There is a common saying on the internet: “If you are not paying for the product, you are the product.” Nowhere is this more evident than in today’s media landscape, where audiences expect free news at the tap of a finger, yet rarely pause to consider what that “free” really costs.
Across Tanzania and globally, traditional revenue streams for journalism are collapsing. Advertising, once the lifeblood of newsrooms, is shifting to social media platforms that deliver instant metrics and micro-targeting. According to PWC’s 2024 Africa Media Outlook, over 65 percent of digital ad spend in sub-Saharan Africa now flows to global tech giants like Facebook and Google, leaving local media to fight over shrinking scraps.
