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from GFMD IMPACT
Tuesday October 18, 2022
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Scroll down for the latest on the Media Freedom Cohort of the Summit for Democracy, mapping media assistance in Ukraine, opportunities to engage in new policy, advocacy and learning process, and the latest research. But first, this month's GFMD IMPACT Briefing on the "why" & "how" of investing in independent media.

  THE BRIEFING   

In partnership with the International Press Institute (IPI) and Media Impact Funders, GFMD IMPACT organised a roundtable to discuss investing in independent media: its importance to democracy and ways to ensure its long-term financial viability, in light of growing threats to press freedom around the world. The roundtable was organised on the sidelines of the IPI’s 2022 World Congress, which ran from September 8 to 10 at Columbia University.
Why invest in independent media? For Branko Brkic, editor-in-chief of the Daily Maverik, supporting quality, independent media is the cheapest investment in democracy. He called on donors as well as larger, more established media organisations to invest in independent or alternative journalism committed to social transformation. Sustainable, predictable financing for independent media can allow small organisations in particular, to focus on improving the quality of their journalism, instead of constantly worrying about their bottom line. This, in turn, serves to build and strengthen relations of trust with the wider public in a mutually reinforcing cycle.

How to invest in independent media? The only way to protect independent editorial policy in any media company, according to Sasa Vucinic, co-founder of North Base Media VC, is to have independent ownership and invest in it. While much of the discussion tended to centre around funding for independent media in the United States, Vučinić added that “the future of independent media is directly proportional to the amount of money that we can raise to make investments in independent media internationally”.

Investing in local journalism: Local journalism is on the frontlines of defending democracy in the United States, said Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro, CEO and co-founder from at the National Trust for Local News. The Trust is investing in local, mostly family-owned media businesses that produce news for local communities.

Part of what we are trying to do in states around the country is pilot a conservancy model for acquiring small legacy titles, converting them to non-profits where that makes sense, or other mission-aligned structures, and really treating them as the public assets that they are and protecting them from both financial capture, as we’ve seen plenty of in the U.S., and also political capture,” Shapiro said.

Fighting media capture: Media capture is a real threat to independent media organisations, and it is critical to protect the integrity of their ownership structures so that journalists can do their jobs professionally. In non-democratic contexts or weak or fragile democracies, private investors can intervene to prevent media capture by state-backed cronies, said Harlan Mandel, CEO of the Media Development Investment Fund. MDIF have developed Pluralis, a fund specifically designed to “intervene when a company is under threat of capture by governments and vested interests in Europe.” The aim is to support independent media organisations committed to editorial independence. So far, it has raised $40 million of its $100 million target.

Exploring new funding models: The need to think big was one theme to emerge clearly from the discussion. In the face of disinformation and democratic backsliding in various countries, there is in fact an opportunity for independent media to make a solid case for international donors and private investors.
  • Joanna Krawczyk, President of the Gazeta Wyborcza Foundation shared that, from her experience, what local media organisations ask for is not another training workshop on “how to do journalism”; instead they need long-term, predictable financing, seed funding and technology transfers adapted to their needs
  • Carlos Barrionuevo, director of the Boulder, Colorado-based Public Media Company
    he said.“There’s this moment in time where we have an opportunity to make sure that we catch these falling organizations,”, stressed the importance of evaluating investment models that can work for public media.
  • Ford Foundation supports what it calls “equitable media”, meaning news outlets or projects run by or for historically overlooked groups, especially people of colour. “The way we think about investing in journalism is really investing in media as a whole,” Gerald Pambo-Awich, investment officer for Ford Foundation’s mission investments, said.
Share power and collaborate: 
  • Tracie Powell, the founder of the Pivot Fund, also challenged donors and the philanthropic community in the United States to learn to “share power” and look beyond their closed circles.
  • Sharon Moshavi, President of International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), encouraged donors to explore opportunities to collaborate with each other and simplify procedures to alleviate the administrative burden on organisations applying for funding.
  • For Duc Luu, Director of Sustainability Initiatives/Journalism, Knight Foundation, systemic problems in the media industry - namely financial precarity and limited job prospects - are the source of the problem. The root causes of burn-out can only be resolved by addressing these structural issues in the media industry, added Luu. Media owners and funders need to work together toward transforming the media ecosystem in a way that improves the employment opportunities and working conditions of journalists.
Funder's roundtable: Investing in the future of independent journalism (Sept. 2022)


TO KNOW MORE

  • Both philanthropy and private capital have a mutual role to explore and play in terms of catalysing more and better-aligned capital in support of equitable and diverse media. Ford Foundation's Investing in Equitable News and Media Projects report examines the infrastructure, capacity-building, and investor pain points that serve as blueprint for those in the field seeking to take actionable and concrete steps to supporting local news and diverse media ecosystems that are sustainable. 
  • Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) is a unique impact investment fund that provides affordable debt and equity financing and tailored advisory services to help independent media thrive and safeguard their editorial independence. A case study examining MDIF's approach to investment was published in 2019 by Convergence, the global network for blended finance.

  WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW?  

Our Help Desk uses a network of experts and resources brought together by the GFMD IMPACT team to respond in a timely fashion to requests from donors, media development and journalism support practitioners and policymakers. Email helpdesk-impact@gfmd.info for more information and to submit a request. 

  TOWN SQUARE  

Media Freedom Cohort of the Summit for Democracy: This multi-stakeholder platform aims to bring together civil society actors, media and other private sector leaders, philanthropic partners, academics, and government decision-makers who are all committed to making tangible progress toward improving media freedom. The Cohort is being led by Internews and the governments of Canada and the Netherlands (the current co-chairs of the Media Freedom Coalition). It will have three focus areas, each with their own civil society leads:  How to engage: E-mail media-freedom-cohort@internews.org and indicate the working group you are interested in joining with a contact point for your organisation.

GFMD’s role: As well as facilitating the engagement of our members, GFMD will be leading track three on “Bolstering Independent and Diverse Media” by using the Media Freedom Cohort as an opportunity to continue our work on best practices for supporting journalism and media, more specifically our ongoing consultations on:

More context: An overview of the Media Freedom Cohort is available here.
Coordinating media assistance and journalism support efforts: This upcoming report from GFMD IMPACT analyses the scope and focus of media assistance coordination efforts (in 🇱🇧 Lebanon, 🇸🇾 Syria, 🇺🇦 Ukraine and a few other cases), highlighting common pitfalls as well as best practice. This report presents recommendations for practical steps that could be used to orchestrate future coordination initiatives, including in conflict and emergency situations. 

How to engage: Leave your comments and suggestions on the findings and recommendations in this draft summary.
🇺🇦 Ukraine media support mapping questionnaire: GFMD is mapping all the actors involved in Ukraine media assistance as part of our ongoing coordination and information sharing work.  

How to engage:
Internews research study to understand the current needs of independent media: The study aims to inform donors and the media assistance community about how they can deliver better, more effective, and sustainable support in some of the most challenging contexts where traditional media development models may no longer suffice. It will result in a White Paper published early in 2023.

🔎The survey: As part of this research, a survey has been developed to understand how the needs of journalists and media organisations are changing. Internews is committed to ensuring that the perspectives and experiences of as many people as possible are reflected in the findings and recommendations, and would be grateful for your time in completing the survey. The questionnaire is available in Arabic, French, English, Russian, Spanish, and Ukrainian.

How to engage: Answer the survey by Sunday 30 October. It will take approximately 20 minutes.

MORE ENGAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES

 
  • Internews is inviting media organisations to answer a survey to inform the development of the Media Viability Accelerator – a tool aimed at helping media outlets find faster, simpler routes to sustainable income. The Media Viability Accelerator hopes to help media outlets understand which monetisation strategies suit different types of market, different types of media, at different stages of their development.

  WHAT TO READ THIS MONTH   

How can we build a new future for journalism that belongs to all of us? (Oct. 2022) Position paper on the role philanthropy might play in funding independent and public interest media in the European context by Philanthropy Europe Association.

The Growing Strength of Public Media Local Journalism (Oct. 2022) Report from the Wyncote Foundation arguing that the biggest development in local journalism has been hiding in plain sight.

Media Reform amid Political Upheaval: Lessons from Burma, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tunisia, and Ukraine (Oct. 2022) As part of this Center for International Media Assistance report, five case studies were produced on countries where media sector reform efforts have been undertaken. 

How we know journalism is good for democracy (Sept. 2022) Article from the Democracy Fund summarising how journalism is good for democracy.

GFMD IMPACT

This newsletter is brought to you by GFMD's International Media Policy and Advisory Centre. GFMD IMPACT enables informed, evidence-based decisions about media development and journalism support strategies, programming, funding, and advocacy by:

  • facilitating meetings of donors, practitioners and academia to enable knowledge sharing, experience exchange, learning and collaboration;
  • commissioning research, publishing briefings and curating the most relevant resources for the sector;
  • managing a Help Desk, which uses GFMD's network of experts and resources to respond to requests for research, surveys, and insights in a timely manner.
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