The Media Viability Manifesto

The MVM addresses actors engaged in supporting the fundamental right to freedom of expression and access to information around the world. Particularly, this includes:

• Media development organizations and their media and civil society partners across all regions
• Government and non-governmental donors
• Policy and decision makers
• Think tanks
• Academics
• Media organizations of all sizes. 

The global media development community’s efforts to address the challenge of Media Viability have been fragmented. Terms like “viability” and “sustainability” are frequently used interchangeably without precise or shared definitions. The strategies employed to confront the problem can lack collaboration and coherence.

Too often, interventions are stand-alone, reactive, and short-term. Practical approaches and project implementation tools are rarely coordinated or synchronized, leading to frequent reinvention of the wheel or overlapping efforts.

The need for more systematic, cross-institutional exchange and learning, a joint research and advocacy agenda, and common strategic goals has been identified by many. To date, these needs have not been tackled sufficiently. All these factors limit the potential for meaningful impact and systemic change through policy and investment support efforts. 

The Media Viability Manifesto initiative is designed to: 

1. Better respond to local needs by making use of lessons learned and synergies, avoiding overlap and repetition to improve efficiency and impact in the field of Media Viability; 
2. Enhance collaboration and coordination among stakeholders, particularly by implementing more inclusive practices that promote local ownership and contextually relevant actions; 
3. Be able to make the case to donors in a more systematic and convincing way, as a sector, for (increased) support for Media Viability; 
4. Have a common, global framework guiding the direction for Media Viability work in the coming years, including joint goals between local, regional, and international stakeholders. 

This groundwork is urgently needed as an overarching basis for tailor-made, context-specific individual strategies and between stakeholders across world regions, ideally all contributing to solving the systemic Media Viability crisis.

The Media Viability Manifesto should be used as a reference for well-grounded messages, discussions, strategies, and interventions in the field of Media Viability—between media development practitioners and as intermediaries between donors and media organizations. 

• It can be used to identify areas for collaboration as well as for coordination and prioritization. 
• The framework helps to make the complex field of Media Viability more understandable, engaging new donors. 
• The Manifesto can be used as a common, overarching basis to develop tailor-made, context-specific interventions and projects. Its application should be flexible, and only where it suits the purpose. 
• It is a tool to review strategic programming, partner selection, monitoring and evaluation, coherent reporting mechanisms, and strategic advisory to donors and internal stakeholders alike.
• Overall, it should be understood as a starting point for further development of relevant aspects of global Media Viability work, e.g. advocacy or research and learning agendas.
• It can serve as a common strategic basis for developing programs as consortia consisting of various organizations, and for joint fundraising generally.

The Media Viability Manifesto has identified four terrains of work around which interventions in the field of Media Viability, and thus exchange and collaboration, can be clustered and coordinated:

1. Business and technical support: This terrain of work strengthens media organizations and their leaders by providing tailored technical and financial support, quality assurance, capacity development, and knowledge exchange. It focuses on business management, audience engagement and income generation.

2. Coalitions and partnerships: This terrain of work enables spaces for knowledge sharing on Media Viability and facilitates networking and cooperation between relevant actors, involving experts from all world regions, local, regional, and international media development organizations; practitioners, stakeholders, including journalist associations, press councils, media owner groups, and think tanks.

3. Evidence-based advocacy: This terrain of work focuses on evidence-based advocacy for Media Viability during multi-stakeholder discussions and events within relevant fora. The undertaken efforts directly build on the research conducted and disseminated, the coalitions and partnerships established, and the insights gained from business and technical support to media.

4. Research and insights: This terrain of work focuses on a variety of evidence-based research and insights, including research on audience behavior, industry trends, business models, and market factors, as well as needs assessments, case studies, project evaluations, and project mappings. These initiatives may be conducted by academics, media development organizations, civil society organizations, government agencies, NGOs, think tanks, and other media researchers at the local, regional, and international level. To ensure that research has impact, it must be shared with relevant actors through targeted and effective dissemination strategies, in accessible formats and languages. 

It is broadly accepted that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to Media Viability. Instead, solutions have proven both elusive and disputed. Given the absence of any normative solution to Media Viability questions, there are a broad range of approaches championed, and their diversity has grown substantially as Media Viability has tacitly grown across the media development agenda. The MVM includes an indicative typology of work. They serve as a helpful guide to determine the types of approaches that can be developed. The overview also assists in placing specific initiatives within the wider field of activities to see where there is potential for complementation, coordination, and thus increased impact. The typology may also help to avoid duplication and repetition of approaches.

Media Viability is widely understood as a field within the media (development) sector that focuses on the enabling economic conditions and resource implications that affect media organizations. Within the overarching field of Media Viability, the MVM differentiates between two different states of being for independent media organizations: organizationally viable and organizationally sustainable. Collaborative media networks and partnerships, rather than solely individual organizations, may also be described accordingly, if they meet similar characteristics. 

Organizational viability is an operational state at the business level where media organizations demonstrate their ability to produce independent journalism that serves the public good. Achieving organizational viability involves prioritizing the audience’s trust and being of service to a community, while implementing feasible business operations and staying financially afloat. Furthermore, organizational viability is characterized by a consistent commitment to editorial independence and ethical standards. 

Organizational sustainability is an operational state at the business level that goes beyond viability, as viable media organizations continue operations over time and diversify revenue streams while demonstrating potential for growth, scalability, and profitability. Media organizations achieve sustainability by fulfilling their journalistic purpose consistently over time. This may include engaging in more strategic activities such as developing partnerships, expanding content reach, developing capacity, and reducing costs. 

Transitioning from being organizationally viable to organizationally sustainable requires a comprehensive set of capacities, capabilities, processes, strategies, and actions that allow media organizations to withstand long-term market disruptions and sudden shocks, sustain operations in challenging circumstances, and bounce back after a crisis. This includes measures to ensure safety and security, as well as the ability to pivot and to draw on local networks when necessary. Such efforts should commence at the start and persist throughout the whole life cycle of an organization.

While viable media organizations can transition to become sustainable, the journey from organizational viability to organizational sustainability is not linear, and not guaranteed. Some viable media organizations may never become sustainable. This is particularly apparent in the case of emerging media ventures, and in challenging media environments where achieving sustainability may be hindered by a range of political, economic, and other factors. 

The suggested definitions can serve as a basis for discussions, learning, and practical activities in the field of Media Viability. However, they alone can neither adequately capture the wider ecosystem considerations nor the strategic approaches that are crucial to improve the situation. Therefore, the MVM also proposes a joint Theory of Change that better accounts for the multitude of actors and factors influencing the viability and sustainability of independent media organizations, as well as the interrelations between them.

The Media Viability Manifesto initiative was collectively developed in an open and inclusive process across five stages from 2022 to 2024. It is the culmination of input and expertise gathered from 152 individuals from 55 countries, representing 86 organizations. 

These efforts included:

• A Media Viability survey, with 64 respondents from 29 countries and 45 organizations.
• A conference session, facilitating discussions with 41 participants from 25 countries and 34 organizations.
• A validation workshop, attended by 64 participants from 28 countries and 44 organizations. Taking into account repeated consultations, the MVM benefited from the perspectives, inputs, and expertise from 152 individuals from 55 countries and 86 organizations.

The development of the MVM unfolded in five key milestone events: 

1. Mapping exercise and co-creation of conceptual understandings: In 2022, DW Akademie and International Media Support conducted a comprehensive mapping exercise involving desk research and interviews to explore existing Media Viability concepts, tools, and approaches (results in chapter 2. This groundwork was followed by an in-person, co-creation workshop where participants developed a preliminary draft of a joint conceptual framework for Media Viability. 
2. Global Media Viability survey: In summer 2023, a survey was distributed to a wide range of media development professionals around the world. It explored the understandings of commonly used terminology related to Media Viability across various contexts and gathered perspectives on the draft conceptual framework (results in chapter 2.1). 
3. Workshop on Media Viability: To broaden the discussions around a common understanding of Media Viability and gather additional input on the evolving Media Viability Manifesto, the MVM initiative convened an interactive session at the International Association for Media and Communication Research pre-conference on Media Viability in 2023. The insights highlighted the need for a common strategic foundation, leading participating organizations to commit to developing a joint Theory of Change for Media Viability. 
4. Theory of Change development: During a facilitated, in-person workshop in late 2023, the MVM core group jointly developed a draft Theory of Change for Media Viability. The main intention behind creating this shared framework for the media development sector was to enhance the impact and effectiveness of Media Viability programs.
5. Theory of Change validation workshop: Prior to finalizing the Media Viability Manifesto, the draft Theory of Change underwent validation with external stakeholders in an interactive online workshop in February 2024 (details in chapter 2.2).

The Media Viability Manifesto is based on a number of key principles:

• Media Viability challenges require tailor-made solutions based on specific contexts, rather than one-size-fits-all approaches.
• Ensuring local ownership and integrating actors in partner countries are essential.
• Information landscapes comprise media organizations, journalists, and content producers of all shapes, sizes and maturity levels.
• Media Viability is situated within broad and multifaceted challenges facing journalism.

We would like to build a community around the Media Viability Manifesto initiative. We aim to develop a research agenda for Media Viability and within that gathering evidence and measures of the impact of support to Media Viability (and the wider information ecosystem). Further, the Manifesto could be used as a coordination mechanism or prioritization tool such as for an advocacy action plan looking at advocacy for what, to whom, and how. It can serve as a catalyst in engaging new donors, guiding them through the complex field of Media Viability.

The initiative is a sea-change in the systematic collaboration of the global media development community in the field of Media Viability. In demonstrating willingness to work and learn together, the Media Viability Manifesto paves the way for more coordinated and impactful action. Now it will depend on us, the different stakeholders engaged in strengthening Media Viability worldwide, to make the most of this common framework—and bring it to life. Certainly not for its own sake, but to safeguard the fundamental right to freedom of expression and access to information around the world.