups. The questions in this article reflect the kinds of questions they would ask potential investees and are considered important to ask when embarking on any new media venture.

The kinds of questions highlighted revolve around the basic "Why? What? Who? Where? When? And How?" prompts. For example:

• Why are you an entrepreneur? Why should people trust you? Why will this succeed?
• What problem are you solving? What will happen after the problem is solved? What will you measure? What is your product?
• Who is your audience? Who will be your business soulmate? Who will be your mentor(s)? Who are your most talented team members?
• Where is your market and is it big enough? Where does your audience hang out?
• When should you move on from failed products? When will your organisation cease to be relevant?
• How will you make and manage money? How will you change audience behaviour in your favour? How can you structure your organisation to enable constant evolution?

Questions are also asked related to the skills required for starting a media business, which include the ability to be comfortable with people, with ambiguity and uncertainty, and with numbers. Other questions probe issues around management - of the product, of profit, and of audiences and distribution.

This article is the first in a series of articles being developed by MDIF under the heading "25 things we've learned" to mark MDIF's 25th anniversary in 2021. The series contains practical insights from MDIF team members gained from working with independent media, as well as from funders and investors who are supporting independent media.

In the video below (by Splice Media), the author - Koreel Lahiri, MDIF Program Director, South Asia - takes viewers through the presentation, entitled "Business Truths that Matter...Or 'Questions we should constantly ask to arrive at the truth'".