‘Damascene moment’: Media in Zimbabwe shore up financial future

Zimbabwe’s media, like any other globally, is grappling with media viability and sustainability constraints owing to local and geopolitical macroeconomic recession. IMS is working hard to defend and shore up the future of public interest journalism. IMS’ support includes advocacy, training and spurring its non-legacy media in Zimbabwe with funding support from the Swedish Embassy.

Advocacy gives community radio a boost

IMS partner Zimbabwe Association of Community Radio Stations (ZACRAS) successfully lobbied the national government, the Zimbabwe Media Commission and the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe to allow community radio stations to run paid advertisements. 
 
These not-for-profit stations struggled to cover the costs of their operations as by law, they were not permitted to run advertisements. Thanks to ZACRAS’ efforts, community radio stations are now allowed to run paid advertisements for four minutes every hour. 

This change has given the radio stations a financial boost and improved production and distribution of content. For example,

 — Kasambabezi and Twasumpuka set up marketing departments to solicit advertisements. 

— Community radio station Madziwa FM invested in an internet package from Starlink. 

— Ntepe Manama is now able to pay citizen journalists for their contributions. 

Training increases newspaper’s revenue

TellZim, a community newspaper in Zimbabwe, had long struggled to generate enough advertising revenue to keep the lights on and the printing presses rolling.

Two years ago, TellZim, which publishes a newspaper in Masvingo, Manicaland, Midlands and parts of Mashonaland East provinces, was generating a mere $100 per month through advertisements in their WhatsApp groups.

That changed in 2024 after TellZim became one of the six organisations to receive training under the Media Innovation Programme, a media viability initiative by IMS, implemented by IMS partner, Fojo Media Institute.

Fojo trained the organisations in audience research, marketing and digital strategies.

“The Media Innovation Programme opened our eyes to the strategic and innovative opportunities in which we could unlock revenue,” said Golden Maunganidze, director of TellZim. “This was a Damascene moment for us at TellZim. We understood our audience better, we were able to harness digital media better and engage in marketing, which helped us.”

After the training, TellZim significantly improved their performance. They began targeting local schools, politicians and businesses for advertising. They secured deals with local private companies and increased their revenue remarkably by August 2024, though they still have a long way to go before they are financially stable.

The MIP was supported financially and technically by IMS, with funding from the Embassy of Sweden.

Building partnerships to unlock capital

As part of its work in Zimbabwe, IMS has ongoing partnerships with grassroots-focused media startups to explore, broaden and unlock alternative local financing for public interest content. Local media plays a key role in delivering credible information to the public as mainstream media is either elitist, captured or incapacitated and is unable to serve marginalised communities inclusively.