Viability

IMS enables pockets of public interest journalists, content producers and media to survive and thrive in their local contexts and operate effectively. It is a constant process of reviewing the audience, content and business aspects of good journalism work.

We provide support based on local demand to develop capacities so media partners can reach and engage different audiences and work towards functioning business models and strengthened organisations.

What are the challenges to media viability?

At the business viability level, finding ways to survive financially is one of the most pressing concerns. This requires almost constant revision of value propositions, and in turn, opportunities to diversify. Media management skills are needed to effectively navigate the business side of operations.

At a systemic level of media viability, the market conditions for public interest media are not favourable. Funding for media remains small globally. Hostile financial conditions can be influenced at the government level, including the risk of media capture, unfair government advertising, license distribution and subsidies, little budgetary support and unfair competition. Overall, the returns on advertising in the platform economy are small.

Business viability

The capacity of a media organisation to sustain its operations and generate sufficient revenue to cover its expenses.

Media viability

The systems at societal, sectoral and organisational levels that influence the ability of media outlets to produce public interest content in a sustainable way.

How IMS works with business viability

Core support combined with expert input, capacity development and coalition building allows partners to innovate, adapt and work on ways to develop their business viability, while staying true to their mission. IMS uses the approach of action research as an umbrella for future- and solutions-oriented work. Together with partners, and through context-specific expert interventions, we seek to improve media services, develop new forms of journalism and scale innovations. IMS encourages partners to take risks and effect change in practices and to innovate through audience-centred approaches. IMS provides solutions-oriented and demand-driven expertise to support partners’ needs including in:

  • professionalising their organisations by self-regulating policies and processes.
  • developing management fundamentals and strategic and financial planning.
  • measuring performance and assessing outcomes and key results.
  • evaluating and harnessing technology including artificial intelligence.
  • diversity, equity and inclusion in media.

What builds resilience in our media partners?

  • Public interest journalists, content producers and media sources produce and distribute fact-based, ethical public interest content.
  • Effectively developing differentiated content and products.
  • Understanding and engaging audiences.
  • Using data insights to make business decisions.
  • Developing viable, diversified and values-driven business and revenue models.
  • Inclusive and safe media organisations.
  • Media organisations self-monitor and self-regulate their editorial standards and processes.
  • Technology is used effectively, evaluated and limits damage.

Understanding and engaging audience

IMS works with our media partners to engage with their audiences and build communities. Where possible, media partners deploy effective strategies to understand and reflect the needs of their targeted audience segments, including marginalised and underserved communities. They work to enhance the representation of these communities in public arenas by applying the principle “nothing about me without me”. This isn’t easy and often requires renegotiating the many-to-many online environment, providing and connecting audiences. IMS supports many forms of audience research to develop effective content strategies that enable our media partners to grow existing and new audiences. The presence of staff in countries we operate in ensures that we have a comprehensive grasp of the contextual issues that impact on our partners and their audiences. This helps us to support partners in creating engaging content that is relevant to their lives.

Media develop viable operations

Public interest media partners use audience and data insights to make content and business decisions. They are clear about their outlet’s purpose, vision, mission and what sets them apart. They robust management, run inclusive teams and seek diversified business and revenue models that reflect public interest values to sustain viable operations that can source, produce and distribute public interest content. Alongside our partners – which span startups, online media, community radio stations and others – we support experiments with new business and revenue models of journalism, developing management and organisational capacities, with considerations for DEI from the onset. We support technology development though the Digital Publishing Lab and artificial intelligence capacity development.

Case study: Where is the money

Where is the money? is a report that provides a deep analysis and multi-stakeholder reflection on how public interest media in the four regions can best be supported over the next decade. The question is not whether interventions are needed to tackle the economic crisis facing journalism, but how this support should be structured.

Through contextualised research, the report offers insights into the funding landscape including opportunities, needs, challenges, gaps and recommendations in four regions: Asia, MENA, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

Where is the money? A global perspective on forms of funding, financing and investment for public interest media with chapters on Asia, Africa, Latin America and MENA Published in October 2024 A bright blue background with a sprout growing out of a stack of coins
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Case study: Unlocking capital for media sustainability

A new frontier in media development financing  

The Unlocking Capital approach is a way to ensure the locally-led sustainability of public interest journalism with context-specific solutions. IMS is committed to turning localised appetites for new funding, financing and investment into realities.

This is not business as usual. We need to stabilise and de-risk the financial ecosystem for independent journalism in fragile contexts by unlocking domestic capital streams and reducing over-reliance on traditional foreign grants. By uncovering and analysing untapped domestic capital and designing robust “buffer” structures, there are new routes forward to address the urgent need for financial diversification. 

We are working to build and fund innovative financing prototypes for scaling. This takes a form appropriate to local contexts ranging from supporting the creation of local, national and regional funds for journalism to collaborative platforms or innovative bilateral funding arrangements (e.g., grant to loan arrangements, impact linked finance, etc).  

Why and how?  

In a world of AI-powered disinformation, reliable news and information matter more than ever before. To deliver at scale, public interest media must have access to diverse and robust sources of capital. We work to change: 

  • Localisation: local ownership and leadership. 
  • Sustainability: financial viability, customer-led business growth.  

The Unlocking Capital approach offers context specific scalable initiatives. Critical to the approach is our trusted network of local experts and partners.

Public funding alone cannot address the growing financial struggle of the media sector. A transformation in financing is required – one that bridges official development assistance (ODA) or international grant making with local philanthropic and private capital to create sustainable, scalable funding flows based on sound economic local architecture.  

Proposed actions: 

  • Build capacity and systems to enable public interest media. 
  • Mobilise local capital to ensure media sustainability and integrity.
  • Deploy catalytic funding that unlocks local resources.
IMS_SolutionPaper__5_sustainable innovative financing cover

Solutions paper: Sustainable innovative financing

This paper outlines approaches to develop and scale sustainable innovative financing for public interest media and their vital role in ensuring healthy information ecosystems.

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Case study: Catalysing private capital

Across the globe, media outlets are collapsing under the weight of failing business models, vanishing advertising revenues and escalating political pressure. Catalysing private capital: Financing the future of public interest media responds to a rising demand from the media development field to understand how private capital can complement and strengthen traditional donor funding. The private sector alone will not save journalism, but it cannot remain on the sidelines.

catalysing private capital: financing the future of public interest media
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catalysing private capital: financing the future of public interest media

This webinar brings together leading media financing experts to discuss how innovative financing and impact investment can help sustain and scale independent media.

Case study: Local Media for Democracy

The Local Media for Democracy project was an 18-month project co-funded by the European Union and launched by a consortium of partners: the Journalismfund Europe, the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF), IMS and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ).

In addition to the grant programme, these organisations undertook a multifaceted programme to help struggling local, regional and community media in the news desert areas in Europe by providing financial support and organisational capacity building and conducting research to map the situation on the ground.

LM4D Report_ A4_Cover

Key findings, capacity-development tools and case studies from Local Media for Democracy.

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#PressTalks Local Media For Democracy interview with Iryna Vidanava

Iryna Vidanava, a business viability adviser and mentor with Local Media for Democracy, provides insights into the key elements needed for a successful local media business on the #PressTalks podcast.

Audience Research methods: a Resource Pack cover

A new IMS resource pack aimed at publishers sets out how to better understand, implement and benefit from audience research.

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Impact Framework for Media Projects Toolkit

A new IMS tool has been launched to help editorial teams measure the impact of media projects based on more effective ways to define targets and track progress and results.

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How IMS works with media viability

IMS is a key stakeholder in a number of initiatives through coalitions, research and advocacy work. We support initiatives to ensure media have the necessary data and insights to understand, reach and engage with audiences in the environments they operate in. IMS works to urgently speed up our sectoral knowledge and close existing gaps. This includes engagement with the Global Forum for Media Development, co-authoring the Media Viability Manifesto and publishing sector-level insights based on local knowledge.

Case study: Media Viability Manifesto

Media Viability Manifesto mock-up in English

The Media Viability Manifesto is a global initiative that has been launched to shape the economics needed to safeguard the fundamental right to freedom of expression and access to information around the world. It has been set up to ensure the financial survival of journalism, including in the countries where IMS works.

It has been jointly led by IMS, DW Akademie and Free Press Unlimited with a core group of 13 organisation and developed with input from more than 150 individuals from 55 countries representing 86 organisations.

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DW Akademie Survive and Thrive podcast cover showing an illustration of a woman reporter holding a microphone

Media Viability Manifesto authors Clare Cook and Laura Moore appeared on DW Akademie’s Survive and Thrive podcast to add a systemic perspective to the discussion about viability. Is everything lost for quality media? How can media development organisations best support them?

Latest viability news

IMS (International Media Support) will provide support to 25 more media outlets in Ukraine

In 2026, IMS (International Media Support), in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark (Udenrigsministeriet) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) – which systematically support the Ukrainian media sector – will finance the projects of 25 Ukrainian media outlets. The selected newsrooms will implement initiatives aimed at strengthening the information resilience of communities across the country, ensuring access to quality news, reinforcing local journalism and developing factchecking skills among audiences.

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Catalogue of scalable solutions

Building and scaling alternative platforms and solutions to counter disinformation and strengthen democratic resilience

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Securing Information Integrity Requires Global Action

In this blog post, the authors reflect on the urgent need for global action to preserve and promote the health of local and global information ecosystems - the central theme of the Copenhagen Conference on Information Integrity, 11 and 12 Nov. 2025.

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Invest in Free Media: Europe’s Democratic Foundation

IMS and more than 100 undersigned organisations have come together to call for robust and strategic EU investment in free and independent media in response to the proposal for the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2028-2034. As debates intensify over future budget priorities, the signatories stress that Europe’s democratic resilience depends on sustained and strategic support for the public interest information ecosystem.

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Additional resources

Social Media Monetisation Playbook

Social Media Monetisation Playbook

A guide for media managers and journalists looking to monetise their social media channels and diversify their income, particularly in countries where English is not the predominant language.

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native advertising playbook logo

Native Advertising Playbook

This publication features examples of successful native advertising models employed by dynamic independent outlets in Ukraine, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan – countries with serious political, economic and media challenges.

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the entrepreneurial journalism playbook

Entrepreneurial Journalism Playbook

This publication is a practical guide for media leaders that demystifies entrepreneurial journalism, outlines the basics of pitching new business ideas and lays out different funding and financing options for media projects.

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