NGOs give too much support to journalists and not enough to media management and marketing. That is the conclusion of Michel Colin, Fondation Hirondelle specialist consultant in revenue generation for radio stations. Interview by Dominique Jaccard.
Dominique Jaccard: How do small private and community radios in Africa generate revenue to operate?
Michel Colin: They expect a lot from international aid. For them, the aim is to find a donor. Apart from that, they don’t make much effort. As a rule, they wait for money to arrive, either from donors or from local authorities who want their communiqués aired, or from listeners who also want their own communiqués broadcast on the radio. The radio stations try to set rates, but the fee structure is badly organized. In general, when there is money, they accept to do whatever is asked.
DJ: Do NGOs help these radio stations become more professional at management and marketing?
MC: Not very much. That’s the conclusion I have drawn over a number of years. Few NGOs are involved on the ground in making radio stations sustainable. For a long time most NGOs have been putting a lot of support into journalist training, and almost nothing into development of sustainability. Community radio stations sometimes find themselves with more journalists than they really need and not enough people to go and generate revenue. The other thing I find quite serious in some countries is that journalists who are sometimes forced by circumstance to do marketing make enormous ethical mistakes because they don’t really draw a line between journalistic ethics and commercial activities.
DJ: What solutions do you suggest?
MC: The problem is that the commercial success of a radio depends on its management. The priority is to train managers, because as long as radio managers have not taken the decision to run the station like a company — even if it’s an association or a community radio — not much will change. Sometimes advertising sales managers are trained who are really good on the ground but who cannot do what they want because of the radio management. They are not given any resources, no car, no telephone credit to call clients, and when they sell advertising space the ads are not broadcast. Sales and marketing is a new concept for many people in Africa, so you need to explain it. But once they have understood, things can move fast. The number one priority is to help managers decide to go that route and to give themselves the means to succeed.