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Tendai Mugabe Senior Reporter—
Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo says writing political and sensational stories was not the best business that generates revenue for the media industry. If anything, he said, there was no money in writing such stories. Prof Moyo was speaking yesterday after touring Modus Publications which publishes the Financial Gazette.
“I think in our country for quite some time people thought that the best news that sells is political news – real and created – but they have not understood,” he said.
“Actually there is no money in that. In fact, your own (Modus Publications) operations show that there is no money in that. If there is, there is not much of it in packaging political news and selling political news, but that if you are very serious, targeted markets which require well considered content, which is in the first instance targeting specialised audiences, then there is value in that content and that people are prepared to spend much more money on that content than they would on the flirting sensational stuff that sometimes we tend to think is the stuff that defines the sector.”
Prof Moyo said some international news organisations such as Reuters were generating significant revenues from writing business stories from across the world.
He said specialisation in financial markets was an area with potential to generate income for media houses.
“It is a very important area of the media which people either do not understand or often underestimate,” he said.
Prof Moyo said Modus Publications’ operations were a testimony of another untold story of the potential of Zimbabwe’s media industry.
“This is a continuing story because it is what we are finding out just about with each and every media house that we are visiting that there is an untold story of amazing capacity both in terms of the human resource, the skill levels of that resource and the physical infrastructure from the social space with room for growth, especially given the opportunities of digital media to grow in various ways without having to look for new space, but also with the equipment that you have,” he said.
Prof Moyo hailed the Financial Gazette for having other publications such as magazines that catered for specific markets.
He said such initiatives showed serious commitment to the industry on the part of Modus Publications.
Prof Moyo said apart from engaging skilled staff, it was encouraging that Modus Publications carried continuous on the job training for its staff.
As a business media house, Prof Moyo said, it was pleasing to note that Modus Publications engaged a competent marketing team.
After touring all media houses in the country, Prof Moyo said he hoped to come up with a mechanism that benefited all stakeholders in the industry.
“We hope that very soon at the end of that process we will be able to put our heads together and find some mechanism, some instrument of making sense out of these discussions and interactions we are having in order to deepen and widen the best practices arising from our interaction to advance what is good about the sector in the interest of everyone who is a stakeholder,” he said.
Modus Publications group chief executive officer Mr Jacob Chisese, who was leading the tour, said the company was outsourcing equipment such as printing press from companies like Alpha Media Holdings, Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe and Heritage.
He said they had approached Zimpapers seeking the same services.
Online Reporter