Where is the money? A global perspective on forms of funding, financing and investment for public interest media

Through contextualised research, it offers insights into the funding landscape including opportunities, needs, challenges, gaps and recommendations in four regions: Asia, MENA, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

Written by four eminent researchers and edited by IMS Head of Journalism and Viability, Dr Clare Cook, the report provides a deep analysis and multi-stakeholder reflection on how public interest media in the four regions can best be supported over the next decade. The question is not whether interventions are needed to tackle the economic crisis facing  journalism, but how this support should be structured.

At a time when independent media must often contend with multiple threats to their existence, Where is the money? could hardly be more timely. It comes as platform-based digital advertising revenue for public interest media is in constant decline. This is coupled with the fact that public interest media often face hostile policies or conflicts that further undermine their ability to exist and thrive, financially and otherwise.

The report, two years in the making, is the result of extensive qualitative and quantitative data collection in the four regions, collating insights from public interest media, media development organisations, government development agencies, media investors, donors and researchers. 

We find there is a growing interest in local, national and regional funds for journalism and media. Local philanthropic funders are looking for entry points that deliver on the promise of improving local communities in some contexts. A new generation of more open-minded philanthropists may have fresh perspectives on the importance of journalism as a public good and may be willing to fund public interest media.

Also, measuring impact is key to achieving sustainability – and access to data is thus equally important. Public interest media that effectively and comprehensively track the impact of their work are more likely to attract and retain funding than outlets that do not. 

Finally, moving towards a future-fit financial ecosystem for public interest media is not just about creating new funding, financing and investments, but also about recognising that, in some instances, there may be a need to consolidate media outlets to ensure the overall health of a media sector.

Among the overall recommendations in the report are:

—    Public service media are diversifying their funding streams, and finding new ways to track their impact through data-driven approaches can help them be sustainable.

 —   The international donor community should seek a more coordinated and strategic approach to funding public service media and work with private sector investors to pilot a diverse and context-appropriate portfolio of funding, financing, and investment tools.

 —   The media development sector should look to enhance coordination and transparency among themselves to avoid duplication of efforts and to reinforce long-term strategic support.

Thank you to the Ford Foundation and all the contributors for providing the support necessary to conduct this study. For more information on media viability and the report, please visit https://www.mediasupport.org/viability or contact Dr Clare Cook, IMS Head of Journalism and Media Viability, at cck@mediasupport.org. You can find more on our Media Viability Manifesto at https://mediaviabilitymanifesto.org.