It was absolutely a great privilege to share the stage with colleagues from the media: Frank Aigbogun Toun Sonaiya of WFM, Mohammed Ali from NTA and Deji Adekunle from MDIF to discuss Accountability Journalism and the Challenges of sustainability at the just concluded #WAJIC #WAJIC2023 conference organised by CJID. I really enjoyed my panel session; the engagement was incredible with so many questions coming in from the audience. Unfortunately, we had limited time to respond to everyone and so I decided to write an article to share more knowledge around this topic.
For more than a decade there has been a major decline in the delivery of Accountability Journalism in newsrooms not just in Nigeria or in Africa but globally. The economic value and the pricing of accountability journalism is a major conversation because of the media’s role in democracies as a counterbalance to political and economic power. High-cost accountability journalism has suffered mightily since the global economic recession of 2007. This concept and practice also known as watchdog Journalism can hardly pay for itself if not well planned out or consistently done.
Some of you will ask “Is this style of Journalism not the standard practise in all newsrooms? Is this not part of the functions of the 4th estate of the realm? Well, every newsroom/media organisation can decide if they want to play safe (just be press release platforms) or differentiate themselves from the pack by providing extra to the public, which is to hold those in power accountable for their actions and decisions and be the voice of the people.
The good news is that newsrooms practising this style of Journalism will be applauded, hailed and ultimately be impacting and changing lives, a good example Human Rights radio, Brekete, I must say they are doing a fantastic job. However, there is also a downside to this watchdog Journalism, if you had planned that advertising revenue will sustain your newsroom then your organisation is on the shortest road to collapsing. At the end, we must have it in mind that this practise is promoted through an independent and diverse media with quality journalism adhering to ethical standards
A lot of media organisations shy away from practising accountability journalism because they feel it is not financially viable and will increase the number of years to breakeven and then begin another long journey to becoming a profitable great media brand. Truth be told, the business of media is a game of numbers and if media investors and entrepreneurs understand how this works and remain consistent in performing its key functions, they will eventually smile to the bank, so the magic word is CONSISTENCY.
Unfortunately, it is this consistency in newsrooms and consistent funding from investors that is one of the challenges of sustainability. In the past few years, there has been an increase in the number news platforms that launched on TV, Radio and even online, it seemed everyone wanted to just have a media platform they could MD over without proper planning and clear strategies.
Media practitioners talk more about how they want to get licenses more than what is their strategy to profitability. If your organisation is going to practise watchdog journalism, it must be clearly stated and presented to your investors with projections on how long it is going to take to break even. Non-advertising revenue streams must be part of your plan to provide financial support to churning out investigative and unravelling stories, don’t forget you will be holding powerful people accountable which will include government and even corporates that are expected to give you the regular advertising jobs.
Now let us assume you get the best investors that are ready to stick by you through the years, you must understand that the world has gone digital and the audience in the online and social media space has a very short attention span. This means traditional media platforms CANNOT deliver their content to this space the same way it delivers on TV and radio. The good thing is we are seeing more traditional media platforms setting up their online/social media spaces, so yes, they are brilliantly jumping on this bus. Now because the numbers on this space are easily measurable, I can confidently tell media owners that if they get their content strategy right, in a very short time this space can independently sponsor Accountability Journalism
Just before my session at the WAJIC conference, I was having a brief conversation with the MD of WFM. She spoke about the vision of her station and her plans for the years ahead. I was excited to know that since she kicked off her radio station, she has never owed salaries (if you are a media person you should know this is a blessing) and she even gives staff food items every 3 months, now that’s incredible.
Now the only reason she can afford to do this is because she chose a niche market, a radio station that only focuses on women issues which is still broad in its own way. What’s my point here, Media platforms can start small or take a segment of the market and drive it, it becomes easy to manage, sustain and Practise accountability journalism easily
In the end, every organisation wants to cut cost and increase its revenue and to achieve this we need to stop unnecessarily competing with each other for little crumbs of advertising that will sometimes affect our objectivity, challenge our integrity and begin to look at the bigger picture in COLLABORATIONS. A close example of a good collaboration was the Swiss Leaks investigation coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The investigation showed how one Swiss bank, HSBC, protected a large number of clients engaged in illegal activities.
It involved 175 reporters from 56 countries and resulted in more than 400 articles in 65 different media, now that’s collaboration. Coming together of these reporters was a a sign of the economic crisis in the media that no single for-profit media outlet had the resources to execute an investigation as complex as the Swiss leaks story without the help and coordination of a nonprofit NGO, the ICIJ. The benefit to society of this report was to demonstrate a need for better international cooperation in bank regulation, but the cost to the media organisations in terms of time dedicated by expert personnel was significant. I am so looking forward to this sort of collaboration between Nigerian media organisations on a massive story that will impact lives
Media houses must now actively seek for partnerships with NGO’s, open up for public donations on investigative stories and perhaps generate revenue through subscriptions to avoid overly depending on advertising revenue that can hardly or may I say never sustain our newsrooms. Imagine what our media houses can do when they get access to funding; Reduced corruption, arising in part from incentives to reduce harmful behaviour. There is no doubt that press exposure of corruption has the potential to catalyse governance reforms. Improved service provision for citizens, as a result of improved government responsiveness to higher media engagement.
There are a number of funders that are ready to work with newsrooms, just to name a few Open Society Foundations, Ford Foundations, IFCN amongst others. Let me also you this opportunity to commend the team at CJID for the fantastic execution of the 2 days WAJIC conference