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The Sustainability Imperative in Media Development: A Critical Analysis of a Self-Serving Myth

Michel Leroy

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (2025), xxiv, 396 pp.

"This book critically examines how the media assistance and broader "development" sectors have appropriated the catch-all concept of sustainability, originally rooted in economic and environmental fields, to suit their agendas. Analysing 289 project evaluations conducted globally between 1999 and 20 ... more

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Reimagining Funding for Journalism: Key Takeaways from IJF 2025

Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD), May 6 (2025)

"At the International Journalism Festival (IJF) in Perugia this year, journalism funding and sustainability took centre stage. International funders, media leaders, and innovators grappled with the urgent question of how to keep independent journalism not just alive—but thriving—in an era of shr ... more

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

Clare Cook, Ross Settles, Chris Kabwato, Hassan Abbas, Alexandre Goudineau, Janine Warner, Laura Aguirre

Copenhagen: International Media Support (IMS) (2024), 63 pp.

"Two years in the making, this report unfolds regional perspectives of new forms of funding, financing and investment for public interest media. It provides a multistakeholder reflection in four regions of the world on how public interest media can best be supported over the next decade. Through con ... more

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Manifiesto sobre la Viabilidad de los Medios de comunicación: Un marco común para la acción conjunta
Key Guides

Laura Moore, Elena Köhler, Clare Cook

Bonn et al.: Deutsche Welle DW Akademie; Media Viability Manifesto Initiative; UNESCO IPDC (2024), 37 pp.

"El Manifiesto sobre la Viabilidad de los Medios de comunicación (MVM, por sus siglas en inglés) proporciona un marco común, urgentemente necesario, para la acción conjunta de la comunidad mundial de desarrollo de los medios. Su objetivo es triple: fomentar la claridad conceptual, reforzar la co ... more

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The business of independent Myanmar media post-coup: Experimenting with business models inside the country and in exile

Jane Madlyn McElhone et al.

Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) (2024)

"More than three years after the coup, a significant majority of the 40 senior media executives interviewed for this report say they are still dependent, partially or fully, on grants to run their operations. While they cannot control the external factors impacting on their work, be that the conflic ... more

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Safeguarding independent journalism in Latin America

Francisca Skoknic

Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2024), 37 pp.

"In a region plagued by poverty, inequality, and attacks on press freedom, Latin American journalists have ventured into non-profit journalism to uphold democracy. Outlets producing award-winning and highly impactful journalism in the region include El Salvador’s El Faro, founded in 1998, Chile’ ... s Ciper (2007), IDL-Reporteros in Peru and La Silla Vacía in Colombia (2009), Animal Político in Mexico (2010), Agência Pública in Brazil and Plaza Pública in Guatemala (2011) – to name a few. But finding a sustainable financing model has eluded most outlets. There is limited advertising revenue for such controversial topics, and lower income audiences are hard-pressed to pay for news. This has led to an over-reliance on foreign funding to finance their work. Research by SembraMedia found that grants are the primary source of non-profit income, accounting for 63% of their revenue on average. To assess for myself how acutely reliant independent media in Latin America are on foreign donors, I set about analysing 40 independent outlets based in 16 countries. I focused on outlets that produce public interest journalism, play a significant role in their countries, and receive institutional foreign funding. [...] Between 2016 and 2022 those 40 outlets received more than $27 million from OSF and Ford Foundation. While Ford Foundation granted roughly half the number of grants as the Soros organisation, their grants were significantly larger, meaning the total amount donated was almost on par. OSF has been key in giving establishing grants to new outlets and then fostering their growth, while Ford tends to back outlets with a track record. Ana Joaquina Ruiz, Program Associate for Mexico, and Central America at Ford Foundation, told me: “OSF has the capacity to fund more innovative projects. Ford is a bit more conservative and works with projects that can be a contribution in the long term.” A third important player to consider in this ecosystem is Luminate, created by the founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar. Publicly available data shows it has only distributed 11 grants between 2016 and 2022 among the 40 outlets I analysed. The average size of each grant was $360,000 – far more than the average Ford Foundation grants ($240,000) or OSF grants ($135,000). It is worth noting, however, that no consistent data could be found about the length of time each grant was intended to cover. An analysis of average amount granted per year might paint a different picture." (https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk) more

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Press freedom under threat: Learn three ways USAID is ensuring free and independent media

Shannon Maguire

Medium; USAID (2024), 8 pp.

[...] Based on decades of evolving research, testing, and learning, USAID has expanded its understanding of the multiple intersecting threats media practitioners face - legal, physical, economic, and digital - and how necessary it is to work from many sides to build and reinforce media sectors that ... are as resilient as possible against the forces that would seek to shut them down. A major demonstration of this approach comes through USAID's Summit for Democracy commitments, a series of initiatives to address these threats and advance free and independent media. The first one is the Media Viability Accelerator (MVA), which was announced at the first Summit for Democracy in December 2021. The goal of the MVA is to preserve fact-based news and information media by providing access to the data they need to build strategies to survive, thrive, adapt, and grow as businesses. Through a public-private partnership with USAID, Microsoft, and Internews, MVA is a unique data platform using artificial intelligence and other digital tools to enable media outlets to better understand markets, audiences, and strategies that will maximize their odds of profitability. Second, USAID's $20 million contribution to the International Fund for Public Interest Media (IFPIM) is helping to boost global support through grants to develop and sustain a wide range of independent news organizations. To date, IFPIM has committed nearly $9 million through 32 grants across 16 countries to media outlets in urgent need of financial assistance and to strengthen their long-term sustainability. USAID's initial seed funding has leveraged an additional $30 million from 15 governments, philanthropies, and corporate entities. The third initiative is Reporters Shield, an innovative program that helps protect investigative media outlets and civil society organizations from strategic litigation against public participation lawsuits, or other legal threats meant to silence their reporting. Prior to the launch of Reporters Shield, such help was inconsistent, ad hoc, reactive, and, often, expensive. USAID Administrator Samantha Power launched the next phase of USAID's Reporters Shield, at the United Nations Headquarters last World Press Freedom Day on May 3. Reporters Shield is now providing legal support services and capacity development for 12 media outlets and civil society organizations doing investigative reporting, with more than 100 applications still under review during the launch phase alone." (Pages 4-6) more

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Manifeste sur la viabilité des médias: Un cadre commun pour une action conjointe
Key Guides

Laura Moore, Elena Köhler, Clare Cook

Bonn et al.: Deutsche Welle DW Akademie; Media Viability Manifesto Initiative; UNESCO IPDC (2024), 37 pp.

"Le Manifeste sur la viabilité des médias (MVM) établit un cadre commun, dont le besoin est urgent, pour une action conjointe de la part de la communauté mondiale du développement des médias. Son objectif est triple : Promouvoir une vision claire, renforcer la collaboration stratégique entre ... more

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The Media Viability Manifesto: A Common Framework for Joint Action
Key Guides

Laura Moore, Elena Köhler, Clare Cook

Bonn et al.: Deutsche Welle DW Akademie; Media Viability Manifesto Initiative (2024), 33 pp.

"The Media Viability Manifesto (MVM) provides an urgently needed common framework for joint action from the global media development community. Its aim is three-pronged: To foster conceptual clarity, to strengthen strategic collaboration between multiple stakeholders, and to align practical implemen ... more

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Evaluation of the BMAP-Forward Activity

Sarah Eissler, Micheal Buehler, Brenda Pearson, Miodrag Bogdanovic, Anida Soko, Arben Qirezi

Washington, DC: USAID; Integra Government Services International (2024), 165 pp.

"Activity Description: The Balkan Media Assistance Program to Foster Organizational Readiness While Advancing Resilient Development (BMAP-FORWARD) is a $13 million regional Activity (2022-2028) that aims to strengthen the independence and resilience of media outlets in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo ... , Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia. Evaluation Purpose: USAID/Europe and Eurasia Bureau requested a mid-term performance evaluation of BMAP-FORWARD to understand which approaches, tools, and interventions are successfully contributing to planned outcomes according to the Activity’s three key objectives: 1) Increase strategic business practices of key media partners to operate as viable enterprises and better understand their markets and audiences; 2) Reinforce the ability of content producers to produce data-driven content, engage wider audiences, improve digital security efforts, and expand reach across the region; and 3) Foster stronger partnerships between media outlets and the technology, commercial, and entrepreneurial sectors to advance solutions on common challenges in the information space. Evaluation Design: Mixed methods and non-experimental evaluation design approaches, including Expert Consultations and Outcome Harvesting, were employed to collect and analyze primary and secondary data, including reviewing 140 documents, conducting 51 key informant interviews with experts, 47 in-depth interviews with recipients of assistance, an online Expert Survey (n=63), and conducting 13 interviews and an online validation survey (n=48) to substantiate outcome stories. All data were triangulated to inform the evidence base to develop each finding and conclusion. Key Findings: BMAP-FORWARD’s tailored and localized approach is a key strength of its ability to provide effective, useful, and timely assistance, which has strengthened Key Media Partners’ (KMPs’) shift towards strategic planning, ability to pursue diversified revenue sources, improve content production and technology use to engage wider audiences, produce data-driven content using new software, and engage in cross-border collaborations. BMAP-FORWARD assistance has strengthened KMPs’ digital security practices and protocols, although with room for improvement to sustain this support. While BMAPFORWARD has made inroads to foster partnerships between media and non-traditional actors, key factors inhibit progress towards this Activity Objective (Objective 3). Key Recommendations: BMAP-FORWARD should: 1) continue to employ the highly tailored approach to learn KMPs’ needs, co-create solutions and action plans, identify resources to implement solutions, and present new ideas; 2) consider providing more opportunities for intentional engagement for peer-to-peer learning for newsroom staff from different outlets, including non-KMPs and different media across the region; 3) consider investing in strengthening in-house expertise capacity or identify long-term solutions for each KMP to navigate the evolving digital security challenges; and 4) consider designing and marketing sessions at forums geared towards facilitating potential partnerships between private sector actors and KMPs, which can be followed by ongoing assistance to support KMPs in navigating how to structure partnerships." (Abstract) more

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Consultation on media viability in Lebanon

Beirut: Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD); Maharat Foundation; Samir Kassir Foundation; UNESCO (2023), 15 pp.

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Google Scholar (51)

WorldCat (49)

The Mediation of Sustainability: Development Goals, Social Movements, and Public Dissent

Ben Harbisher (ed.)

Lanham; Boulder; New York; London: Rowman & Littlefield (2023), 250 pp.

"This book examines the way in which SDG initiatives have been disseminated by mainstream media, in government discourse and by NGO’s, charitable organisations, and campaign groups. It questions to what extent sustainability narratives are being supported and how they are represented; how saving t ... more

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Consultation on media viability in Namibia

Windhoek: Editor's Forum of Namibia; Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD); Namibia Media Trust; UNESCO (2023), 20 pp.

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Consultation on media viability in Tunisia

Tunis: Al Khatt; Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD); Pamt2; Pencils Consulting; UNESCO (2023), 20 pp.

"[...] a roundtable on media sustainability was organised in collaboration with several stakeholders in the sector, to propose concrete policy recommendations to ensure the sustainability of media organisations. The roundtable brought together local media representatives, media development organisat ... more

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Greening Africa’s News Deserts: The Search for Sustainable Local Media in Sub-Saharan Africa
Deep Insights

Franz Krüger

Johannesburg: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) (2022), 38 pp.

"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 ... more

External Link (54)

Google Scholar (48)

WorldCat (47)

Why collective resilience in journalism matters: A call to action in global media development

Jeannine E. Relly, Silvio Waisbord

Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies, volume 11, issue 2 (2022), pp. 163-188

"The COVID-19 pandemic, global economic downturn, anti-press violence and worsening situation of labour precarity for journalists around the world have led to increased stress, trauma and burnout in the profession, which raises questions at the heart of media sustainability and approaches to media d ... more

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Media Viability: Learning Brief

Protecting Independent Media for Effective Development (PRIMED) (2022), 8 pp.

"[...] there was no single approach to measuring media viability. Deutsche Welle Akademie's (DWA) Media Viability Indicators are designed to assess viability on three levels, considering the overall economic environment (macro); the structure of the media market and potential sources of revenue (mes ... more

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Sustainability: Going Beyond the Buzzword
Deep Insights

Michel Leroy

Forum Medien und Entwicklung (fome); MEDAS21 (2021), 31 pp.

"This paper aims to trace the social construct of sustainability in the context of media development and define what is to be sustained, at the level of the intervention (the process of change) or its outcome (the impact on the medium itself). It is intended for all those who are concerned, closely ... more

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Independent Media in Lebanon: An Economic Outlook

Metn: Samir Kassir Foundation (2021), 10 pp.

"Alternative media platforms in Lebanon vary in size and expenditures. Annual turnovers range between USD 15,000 to almost USD 1.1 million. Editorial costs make up the bulk of all alternative media platforms. Namely the salaries of core team members and journalists, as well as the fees paid to freel ... ancers, correspondents, and outside consultants/writers. Secondary costs include production equipment, rent, operation, equipment, legal fees, and technical feels. All interviewed independent platforms are non-profit. Almost all members of independent platforms are motivated primarily by their love of the job. Most independent platforms have relied on volunteering, either totally or partially, from their conception to their current stage. None of the platforms interviewed have a devoted person or team in charge of marketing and sales in the traditional sense of buying ads or working on partnerships. Partnerships are usually rare, approached informally, by word-of-mouth and networks, and decided up by editorial teams. All platforms have one person (full-timer or part-timer) in charge of marketing the platform’s own content on social media, but not advertising other brands on their own platforms, except The961. Almost all the platforms are unsatisfied with the current promotion model on social media. Most concerns are related to the clash between the platform’s values and the ethics and politics of social media platforms. Complaints also touched upon the fact that independent media have to invest time and money to create content, and then they have to pay social media to host it, rather than get paid by social media. Some platforms, such as Khateera, have adopted a pragmatic mindset from the start. “Our only objective is to get our message across to as wide an audience as possible,” they said. All media have agreed that good journalism costs money and generates very little, therefore other revenue streams are required to sustain it. All independent media interviewed have relied mostly on grants, except The961. Grants provide core funding and project-based funding. Both Daraj and Megaphone have also relied on volunteers but have shifted away from it. Sentiments towards grants vary. Most platforms in Lebanon have chosen donors that are not related to national, local or foreign authorities; donors that preserve their editorial integrity: i.e., no interference in editorial decisions and alignment with values and ethics. They all have a good relationship with their donors." (Findings, page 3) more

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Report: Leveraging Solutions Journalism for Revenue Growth

Solutions Journalism Network (2021), 11 pp.

"The Solutions Journalism Revenue Project (SJRP), which ran between February 2020 and February 2021, aimed to explore how a diverse range of newsrooms could leverage solutions journalism to generate revenue. Among the questions the project sought to answer were: Can reporting on responses to social ... more

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

Manifiesto sobre la Viabilidad de los Medios de comunicación: Un marco común para la acción conjunta Key Guides

Manifeste sur la viabilité des médias: Un cadre commun pour une action conjointe Key Guides

The Media Viability Manifesto: A Common Framework for Joint Action Key Guides

Greening Africa’s News Deserts: The Search for Sustainable Local Media in Sub-Saharan Africa Deep Insights

Sustainability: Going Beyond the Buzzword Deep Insights

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

Manifiesto sobre la Viabilidad de los Medios de comunicación: Un marco común para la acción conjunta
Key Guides

Manifeste sur la viabilité des médias: Un cadre commun pour une action conjointe
Key Guides

The Media Viability Manifesto: A Common Framework for Joint Action
Key Guides

Greening Africa’s News Deserts: The Search for Sustainable Local Media in Sub-Saharan Africa
Deep Insights

Sustainability: Going Beyond the Buzzword
Deep Insights