A diverse media landscape requires media that is well managed and financially sustainable. This is a particular challenge in contexts where media have been suppressed, and where weak economies result in limited investment in media and/or the advertising market. To quote CIMA:

Experts broadly agree that more should be done to ensure that media enterprises are sustainable. Business practices bolster independent media’s efforts to survive and contribute to a stronger marketplace. A commitment to long-term support is widely seen as integral to crafting successful media development strategies.[i]

CIMA lists the key problems and possible solutions to this issue as:

Key problems:

• Media enterprises are too often unsustainable

• Business skills are not always stressed

• Local media markets can be distorted by aid

• Capital is often unavailable for projects

• Advertising revenue can be very low

Key solutions:

• Integrate sustainability into projects

•  Increase training in management, advertising, and market research

• Find entrepreneurial local partners

• Make available low-interest loans

• Develop the advertising market[ii]

There is much that can be done by domestic and international actors address this issue. For example, the US-based Media Development Loan Fund provides low-interest loans to media in developing countries to boost independent media.[iii] Another example is media development in Afghanistan, where NGOs such as Internews work with media managers to provide business development training, while independent news syndicators, such as Salaam Watandar, coordinate advertising for networks of – often tiny – community radio and television stations, thereby boosting the stations’ revenue.  The Timor-Leste Media Development Centre is another country-example of a domestic organization providing business development to “help community radio stations become financially sustainable through training in fundraising and financial management.”[iv]