The literature on successful management of nonprofits, fundraising, and revenue diversification for media organizations is growing quickly, along with the nonprofit media sector. Most of the available material, however, is U.S.-specific, with little focus on the many challenges outside the States. such as smaller and often government-controlled ad markets, weak incentives for donating, and different […]
From South Africa to Brazil; from Yangon to Kabul, I heard media editors sing varying versions of the same lyrics: I feel the earth move under my feet. The media business model has now cracked all over the world. Subscriptions to newspapers and magazines drop by the thousands; traditional advertising revenue vanishes into thin air; and digital advertising revenue is poor and only seems to work for web giants. Media have certainly learnt how to increase the value of Facebook or Twitter in their quest to fish readers for their stories, but have plenty of trouble in finding how to increase the value of their own outlets.
The proliferation of nonprofit newsrooms is one of the more promising developments in an industry wracked by a crumbling financial base and sweeping technological change. Since 2000, dozens of nonprofit media groups have sprouted, not only across America but worldwide. Many are deeply committed to investigative and accountability journalism, working to fill a void left by a mainstream media that either can’t or won’t do its job as social watchdogs. In April, the Knight Foundation published the third installment in a series of reports since 2011 tracking the progress of nonprofit news sites as they strive for a sustainable financial base. There are lessons here for media nonprofits worldwide.
During the first decade of the 21st century, a transformation in journalism began in Europe and spread to other continents. A movement in the use of data for investigations has helped lead to a resurgence of investigative reporting and has spurred the creation of small online newsrooms, as well as non-profit journalism. As ever, the conundrum of paying for it remains.
When it comes to small and medium organizations I have seen a consistent chronic under investment in fundraising and a consistent lack of understanding of the work. It’s not just about small and medium nonprofits learning key methods and techniques of larger institutions. It’s about changing the culture around fundraising, especially individual major giving. Small and medium nonprofits all rush the same foundation doors year after year. Foundation fundraising is easier to understand and doesn’t involve talking to individuals about their own money. Individual major gifts work is risky, harder to understand and involves talking to individuals about their money. So year after year these same nonprofits stay small.
Nieman Journalism Lab calls it “one of the key documents of this media age,” and I can’t say I disagree… If anything, the main surprise is that even the storied NYT, with huge resources poured into its digital teams, has the same kind of problems as the rest of the mortal media world. But it’s an important document not because of any great revelations, but because it so clearly and starkly lays out the common challenges that all legacy news organizations face – and in some ways, the issues that even some startups will have to grapple with.
Launching a news publication online is the easy part. Paying the bills and surviving for several years is the hard part. Three of those who have evolved and survived for at least five years are La Silla Vacia, a political website in Colombia, Homicide Watch, a news and data platform in three U.S. cities, and Texas Tribune, a news site focused on Texas civic life.
In People Problems Part 1, we talked about two common kinds of complaints that you as a manager might hear. “I don’t think Karl is showing enough commitment to his work.” “The technical staff is being rude to our salespeople.” Here is a method for developing your colleague’s problem-solving skills, followed by how to apply it in these two cases. If you focus on developing your people, your organization will develop far more rapidly than if you focus on just the num.
Last month we wrote about survival strategies for nonprofit investigative journalism organizations. As we stressed in that story, key to succeeding in the long term is diversifying revenue. Now, GIJN’s colleagues at the Investigative News Network have put together a useful infographic on the varied sources of revenue that groups can tap. GIJN’s staff will be joining an INN day on managing nonprofit newsrooms, held at the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference on June 20 in San Antonio, Texas. Included will be sessions on fundraising, best practices, branding and membership.
One of the bright spots in investigative journalism over the past decade has been the rapid spread of nonprofits dedicated to supporting in-depth journalism around the world. A 2012 survey by the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) identified 106 investigative journalism nonprofits in nearly 50 countries – with more than half of them founded […]
