How the Business Community Can Support Journalism

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.
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.
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.
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.