How can small community newspapers and magazines be made viable? Delegates from several provinces, sponsored by the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA), will be pooling their experiences and ideal solutions at a two-day workshop.
frayintermedia’s Michael Schmidt will be a speaker at the forum for community media on February 11 and 12, convened by the MDDA, the Government agency mandated to assist “historically disadvantaged communities and persons not adequately served by the media to gain access to the media”.
For small media, keeping their heads above financial water is a major challenge. Issues such as revenue generation, cash flow, managing the relationship with clients, printing and distribution, and sales and marketing will be debated in depth.
frayintermedia conducted feasibility studies for some of the media now sponsored by the MDDA. Examples are Agenda Magazine in Mafikeng and Penopele News, a community newspaper in North West. Agenda Magazine and Penopele News are unusual publications, as both are bilingual, published in seTswana and English. Both operate in areas with seTswana radio stations, but no other source of printed seTswana content.
Alex Pioneer, a community newspaper distributed in Alexandra in Gauteng, will be another attendee at the event. Sponsored by the MDDA, frayintermedia mentored Alex Pioneer during weekly visits for six months in 2009.
