Here we are again, another year ends with the media industry facing multiple crises. If censorship and failing business models were not enough, we now face the challenge of Covid-19 within newsrooms and out in the field. Add to this the downtrend in ad spend and the fact that newspapers and channels are struggling with revenue. Digital platforms seem to be doing better but bad planning, management and decision making have ground down matters to a slow crawl.

About a decade or so ago, digital was seen as the beacon of hope for the news industry; a platform that in the early years was not tied to the breaking news rat race. However, it soon started going downhill as newsrooms modelled their teams on TV and print units and focused on page-views instead of doing what journalism is meant to do – serve communities and hold the powerful accountable. If you ask me, I don’t see much hope for national-level news or news organisations. All platforms continue to focus on what is running on TV or what competitors are running. The Covid-19 crisis seems like a missed opportunity for in-depth community focused reporting and giving people what they need in these times. Instead, the industry is focused on general numbers and stories, unlike our global counterparts. Quite often, we hear managers or staff say “well it is what people want so we will give them exactly that”, which to be honest, is not the best way to serve an audience.

With a financial crisis already in play for several years, newsrooms continue to struggle. Staff are overworked, desks are understaffed, there is no innovation on the revenue front and managements do not seem to be interested in exploring alternate sources. Sure national news organisations can and continue to do good work, but solid reporting can only be achieved at this level with scale and not all can achieve that scale. So instead, newsrooms focus on aggregating content and chasing clicks. In these last few months, multiple disasters, Covid-19, major crime incidents have shown (once again) that news cycles continue to shrink and there is little local reporting. Where can the media look for wins? For me, it will be the resurgence of local news media.

Back to Basics

Journalism is about serving communities, providing them with information that matters to them and accountability. Given the massive pool of national news organisations, this space has become stagnant. It is time, for larger, smaller or new organisations, to revisit their content and audience strategies. Local news organisations do exist in Pakistan, but they have slowly turned into local language services, publishing or producing national news or limiting themselves to social media platforms. The Pakistani news industry needs strong local news organisations serving cities or districts. Give people stories and content they need to make informed decisions. The recent rains in Karachi are a good example. There was generic reporting of the flooding and the week-long power outages. Citizens did not have any information about when draining would start in their area, when the power would be restored or which roads were accessible. A local news organisation with on-ground reporters across Karachi would have come out winning. Add to this the massive pool of citizen journalists who have been trained through multiple programmes over the years but have no opportunities to publish their stories. It is always good to remember that readers will come to you if you report stories that matter to them. Very often, we see newsrooms drop stories that are important to local communities but would not work for a national audience.

Understanding Audiences and Their Consumption Patterns

It is unwise to club your entire audience into a single pool and then produce content accordingly. The goal is to identify reader personas and how they consume content. Just because some people read the news on a website does not mean everyone else does it too. There might be communities which are more comfortable with messaging platforms like WhatsApp. Don’t be quick to launch a website or social media pages. First understand your audience, what stories matter to them, which issues as a community they are interested in and then develop a product and content strategy. Furthermore, stories that are relevant to the community will lead to greater accountability from local governments; for example, audiences need to be informed about major elections coming up as this will help them understand who will fix their problems or if they want to be stakeholders in local government. Empower your audience by helping them understand the importance of such issues and what THEY can do to fix them.

Slow Down

Moving away from the ‘breaking news’ model is important. There is nothing wrong in being an hour late with a story or spending more time over it, as long as your goal of informing the community is achieved. Don’t get sucked into the rat race; once you do, there is no going back. Focus on your community and your content and don’t fall for the numbers other platforms may achieve. What works for others may not work for you. If long reads do not do well on major platforms, they may do well on a community-focused platform. Sit back and focus. Cities as big as Karachi don’t have proper crime reporting or analysis of data. There are so many areas where in-depth coverage can lead to others taking the lead from you.

Monetise and Serve

As you work towards an empowered community, think about the ways you can monetise your content to serve them better. There is no shame in asking for donations. And going back to one of my earlier points, just because nobody tried it before, does not mean you should not. Monetising content is not the only way to generate revenue, think about other products and services that may help in generating revenue. For local news, events are a good revenue area.

I hope to see more local news organisations launching in the coming year and doing the kind of journalism no one else is focusing on. There is some hope there.

Shaheryar Popalzai is Head of Digital Channels, Asia Insurance Company Limited and a former journalist with over 10 years’ experience managing content and product teams in newsrooms. shaheryar.popalzai@gmail.com