Where is the money? New recommendations to tackle the economic crisis facing public interest media

IMS is committed to understanding how we can improve the economic strength of our partners and the environments in which they operate. We are drawing together key findings and recommendations for a number of target groups.

A new report from IMS out on 31 October takes a deep dive into the funding, financing and investment landscape affecting media in four regions. It includes deep dive chapters from Asia, Latin America, MENA and Africa offering new opportunities to cross-pollinate learning from one region to another and inspire new conversations.

For the international donor community, we see opportunities to enhance coordination, work with private sector investors and local philanthropists to research and pilot a diverse portfolio of funding, financing and investment tools suited to the different stages of growth of public interest media.

For the media development community, we see the need to build on best practices from existing local and regional accelerator-style programmes that combine grants, capacity development and peer-to-peer knowledge exchange. Priority is needed in long-term, core funding to public interest media, especially in critical contexts.

There are also opportunities to facilitate and coordinate support to new and existing local, national and regional funds for journalism and media as they navigate through the phases of scoping, inception, prototyping, launch and growth, with a view to ensuring these funds’ functional, independent and transparent governance and operation.

Private sector investors and local funders could build on the considerable entrepreneurialism on display in the digital media sector to yield new ways of producing and resourcing public interest journalism, particularly approaches that contribute to improving local communities and services.

We identify new entry points for investment in technology that enhances the revenues (e.g., payment gateways) and the operations (e.g., social listening, artificial intelligence-driven workflows, shared advertising platforms, analytics) of public interest media working in multiple languages and contexts. Also, to build on corporate social responsibility funds or partnerships with media to create new openings for public interest journalism, especially around topics such as poverty alleviation and the climate crisis.

The four regional perspectives also draw out recommendations for policymakers identifying the need to design and implement policies that improve the discoverability online of public interest journalism; streamline legal and administrative processes for establishing media that are forced to relocate because of persecution and insecurity in their home countries; and research policies and legislation that enhance the availability of financing to public interest media.

Practitioners identify demand for shared services and platforms by supporting coordination and collaboration. There is also a need to work with local organisations to strengthen advocacy and lobbying for transparent and non-partisan policies for the allocation of government advertising. We identify the need to monitor the implementation of these policies and any indirect measures used to discourage third parties from advertising in public interest media.

Major themes from this global reflection project include:

• Donor funding remains critical in exile and conflict settings, and long-term financial and strategic focus of multiple stakeholders working towards aligned goals is urgently needed.
• Public interest media call for more coordination and long-term strategic approaches among donors and international media development agencies, who should share their funding priorities and activities, to avoid duplication and maximise impact.
• Public interest media seek more transparency, consistency, and inclusivity in the process of grant making. They require streamlined administrative processes and the simplification of grant requirements. 
• The appetite, expertise and readiness for the transfer of funds and decision making to local, national and regional actors is growing.
• Varied shifts in the media finance relations with Alphabet and Meta across the regions.
• Advocacy priorities identified across the regions include making the case to public local philanthropists and potential investors on why journalism is a public good that justifies support and funding. There is also a need to push for greater transparency from dominant tech companies and address governments’ use of advertising spending and indirect pressure on other advertisers to control and censor media.
• Practical barriers including lack of data and localised payment techniques exist that are hindering progress to sustainable operations. 
• Practitioners need more space and support to strategize in coordinated efforts locally.

Join us online on 31 October at 1pm CET for the report launch to discuss how we can work together to understand and underscore new funding, financing and investment to public interest media. For more on our viability work, visit the Media Viability Manifesto and our Viability pages.