"Sustainability is a key issue for local and community media in the Global South as well as the Global North, albeit in different ways. After identifying significant gaps in the sustainability literature, the article presents and discusses a taxonomy of ‘models’ – the relationships that arise
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around different dominant sources of revenue: commercial, patronage, state, donor and community. Although the models operate in all contexts, particular dynamics develop in situations of poverty and marginalization. Drawing mainly on literature from Africa and other parts of the Global South, it is argued that a broadly political economy approach surfaces issues of power and dependency in each model. The models serve as analytical tools that enable better understanding of the vulnerabilities of media for marginalized communities, where a lack of alternatives gives them disproportionately greater importance. Important new areas of research into issues of power in local and community media are suggested, including ways to reduce the vulnerabilities identified." (Abstract)
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"Among principles that should underpin policy choices are: a focus on systemic impact; particular attention on the areas where information poverty is greatest; platform-neutrality, while preferring platforms used most commonly; ongoing monitoring of developments in and around media at local levels t
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o deal with problems that may arise. Taking these principles into account, areas of possible support for local and community media include: 1. The development of an enabling environment, including legal and regulatory measures and the provision of back-end support in areas such as research, training and others. 2. Strengthening funding mechanisms, including a. indirect subsidy such as tax relief and the zero-rating of news websites; b. direct public funding, as exists for media in several countries; c. the fair use of government advertising, often a major factor in media economies in the Global South; d. commercial income and ways to support the access of local and community media to advertising markets; e. responding to the power of digital platforms, who need to make a fair contribution to local information ecosystems; f. improved co-ordination among international donor agencies in order to deliver greater impact, including support for the new International Fund for Public Interest Media; and g. the development of new business models that draw on diverse sources of income, with particular focus on direct audience support." (Summary)
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"Dem Lokaljournalismus geht es nicht gut. Verlage kämpfen seit Jahren mit Anzeigenverlusten, die Arbeitsbelastung nimmt kontinuierlich zu, immer mehr Redaktionen werden dichtgemacht. Dabei ist gerade Lokaljournalismus wichtig für unsere Demokratie. Community-Journalismus kann ein Weg raus aus dies
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em Dilemma sein. Kleine, unabhängige Lokalredaktionen, die ihre Inhalte zusammen mit der Community entwickeln, wieder auf die Menschen zugehen und sie einladen, ihre unmittelbare Umgebung mitzugestalten. Wie können wir die Community in unsere Recherchen einbinden? Wie bringen wir die Menschen dazu, uns auch finanziell zu unterstützen? Wie sieht ein diversifiziertes Geschäftsmodell aus? Und warum ist Marketing so wichtig für den Erfolg? Diese und viele weitere Fragen beantwortet dieses Buch, ergänzt durch Tipps und Best-Practice-Beispiele der Pioniere der Branche. Aufgaben am Ende jedes Kapitels bringen Gründende außerdem Schritt für Schritt ihrem Ziel näher, mittel- und langfristig erfolgreich zu sein." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Presentamos aquí datos básicos de los 13 casos analizados, principalmente desde la perspectiva de sus responsables. La Diaria, fundado en 2006, es un periódico impreso [...] Portal 180 es un portal web informativo que opera con una lógica empresarial basada en la venta de espacios publicitarios
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[...] Sudestada es un portal web que busca focalizarse en «la investigación periodística, el periodismo de datos y las coberturas de contexto» [...] Canal U es una señal de televisión que se emite en sistemas para abonados («cables») nacionales y regionales [...] Giro TV fue un proyecto empresarial que se conformó entre La Diaria y un conjunto de realizadores audiovisuales para presentarse al llamado a televisión digital terrestre comercial en 2013 [...] Mi Canal, un proyecto de la central de trabajadores PIT-CNT, también se presentó y obtuvo una frecuencia en el llamado de televisión digital terrestre de 2013 [...] Parking Films es una productora audiovisual de cine y televisión, proyecto unipersonal reciente (2014) de un realizador con trayectoria previa en otras productoras [...] Coral Films-Efecto Cine es una empresa dedicada a la realización de películas con potencialidad de difusión masiva (Coral) y a la proyección itinerante en pantalla inflable en espacios públicos de filmes propios y de otros realizadores uruguayos (Efecto Cine) [...] Tiranos Temblad difundía semanal o quincenalmente en YouTube acontecimientos uruguayos seleccionados de los videos subidos a esa red por los usuarios [...] El responsable del semanario impreso San José Hoy transitó una experiencia anterior, el periódico cooperativo Hechos de San José, que en sus tres años de existencia en los 80 empataba las cuentas [...] La Asociación de Radios del Interior (RAMI) reúne a 140 emisoras distribuidas en todo el interior del país [...] Las radios comunitarias uruguayas surgieron en la década de los 90 y se mantuvieron en la ilegalidad hasta la aprobación de una ley que inició un proceso de regularización que ha amparado hasta ahora a 165 [...] Televisión Nacional de Uruguay (TNU), el canal estatal fundado en 1965, cubre casi todo el territorio nacional gracias a una red de repetidoras locales." (Página 11-13)
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"Since 2004 and for the first time in the history of broadcasting in the region, a dozen Latin American countries have acknowledged community radio and television stations as legal providers of audiovisual communication services. In Argentina, a law passed in 2009 not only awarded legal recognition
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to the sector, it also provided a promotion mechanism for community media. In this respect, it was one of the most ambitious ones in the region. The driving question is: How relevant are public policies for the sustainability of community media in Argentina? The argument is: even though the sector of community media has developed and persisted for decades in illegal conditions imposed by the state, the legalization and promotion policies carried outby the state from the perspective of human rights in a context of extreme media ownership concentration have been critical to the growth and sustainability of nonprofit media." (Abstract)
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"En octubre de 2009, la Ley 26522 inaugura un escenario inédito para las radios y televisoras del sector social-comunitario. La norma, por primera vez en la historia de la radiodifusión argentina, reconoce a todos los medios sin fines de lucro –incluidas las cooperativas- como prestadores legale
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s de los servicios de radiodifusión, les reserva un tercio del espectro radioeléctrico, no les impone restricciones para su funcionamiento, les asigna un lugar de representación en el Consejo Federal de Comunicación Audiovisual, y establece un fondo de fomento. La Ley se basa en el paradigma de la comunicación como derecho humano [...] Desde entonces y hasta 2015, los medios sin fines de lucro del país contaron con las condiciones más favorables para su emergencia y desarrollo que se conocieron hasta ahora. No obstante, se enfrentaron también a nuevas dificultades y desafíos a resolver, tales como: las condiciones para su legalización, la fortaleza de la gestión institucional y económica para asegurar su sostenibilidad y crecimiento, la cantidad y calidad de producción temática y estética para disputar sentidos y alcanzar masividad, la formalización de sus relaciones laborales para evitar la precarización laboral, entre tantos otros. Para pensar políticas públicas que contribuyan a la resolución de estos problemas y para que las radios y televisoras no lucrativas puedan diseñar estrategias en ese sentido, fue y sigue siendo necesario contemplar aquello que distingue a estos medios de los privados y estatales, las diferencias entre los diversos tipos de medios no lucrativos, las particularidades de las regiones donde se desarrollan, las especificidades de las tareas desarrolladas por sus trabajadores, el contexto general en que se producen." (Presentación, página 5-6)
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"Nonprofit news organizations offer the potential to become part of the bedrock of a strong local news and information ecosystem. The field of nonprofit news, as illustrated by the 20 organizations profiled in this study, has continued to scale its impact and inch closer toward more sustainable busi
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ness models. But progress has been uneven and for the majority of organizations in the study, sustainability is just a premise on the distant horizon." (Conclusion)
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"Examining experiences at a wide variety of community papers – from a 7,000-circulation weekly in West Virginia to a 50,000-circulation daily in California and a 150,000-circulation Spanish-language weekly in the heart of Chicago – "Saving Community Journalism" is designed to help journalists an
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d media-industry managers create and implement new strategies that will allow them to prosper in the twenty-first century. Abernathy's findings will interest everyone with a stake in the health and survival of local media." (Publisher description)
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"There is a conspicuous importance of having newspapers that publish in the indigenous African languages for the indigenous population in a democratic dispensation. The indigenous African languages are key components of their respective cultures. The survival of the language is, in some way, depende
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nt on the print media (newspapers) (Salawu, 2004:8). In addition, the indigenous language newspapers have cardinal roles of promoting previously marginalised languages, preserving indigenous cultures and upholding democracy. Nevertheless, these newspapers are struggling to sustain themselves in the print media industry. It is, therefore, critically important to examine the factors that adversely affect the sustainability of these newspapers." (Abstract)
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"This report is based on an extensive analysis of several nonprofit news sites conducted by Community Wealth Ventures (CWV), a management consulting firm that focuses on innovative approaches to the growth and sustainability of nonprofit organizations. Knight Foundation commissioned the review as pa
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rt of its broader programmatic efforts to explore how journalism that informs local communities and holds institutions accountable might survive and thrive in the digital age. The study examined the state of eight organizations in 2009 to early 2010 with particular emphasis on social impact, business strategy, economic viability, adaptability and capacity – all components of long-term sustainability. The sites reviewed were The Bay Citizen (San Francisco), Crosscut (Seattle), MinnPost (Minnesota), New Haven Independent, St. Louis Beacon, The Texas Tribune and Voice of San Diego. An eighth site, Chi-Town Daily News, closed in 2009 while the study was under way." (About the report)
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"L’objectif de cet article est d’essayer de définir les contours d’expérimentations de financement des médias de proximité par les circuits de finance locale notamment dans les milieux ruraux et enclavés. Les médias de proximité et les établissements de microfinance ont considérés ic
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i comme des catalyseurs du développement local. Cependant, la faiblesse de leur modèle économique et leur appartenance plus ou moins forte au secteur informel font des médias communautaires de petits acteurs économiques comme les autres qui doivent être inclus dans le système financier pour pouvoir tirer profit des opportunités notamment offertes par le développement des nouvelles technologies. Ils peuvent constituer une cible importante pour les institutions de microfinance. Après avoir mise en lumière les contraintes de financement des médias de proximité notamment en milieu rural et enclavé, les complémentarités entre médias communautaires de service public et établissements de microfinance seront définies afin de pouvoir élaborer des solutions de schéma de microfinance liés ou non à des coopérations entre médias de proximité et institutions de microfinance, notamment par la mise en route de tontines institutionnalisées de radios communautaires. Les solutions envisagées dans cette article mêlent crédit et épargne : prêts liés au développement de services en commun (média de proximité et établissement de microfinance, ou encore régie publicitaire commune pour un réseau de radios communautaires), crédit court terme liés à la capacité d’épargne du média de proximité, prélèvement sur intérêts versés sur les encours d’épargne de clients, tontine de financement des radios de proximité réunies en réseau." (Résumé)
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"Like other publications on "commmunity media sustainability", this guide looks not only at financial, but also institutional sustainability, and social sustainability, i.e. it's rootedness in the community to which it belongs. The first section highlights the centrality of mission for sustainabilit
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y and tackles topics such as models for sustainable funding, business models, "barefoot" audience research, relationship to donors, writing successful funding proposals and using alternative energy to power radio stations. The second section provides sustainability experiences from quite different contexts, countries and kinds of media, including radios in Haiti, Nepal, Rwanda, Sierra Leone or South Africa, as well as a community television NGO in the United Kingdom, online community media in the USA or community media networks like the satellite news service of the Latin American Association for Radio Education (ALER) or the Peruvian National Community Radio Coordination CNR. The final section is a list of resources, providing practitioners and researchers with a broad range of further online materials." (CAMECO Update 3-2009)
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"A major imperative for rural newspapers is their long-term survival in the face of limited advertising revenues and low subscriptions. Crispin Maslog’s analysis of ten successful community newspapers shows that not only is it possible for rural newspapers to survive in the long run, but that the
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outlook for their future also seems bright." (Publisher description)
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