This archive report was first published on 13 June 2020.
As the world grapples with the Covid-19 pandemic, the media industry is facing unprecedented challenges. In April this year, News Corp, owned by the influential Murdoch family, suspended print editions of over 60 local newspapers in Australia due to the financial strain caused by the virus.
Similarly, The Atlantic in America laid off 68 of its staff, equivalent to 17 per cent of its headcount, joining publications such as The Economist, which laid off 90 staff members due to the Covid-19-induced economic fallout.
Although studies show that consumption of news on both online and television platforms has grown significantly during the pandemic, newspaper consumption has declined globally due to lockdowns, which have inhibited their distribution.
Advertisers are no longer spending on advertising, and with advertising at an all-time low, the media industry is facing tough times ahead.
However, the pandemic has also presented an opportunity for the media industry to rethink its future and create a resilient innovation system that can survive the volatility of an unpredictable world.
According to experts, the changes in audience consumption habits will likely not be sustainable after the pandemic, but the 'net effect' of this pandemic will most likely be that coronavirus will speed up – and not slow down – the shift to digital for media.
To achieve this, the media industry must create, test, and solidify an innovation system that is context-specific, inclusive, and tailor-made to solve the problems of the Kenyan media industry.
As the director of the Innovation Centre at Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications, I believe that the current decline in revenues, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, is an indictment on the industry's lack of an elaborate system of innovation.
So, how would Kenyan media use innovation in a post-Covid regime? The industry must start with an industry-wide strategy that brings together a network of stakeholder institutions, including the industry, academy, and technology companies, to create, support, import, and disseminate the latest ideas and technologies required for the revival of this industry.
This innovation system will serve the industry as a pipeline of ideas that actively encourages, nurtures, and grows an ecosystem of innovators who are keen on changing the media industry.
There are four things we must think about as we create a solid innovation system for a Kenyan media of the future: entrepreneurship, education and training, research and development, and physical innovation initiatives.
We need to encourage our journalists to think like and become entrepreneurs by supporting and incubating ideas from journalists through funding and providing them with enough cover to protect them from in-house politics and pressures to earn revenue in their first few months of existence.
Secondly, we must supplement journalism graduates with the skills needed for the future of journalism, such as coding and data analysis.
Thirdly, we must create partnerships and linkages between the media, technology partners, and academia to support journalists and media innovators who want to monetise their ideas with media companies that are looking for fresh ideas to boost the industry.
Lastly, we need to have more physical innovation initiatives in the form of hubs and labs that provide technical support to journalists who are keen on commercialising their ideas.
We need to stop thinking about 'driving innovation' in our industry and instead create environments and cultures that make innovation attractive, possible, and fruitful.
I hope that if this pandemic has taught the media industry anything, it is the fundamental need to 'think innovation'.
