This project maps approaches by businesses and corporations to supporting media outlets with a view to identify good practices and tactics that can be replicated elsewhere.
Investing in Facts: How the Business Community Can Support a Healthy Infosphere
Independent media around the world are in crisis. Failing market conditions, the loss of advertising revenue to big tech, and autocratic encroachment in the media sector have made it difficult for even the best news outlets to protect their editorial independence and remain financially resilient. Given the immense challenges independent journalism is facing, greater engagement of the private sector is critical to help save it. The business community also has much to gain, as a healthy information space can strengthen markets and protect brand integrity.
This project, supported by Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) and Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA), has looked into practices of engagement between the private business community and independent media. MJRC’s director Marius Dragomir with a team of researchers produced a series of reports on this topic.
Overview report
Investing in Facts: How the Business Community Can Support a Healthy Infosphere report by Marius Dragomir published by CIMA: read here, March 2023
Case studies
How the Business Community Supports a Healthy Infosphere in Czechia, by Jonáš Syrovátka, published by CIMA: read here, March 2023
It’s All about People: Supporting Journalism in Romania, by Ioana Avadani, published by CIMA: read here, March 2023
Private Sector Support for a Healthy Infosphere in Serbia, by Nevena Krivokapić and Peter Radosavljev, published by CIMA: here, March 2023
Surviving the Financial Thunderstorm: Can Corporate Argentina Save Its Fourth Estate?
The purpose of this article is to research how small and large media outlets in Argentina are keeping their financial sustainability without compromising their editorial independence. At the same time, the objective is to analyze what motivates private companies to support media outlets through advertisements or different institutional programs, and what values they are looking for in media outlets when choosing platforms to advertise their own businesses.
Read the report here, December 2024.
Media Rating: Who and How Measures Media Trust
In recent years, we have witnessed the emergence of various forms of measuring and rating media outlets. As private businesses try to identify trustworthy media companies to place their ads in the right place, such rating tools are in high demand. However, important questions arise: who is the most entitled and best positioned to carry out such work and are how solid their methodologies? This project aims at mapping existing forms of rating and measuring media outlets and comparatively describe their methodologies.
A Map of Journalism Trust and Media Rating Initiatives, upcoming August 2025
Surveying Advertisers: How Advertising Spending Decisions Are Made, upcoming September 2025
Telecoms and Content: How Telecommunications Companies Can Shape the Media Ecosystem
Telecommunications operators play a key role in content distribution via both mobile platforms and internet-enabled household digital devices. In December 2022, we began to research how telcos use their distribution market position to shape the news offering content.