Internews Launches Guide to Making Community Media Sustainable
Author: Internews | Source: Internews | Date: 27-02-09
internews has launched a wide-ranging new guide addressing the challenge of how to make community media financially sustainable in countries around the world. The Community Media Sustainability Guide: The Business of Changing Lives, is a 81-page publication covering topics such as incorporating new online platforms and using alternative energy to power radio stations, all with an eye to keeping the doors open in a sector not known for its profitability.
“Years ago, the notion of a business model for community media would have brought responses ranging from dismay to ridicule,” lead author and editor Jean Fairbairn writes in the introduction to the guide. “Community media’s origins in political struggle, its community ownership structure, and its mission – to give voice to the voiceless, to provide an alternative to mainstream media, to place control of media in the hands of ordinary people – seem to contradict the notions of both ‘business’ and ‘model.’ Today, however, community media is a valued and recognized part of the media landscape.”
In the guide, case studies of community media outlets and networks include creative solutions to the perpetual problem of finding enough funding to stay in business. For instance, Radio Madanpokhara in Nepal effectively gains community support by asking listeners to donate the equivalent of a handful of rice, while the Coffee Lifeline project in Rwanda relies on partnerships with international groups to supply agricultural news to coffee farmers. Meanwhile, Desi Radio, serving London’s Punjabi community, thrives on a mixed business model that includes selling advertising, conducting media trainings and hiring out volunteers to dance at weddings.
“Community media are becoming increasingly recognized for their value in connecting with hard-to-reach and marginalized populations,” Fairbairn said in a recent interview. “Because they are local and participatory, they reach people in a way that is sensitive to local cultures, and in local languages and dialects.”
Seventy years since the first community radio stations began broadcasting to tin miners in Bolivia, community media has come of age. The Internews guide is being published just as governments around the world are introducing legislation that enables and protects community media, and as media outlets are learning to take advantage of the new online media platforms to extend their reach and services.
The Community Media Sustainability Guide is designed for community media practitioners and activists, trainers, and the donors and development agencies that support them. The guide provides different perspectives on sustainability, practical approaches to achieving it, and a comprehensive list of resources for practitioners and activists.
The publication was funded by a grant to Internews Network from the US Agency for International Development via a subgrant from Pact. The advisory committee, many of whom wrote sections of the guide, includes community media experts Kate Conyer, Bruce Girard, Franklin Huizies, Birgitte Jallov, Bill Siemering, and Ivan Sigal.
Internews officially launches the guide today at a presentation at the Center for International Media Assistance at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, DC. Jean Fairbairn, Jeanne Bourgault, Internews Network’s Chief Operating Officer, and Bill Siemering, President of Developing Radio Partners, were scheduled speakers at the launch.
Download 3MB PDF of Community Media Sustainability Guide: The Business of Changing Lives