THE country’s fastest growing integrated media group, Jester Media Services (JMS), is ramping up both the range and quality of its product offering, as it moves to consolidate its position in the market.
Speaking at the Africa Journalism and Media Summit in Harare this week, JMS chief executive Pilate Machadu said the group’s intensifying focus on unique premium content had seen it continue to thrive over the past few years despite the ever-changing market conditions and technological advances.
JMS publishes Zimbabwe’s most influential newspaper, the Daily News, as well as the Daily News On Sunday and the country’s number one business publication, The Financial Gazette.
The diversified media house also owns and operates blossoming independent national television station, 3Ktv, as well as popular e-newsletter Business Live and a plethora of magazines and digital assets. “Change is constant and inevitable, and it affects every facet of life.
We at Jester Media Services always seek to embrace it, and to operate optimally within the realities of the market.
“To mitigate the disruption caused by technology, we have had to adapt our strategies, and to diversify our revenue streams — energised by the fact that we are now able to reach millions of our audiences every day via our various platforms. “Our new strategies mean that we are able to monetise our expanded reach — now at its highest in our history — which has been crucial to sustain our quality journalism,” Machadu said.
“Embracing change is crucial for the growth and resilience of any business. “To build resilience, we are capitalising on new platforms to generate revenue. “This adaptability enables us to thrive amidst the disruption, a challenge faced by virtually all industries,” Machadu added.
Speaking at the same gathering, the head of journalism and media viability at the International Media Support (IMS), Clare Cook, said collaboration of media players in Africa was key going forward. “We have been working on a study — Where is the Money? — for two years now. It tackles the pressing question of the media industry’s viability.
“Taking a systems approach, our latest study explores funding models in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and North Africa. “We are cross-pollinating knowledge to identify new entry points, localised approaches and decolonised thinking that is crucial for local, hyper-local, and community media,” Cook added.
The director of the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ), Loughty Dube, said despite the challenges posed by Artifical Intelligence (AI) and other new technologies, mainstream media should embrace and leverage these changes. “The media needs to adapt to the changing environment … How can they leverage this in terms of understanding where the money is?
“How can they also compete with some of these unprofessional online platforms that are out there?” he added.