Tanzanian media: Missing in action at our own peril

Last week the African Media Initiative (AMI) launched Zimeo Excellence in Media Awards to encourage good journalism in the continent. Why Zimeo? This is a Kiswahili word for “war cry”.

AMI’s belief is: “African media’s battle for survival and relevance of purpose must be won. It is a war against political capture, mediocrity, and disregard for professional ethics, brown envelopes, poor reporting, poor management, low wages and general absence of a sense of purpose within the industry.”

In total, 557 entries were received from across Africa, competing for 19 categories. Fifty journalists from 16 countries made it to the Finalists list, with Kenya leading–by far–with 18 journalists. Burkina Faso had six, South Africa (5), Nigeria (4), Ghana (3) and Cote d’Ivoire (2). Others were Zimbabwe, Malawi, DRC, Somalia, Senegal, Rwanda, Uganda, Guinea, Cameroon and Togo—with one finalist each.

Tanzania was not in the picture. And here I was—with my CEO Francis Nanai and his counterpart from The Guardian Limited Richard Mgamba—celebrating others at the seventh African Media Leaders Forum (AMLF).

This got me thinking. There were only the three of us attending from Tanzanian media houses, in a conference that brought together over 600 media leaders from the continent.

Like the case for the media awards finalists, Kenyan media leaders also dominated the conference.

Perhaps the high Kenyan nomination was directly related with years of participation and engagement from their media leaders.

Zimeo was part of a bigger agenda which saw top media leaders discuss challenges facing the industry in Africa.

Over 30 distinguished panelists and speakers led discussions on Shaping Development Conversations in Africa—The Role of the Media in the Digital Environment.

The deliberations were vibrant, thoughts provoking and visionary. They ranged from technological innovations affecting media operations to content development, drone journalism, narration and distribution challenges, among others.

This went parallel with a public symposium on hate speech where Witwatersrand University students participated in a high level intellectual discussion interrogating government systems, laws and policies contrary to what has become a norm in Tanzania where such debates are rarely taking place in our universities.

Perhaps one of the best quote of the forum on development journalism came from AMI chairman and publisher Trevor Ncube who challenged African journalists, saying that it was “time for Africans to tell the story of how we live and not how we die.”

It was a moment of sharing experience and knowledge on how our counterparts have steered past various business storms.

As Ms Esmare Weideman, chief executive officer of Media24 Limited put it, in some cases, franchising is the way to go in dealing with distribution and circulation challenges.

For instance, at one point, Media 24 spent SAR10, 550 to deliver newspapers to Vryburg town, some 103km from Johannesburg, only to sell 30 copies and earn a meagre SAR120! All this in the name of covering the whole country. That’s when franchising came into effect.

Things have equally not been smooth on digital monetisation. Even to the pathfinders of digital drive—who have invested heavily—have been struggling. There are, however, few success stories.

The case in point is the New York Times which just crossed the one million subscribers mark recently. But this was after a massive transformation towards becoming a digital newsroom.

The situation is even harder on the African media intending to make money from digital outlets. This is the case as readers come across so much information for free.

The experience of African pioneers speaks volumes. As described by Mr Ncube: “We committed a cardinal sin by giving online content for free. Now readers don’t want to pay.”

The above challenges saw delegates engage in what kind of a business model African media should follow.

Hence the need to deliberate on, not “the Media Business Model but rather, on the Media Business Models that leaders should apply,” bearing in mind that there cannot be one that can find all solutions.

There was a strong case for editors and journalists to actually treat newspapers and other media outlets as products! Yes, a newspaper is a product just like ice cream, milk, etc.

The logic of treating a media outlet as a product is quite simple. It forces editors to give readers/ audience what they want! And for that to happen, one must understand his/her consumers.

As NMG group chief executive officer Joe Muganda put it: “Failure to understanding what consumers want is like driving on a highway to nowhere. We have no option but to adopt this new trend.”

Challenges are many and similar across the continent. The coming together of media leaders to engage in such a robust debate for the purpose of identifying real solutions to challenges facing the African Media today was something anyone wishing speedy growth of the industry in the continent would ensure he/she participated—and more so for the Tanzanian media leaders and associates.

Unfortunately, that was not the case. Tanzania was poorly represented. We were not that much represented in a forum meant to churn the way forward.

My being present with the two local CEOs didn’t make me boast like: “But I am here! It’s good for me, us!” I think that wouldn’t only be mean of me…it would have been stupid. This is why: MCL or/and The Guardian Limited alone wouldn’t make any quick gains on behalf of the entire Tanzanian media industry.

A more progressive and competitive media industry will surely widen the cake—enabling each one of us to have a bigger pie. For sure, this will as well stimulate societal development as we would have given relevant information and knowledge for our audiences to prosper.

But that will not come by us ignoring keeping pace—at least in understanding what is happening outside our local comfort zones—with the fast paced global trends and realities.

Yes, journalism is a barometer of any society. In my opinion, Tanzania media leaders cannot continue to be MiA (missing in action) in the continental and indeed, in the global arena and expect our industry and society at large to make rapid progress.

To borrow a leaf from Steve Harvey’s book titled Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, we should act locally—in terms of content relevance to our audiences—but think globally.

That is to tell our stories better, inspiring stories, positive stories on “how we live and not how we die.”

As a Roman philosopher Seneca reminds us, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” We should have prepared ourselves well. Only then will we be in a position to pray for luck to see our stories emerge top in Abidjan next year, when the 8th AMLF2016 takes place.

Mr Machumu is the Executive Editor of Mwananchi Communications Limited, overseeing digital and print editorial operations. [email protected] @bmachumu