Media diversification: Redefining reliance on advertising revenue and autonomy implications

Abstract

The search for a media funding model has attracted scholarly attention over the years due to the growing strategic importance of the media in spearheading critical public debates in contemporary societies. With the recent global financial and economic turmoil, it has become imperative that the search for funding model continues, especially for a developing country like Ghana where there is limited body of literature on the subject without sacrificing its global significance. On the premise that media should be strengthened financially to survive in a competitive market to better execute its public mandate functions, media businesses, particularly newspapers, need to explore revenue generation sources to ensure that they do not lean on a lone income stream. The present study examines the extent to which newspapers have diversified into non-media ventures and argues that by this funding approach, print firms have a better chance of sustaining their businesses, publications and achieving autonomy. Overall, this work shows that majority of the print firms in Ghana have not diversified at all, the few diversified ones are within the media industry and only Daily Graphic has invested into non-media ventures to generate revenue.

Keywords:

• diversification
• advertisement
• newspaper
• revenue
• autonomy
• media
• Ghana

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

In a world where democratic ideals and systems are fast gaining acceptance among nations, a resilient media remains the single most significant civil society stakeholder that sustains and propels the functioning of democracies. This is because media creates a platform for all voices in society to express their opinions freely. To continually remain autonomous and relevant amid the current global economic challenges, this article proposes that media institutions create extra income avenues beyond the media sector itself so that revenue gushing from the diversified business pays for media operations to better serve communities. By this work, I argue that a financially viable and professional media “attracts adverts” and not “begs for adverts” which may compromise its autonomy. It also explains that, the type of product that media advertises determines whether increases in ad rates will lead to a decline in revenue.

1. Introduction

Considering the era of technological and economic instability which engulfed the media market globally from the early 2000s, media establishments were confronted with the challenge of reducing their reliance on traditional advertising incomes and seeking extra income stream opportunities (Chan-Olmsted & Chang, 2003). The advertising market and the impact it exerts on media, especially its editorial autonomy, have generated two dichotomous debates. Whereas on one side of the continuum, researchers have established that an increased advertising market leads to strengthen media independence because the media no longer need funding from government and partisan interests (Asquith, 1975; Besley & Prat, 2006; Herd, 1952; Petrova, 2011); on the other end, some studies have argued that advertising allocation, whether from government or enterprises, generally impacts negatively on editorial independence of the media (Anderson & Gabszewicz, 2005; Curran, 2002; McQuail, 1992; R. G. Picard, 2004). However, the diversification of media firms beyond the media industry for revenue generation has not given much attention. The postulation that it was through the activities of market-led advertising that newspaper liberated itself from political interests alone appears to suggest that within the periphery of “commercialisation” lies a panacea to the financial woes of the media, though it also seems to be its closest enemy. Noting the necessity of a reliable but strings-free funding source to a media firm, the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) explains, “the sustenance and safeguarding of media independence depend critically on the financial stability of media establishments” (Modoux, 2011, p. 45). Kurpius et al. (2010) tracked the root of this challenge and explained that, “the problem for the traditional media, then, is not so much a loss of readers, but an outdated advertising-based business model combined with high operational costs that make it difficult to provide the on-demand news and information audiences want.” By this, the migration from “within media” to “outside media” revenue sources should be sought hence the need for this study.

Alluding to the generally established position that advertising is a major source of income for media (Croteau & Hoynes, 1997; Kurpius et al., 2010; Nyarko & Teer-Tomaselli, 2018; Wasserman & de Beer, 2005), this work uses exploratory design to tap the opinions of 15 print media professionals to find out the sources of revenue to newspapers in Ghana and examines the extent to which they have over-relied on any of them. It intends to determine whether newspapers have diversified their businesses beyond the media industry for revenue generation purpose. The work is expected to contribute specifically to media diversification in Ghana where there is little body of knowledge and has implications for Africa and global spheres. In this study, the terms state- and government-owned media are used interchangeably because both are public funded.

2. Literature

2.1. Ghana: Newspaper market

Like the global trend of the print, newspapers in Ghana took off early but somewhat lags behind it contemporaries in the media market. Olsen (2012) clarifies that before broadcasting, newspapers had existed. This sluggish growth of newspaper in Ghana is traced to advances in broadcasting and the Internet as well as the unstable Ghanaian economy that envelops the print industry. Haruna Atta, the editor of Accra Daily Mail notes, With everything from fuel, food to fertilizer becoming expensive, buying a newspaper is becoming less of a priority (Bizcommunity, 2009) to people. Geopoll (2017) records that the four leading newspapers circulating in Ghana are Daily Graphic (1,519,000), Daily Guide (726,000), Ghanaian Times (532,000), Business & Financial Times [B&FT] (148,000) and they control a national readership of 95.83%. To Geopoll, apart from their flagship Daily Graphic, the Graphic Communications Limited runs four other vibrant papers, namely The Mirror, Junior Graphic, Graphic Sports and Graphic Showbiz. Overall, Geopoll estimates that the total circulation of the top 15 newspapers in Ghana is 3,823,726. The Media Ownership Monitor Ghana describes this development as high readership concentration with state ownership controlling 72.1% of the market (Reporters without Borders, nd) though the landscape holds huge private sector due to the 1990s liberalisation. This resonates with the observation that with falling circulation, fewer newspapers serve the larger populace (Kamarck & Gabriele, 2015). According to compilations by the National Media Commission (NMC) and Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), there are some 466 print (newspapers, magazines and journals) in Ghana (IREX, 2012, pp. 175–6) out of which 135 registered with NMC in 2015 (Reporters without Borders, nd).

While Ghana’s media made impressive successive performance on the press freedom ranking, its financial sector appears to show a different record. For instance, a five-year report (2013–2018) shows that Ghana’s newspaper advertising revenue grew from USD 9.6 million in 2018 and forecasted to hit USD 13 million by 2023. This lags behind ad figures of South Africa, Tanzania and Nigeria. For instance, Tanzania’s newspaper ad revenue grew from USD 13 million in 2018 and expected to reach USD 17 million by 2023 (Guttmann, 2019). Despite these strides, Cagé (2014, p. 10) found that overall, “in the majority of the sub-Saharan African countries, the advertising market is very tight and newspapers are unable to rely on advertising revenues”. With Internet usage growing from 35% in 2019 and reaching 48% in January 2020 in Ghana (Sasu, 2020) thereby creating market for news online, some newspapers have published online but subscription figures remain unknown. While Haruna Atta admits that the change in consumption from print to broadcast/electronic news is a problem, newspapers in Ghana do not yet have a solution (Bizcommunity, 2009); the need to explore other revenue prospects beyond the media setting becomes imperative.

2.2. Global trends: Newspaper management

Following inferences surrounding the erosion of newspaper revenue attributed to Internet popularity (Alterman, 2008; Cagé, 2014; Cherian, 2015; Carvajal & Aviles, 2008; Graham & Smart, 2010; Jóhannsdóttir, 2018); World Association of News [WAN] (2019) affirms that though both print and digital advertising revenue declined in 2018 by 3%, print was the most hit. While these revelations triggered newspapers to diversify to online publishing, studies show that online newspapers have not been impactful as expected. Berger et al. (2015) found that the escape of newspapers to online rather worsened their plight because they appear to overlook the fact that demand factors go beyond content format differences to Willingness to Pay (WTP) for online news which is free. For instance, while, Chyi and Lee (2012) found that charging for online news has proven tedious; Herbert and Thurman (2007, p.215) reiterate: “It is impossible to charge for general news content”. To this end, Jóhannsdóttir (2018) observes that online newspapers are more prone to market pressures compared to offline ones. Focusing on Taiwan newspaper, Chyi and Huang (2011) found that the demand relations between print and online news have often been misconstrued arguing that the print version rather “attains much higher penetration relative to its online version, [and] suggesting that more people would rather consume the print edition over free Web offerings”. Berger et al. (2015) concur and maintain that the print still pays the bill. Skogerbø and Winsvold (2011) argue that devising a strategy for local newspapers is uncertain because apart from the youth migrating online, the same sociocultural groups read both offline and virtual newspapers editions and more essentially, audience tend to be attached to their local printed newspaper and hence read it than virtual ones. Furthermore, a study among readers in Austin, Texas, by Chyi and Larosa (2002) shows complementary relation between print and online newspapers but emphasised that even Internet users prefer the former to the latter. This complementarity is also evident in the European newspaper landscape (Van Der Wurff et al. 2008).

Clearly, the search for a working model for newspaper has proven difficult. The “paid news” or “news portal model” is a known business model (R. G. Picard, 2000) whose relationship seems to explain “why online newspapers in the late 1990s looked very much like print newspapers” due to their economic base (Wurff & Lauf, 2008, p. 406). Johnson and Gutiérrez (2010) note that the newspapers’ business model will continually face disruptions in the twenty-first century due to changes in consumer preferences and technology. By this, the uniqueness of print should be central to any strategy to sustain it. With Editor Oliver Duff’s observation that print media will evolve much longer than analysts postulate (Tobitt, 2020a) amid forecasts that global newspaper advertising and circulation revenues will continue to fall (Mayhew, 2020); exploring revenue avenues outside the media industry itself is needful to strengthen the print.

Fundamentally, both the Ghanaian and global newspaper advertising markets saw the following trends: falling revenues attributed to the Internet; difficulty tracking Internet revenue due to its free news mode, Internet is a diversified option, exploring workable funding strategy, and hinderance by economic challenges.

2.3. Advertising, revenue generation and diversification

The reliance on a lone income is risky due to frequent uncertainties in markets. This explains why occasionally managers attempt to lessen dependency level to control and reduce the risk (R. G. Picard, 2004). Thus, media’s reliance on advertising revenues can make them susceptible to the fortunes of business profits and recession (Brierley, 2002; McQuail, 2000). This suggests that the principle of “we swim together” and “drown together” will be at work, — which is not good for the media’s autonomy. R. G. Picard (2008, p. 715) shows that advertising expenditures will pleateau and decline in the future, denying newspapers revenue that is critically needed for sustainability’. Thus, Herd (1952) earlier referred to Francis Williams as saying

The dangerous dependence of newspapers on advertising has often been the theme of newspaper reformers—usually from outside it ranks. But the daily press would not have come into existence as a force in public and social life if it had not been for the need ofmen of commerce to advertise. (p. 65).

Clearly, danger looms with regard to the independence of the newspaper industry. It is also clear that the search for acceptable substitute of sourcing funds must continue: “[f]inancial support, because we chose to draw our financial backing from the industry itself” (Morgan, 1989, p. 148). For instance, the Murdoch establishment is Australian-based and headquartered there; its growth in the US is funded by revenues from Australian and British associates (Herman & Chomsky, 2002, p. 13). Moreover, Scott Havens, former president of The Atlantic explains that the firm generated 20% of its total revenue through events organised to earn profits for the first time since the last decade. Also, the not-for-profit Texas Tribune made event hosting its core strategy to increase earnings from $176,000 in 2010 to $1.1 million in 2013. This, according to media economists is a breakthrough for the US media market (DeJarnette & Madison, 2016). This points to the fact that the need to diversify operations beyond the media industry to generate substantial revenue is imperative if the industry is to remain autonomous. Allen and Hamilton (1985) defined diversification as

a means of spreading the base of a business to achieve improved growth and/or reduce overall risk that (a) includes all investments except those aimed directly at supporting the competitiveness of existing businesses, (b) may take the form of investments that address new products, services or geographic markets; and (c) may be accomplished by different methods including internal development, acquisitions, joint ventures, licensing agreements.(p. 524).

In a narrow perspective, diversification refers to the “supply side of media firms, particularly to the number of business areas in which a firm is involved, the variety of its product offerings, or the range of geographic regions in which it does business” (Roessler 2007, p.467). The move towards media diversification may centre on product or globalisation (Jung & Chan-Olmsted, 2005). Product diversification occurs when a firm goes outside an industry to run businesses in many other fields whereas diversification internationally encompasses a strategy that extends the operations of a business beyond its original national boundaries to other geographic markets (Hitt et al., 2001). Teer-Tomaselli et al. (2019, p. 8) saw diversification as “the countervailing concomitant convergence of media platforms where a firm’s primary core business [say print] has shifted to Internet platforms, the original core business being sidelined by complementary broadcasting and other digital technologies, with e-commerce and Internet provision leading the way”. Diversification has been used as a strategy to deal with dependence on revenue through the creation of extra revenue streams. The application of this strategy has led most newspaper firms to enlarge the scope of their work through acquisitions in magazines, book publishing and broadcasting in the 1980s and 1990s (R. G. Picard, 2004). For instance, in Britain, all the ten leading publishers of provincial evening newspapers (at the time) had economic interests beyond publishing, nine of which are very pervasive. This situation is true also for the ten leading publishers of provincial weeklies, eight of which have pervasive interests beyond publishing (Curran, 1979). After decades, DeJarnette and Madison (2016) undertook an assessment of the industry’s newfound revenue source in hosting “public-policy events” and concluded that editorial events are good revenue streams which also enhance trustworthiness and credibility of the media profession. However, they argued that first, not all events are ideal for revenue generation and second, public discourse may suffer. By this, they seem to contend that beyond revenue generation, the public interest mandate of the fourth estate should not be side-lined. Thus, exploring ways for decent funding avenue is as needful as news production for society. The “two are always synergetic and co-dependent” (Teer-Tomaselli et al., 2019, p. 7). In searching for funding model to sustain hyperlocal media, Kurpius et al. (2010) observed that despite the changing formats of traditional media content, the underlying business models remain unchanged to reflect the changed media economy and of the different funding types such as private (angels), nonprofit (foundation and memberships), publicly traded and employee-owned, advertising is a potential revenue source across all types. Moreover, they postulated that multiple funding sources create a greater chance for media sustainability hence a positive connection between the two. Teer-Tomaselli et al. (2019) showed how Naspers Media 24 diversified its operations first nationally, and later globally by owning Multichoice in 1993 as the parent firm, then launched PAS4 and DStv to manage subscription on a digital platform amid the production of content by M-Net and SuperSport in 1995 and fully ventured into the satellite television business (digital) from the analogue. The most profound merit that firms accrue from diversification is the massive ease with which they can generate resources from both internal and remote sources (Jung & Chan-Olmsted, 2005). Chan-Olmsted and Chang (2003) used a case-study method to analysis seven media conglomerates with emphasis on the diversification of geographic and product lines. They reviewed the trends of diversification and postulated a framework to examine influential factors that determines these strategic moves. Jung and Chan-Olmsted (2005) analysed the influence of product and geographical diversification of the topmost 26 media establishments based on their financial standing spanning 1991–2002. They showed that related product and global diversification yields a strong revenue base but where diversification is excessive, it leads to a fall in performance. In a study conducted to track the effect of content diversification on circulation and advertising revenue using a 10-year time-series analysis of the content of newspaper and financial data, Li and Thorson (2015) established that an increase in news content and diversity enhances the circulation of newspaper and improves revenue from advertising. Sutter (2002) found that threats to cancel advertising contract might not be successful if media outlets can easily sought for advertising from other advertisers. From the lenses of Li and Thorson, and Sutter, generation of revenue is “intra-media” activity which hovers mainly around circulation on one hand, and advertising on the other. This suggests that the strategy of creating extra revenue streams particularly beyond the media institution is a precursor to achieve media autonomy and development. Moreover, Brierley (2002) cautioned, the economic dependence of the media on advertising affects it in various means because in as much as it brings marginal profits to media owners, it also comes with marginal costs. Consider the exorbitant cost of gaining advertising contracts to publish to a new medium: “[h]iring a sales force, advertising to advertisers in trade press, producing documents such as media packs and running conferences and exhibitions and awards as well as a separate production to produce the ads” (p. 81). Kurpius et al. (2010) consur. In this respect, Ivon Asquith (1975, p. 721) noted that

It was the growing income from advertising which provided the material base for the change of attitude from subservience to independence. The chief methods by which governments could influence the press – a direct subsidy, official advertisements, and priority of intelligence - were rendered less effective because proprietors could afford to do without them.

Apparently, it was through the increase in newspaper returns mainly from advertising that enabled newspapers to liberate themselves from the state and party subsidies and develop an independent institution for dissemination of news to emerge as the fourth estate (Curran, 2002, p. 79). However, this very funding source (advertising) that liberated the press now seems to be manipulating their reporting. The pressure that aggravates restrictions on the media is somewhat traced to lack of plethora revenue sources. These concerns have led to the realisation that just as the press in Africa had to commit itself to the struggle against colonialism; now it has to actively commit itself to maintaining its independence in the face of commercialisation. In another lens, Faringer (1991, p. 41) warned: “[e]ven today, aspiring African newspaper entrepreneurs frequently find that they must not only provide the financial security for their ventures, but also have to ensure their political credit-worthiness” if they are to surface in the market. For instance, the success of the Naspers’ Media 24 in the South African media market is traced to its direct affiliation to the apartheid administration (1948–1990) as the mouthpiece of the racial separation policy (Teer-Tomaselli et al., 2019). Thus, newspaper outlets across Africa generally tend to operate as commercial bodies to amass profits for its shareholders. This sets the ground for media appraisal to be undertaken based on the level of sales and advertising returns by shareholders instead of how the public assesses media, based on independence, diversity and creativity (Croteau & Hoynes, 2001). Due to this, “[i]n the marketplace approach, the people have no direct authority over the press; its power is indirect and largely financial. Authority lies with the state or the media itself—or in a more limited and indirect way, in the market system where the people themselves exercise considerable power as they operate through the market” (Merrill, 1989, pp. 21–22). To this end, Opuamie-Ngoa (2010, p. 10) concludes: the “global village disease called profit motive derived from the economic logic of diversification and the creation of giant industrial concerns has infected the traditional watchdog role of the media”. However, as long as media needs a funding source devoid of extreme manipulative strings to operate, the necessity to explore these alternative source(s) is imperative. Over the years, studies on newspaper [media] diversification had focused on “intramedia” and “intermedia” expansions without much emphasis on venturing into non-media business areas.

2.4. Research questions (RQs)

RQ1:

To what extent do newspapers over-rely on advertising revenue and how they suffocate

financially without it?

RQ2:

Have newspaper outlets diversified their operations for revenue generation beyond the

media industry?

RQ3:

Are diversified newspapers resilient to external influences?

3. Materials and methods

3.1. Design

This work applied qualitative approach which “produces findings not arrived at by statistical procedures, but rather to a nonmathematical process of interpretation, carried out for the purpose of discovering concepts and relationships in raw data and then organising these into a theoretical explanatory scheme”. In this approach, data are sourced from stakeholders concerned, observations, documents, artifacts and films (Polkinghorne, 2005, p. 137; Strauss & Corbin, 1998, p. 10). With this, any attempt to quantify data gathered makes the said data cease to be a qualitative material (Berg, 2001). Three reasons explain why qualitative approach used. First, the experience and discipline of the researcher; second, the philosophical orientation of the research problem and third, it captures the nitty-gritties of thought processes, moods, emotions, and feelings that are tedious under other methods (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) if not impossible.

3.2. Data sources

This study purposively sourced views of senior jounalists and editors from state and privately owned newspaper firms, media associations/foundations and academics on revenue sources/funding, emerging trends in the print media market on one hand; and the extent of diversification beyond the media industry itself on the other. The two major state-owned newspapers were included in the study, while the extent of reach and circulation determine the selection of one private paper. Public Agenda was selected because it is NGO-sponsored. To ensure that participants have in-depth knowledge to express views reflective of the industry, only those with a minimum experience of 10 years in journalism were selected. See Table 1

Table 1. Overview—sample information

Media firms/bodies	Owner	Working years	Circulation	Participants	Role/rank of sample & composition
Daily Graphic	State	Ten	1,519,000	2	[1] Editor/[1] Journalist
Ghanaian Times	State		532,000	2	[1] Editor/[1] Journalist
Daily Guide	Private		726,000	2	[1] Editor/[1] Journalist
Public Agenda	Private		4,000	2	[1] Editor/[1] Journalist
Ghana Journalist Association	Journalists (members)		Not applicable	2	Regulating Association
Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana	Jounalists (members)			2	Regulating Association
Media Foundation for West Africa	NGO			1	Trained journalist with media advocacy group
Media Scholars	Individuals			2	Trained journalists who are professors
Total				15

3.3. Data collection procedures

Data was collected using a semi-standardised interview based on official ethical clearance no. HSS/1353/013 M issued by the School of Applied Human Sciences (University of KwaZulu-Natal). It is an interview type where the researcher has at hand prearranged set of questions and/or specified subjects to guide the interviewer–interviewee interaction in a systematic fashion (Berg, 2001) but its flexibility enabled the researcher to inquire further above the responses to the questions (Meadows, 2003; Bricki & Green, 2007) without compromising quality. Generally, an interview is a conversation with the objective to gather information (Berg, 2001). As a requirement of qualitative inquiry, informants were encouraged to freely share their experiences of the subject under investigation and researcher became immersed in context and receptive to what is happening (Ryan, Coughlan et al., 2007; Jones et al., 2006). Pseudonyms such as Info 1 to Info 15 were attached to responses for confidential reasons. While critics of qualitative design point to the foregoing researcher–informant relationship to introduce bias and make the design unstructured (Bricki & Green, 2007); to Jones et al. (2006), it rather represents the strength of qualitative studies because its allows in-depth exploration of a phenomenon that is reflected in this current study. For data trustworthiness purposes, the researcher ensured that data collection procedures followed the fundamental notions of reproducible, systematic, credible and transparency (Bricki & Green, 2007).

3.4. Data analysis

Data were analysed thematically. It is the means of recognising pattern within data so that themes identified become categories for analysis (Bricki & Green, 2007; Fereday & Muir-Cochrane, 2006). Data was rearranged so that the “similarities and dissimilarities” patterns were sought systematically (Berg, 2001) using the six-step Braun and Clarke (2006) processes of text analysis: [1] Data familiarisation—recorded data were transcribed into Ms Word/text and read repeatedly to understand and emmerse with the data; [2] Codes generation—general comprehension of the data led to emergence of codes in line with different segments of the texts using RQs as lens; [3] Searching themes—here, the list of codes identified at stage two were collated to form main themes. Overlapping codes (inconsistent with all themes) were kept in a folder labeled “miscellaneous”; [4] Review of themes—the identified themes were further scrutinised for refinement. Here, a theme with limited data to standalone or too diversed were collapsed and/or clustered into other themes; [5] Defining and naming themes—at this stage, definite themes were developed consistent with the overall objective of the study and named: advertising over-dependence, circulation sales and diversification. These themes individually holds enough data to tell the story analytically; [6] Producing report—finally, the findings were categorically presented in a narrative and interpretive format.

4. Results

Newspapers in Ghana rely on three sources of revenue and these are advertising/public relations (PR), circulation sales and owner-funded sources. However, due to the scanty size of these revenue sources in the competitive market, some newspapers have diversified their operations with the objective to counter over-reliance on a revenue source. This analysis is organised into three phases.

4.1. Advertising over-dependence

Many newspapers in Ghana have over-relied on advertising as a revenue source and this explains why many of them suffocate if they do not tap into advertising revenue. Thus, newspapers have not created alternative income avenues to turn to if the advertising door is shut in the statement: I think in Ghana the media’s over-concentration on “advertisement” [generally] and on “state advertisement” [specifically] for survival is a worry. Most of the media will not be able to operate if they do not get funding from advertisements—either private or state newspaper (Info-3). This situation is compounded by the fact that some of the advertisements are government-sponsored and an over-reliance on them does not augur well for the development of the media, especially in relation to its autonomy. This presupposes that both state and privately owned newspapers will suffocate if advertising revenue is curtailed. Similarly, it emerged that: To a large extent, advertisement considerations drive the newspaper business in Ghana and because circulation is low, they mostly depend more on advertisements to generate revenue and they wouldn’t want to “shoot themselves in the foot” by publishing contents (sic) that hurts advertisers. In terms of funding, the state media depends almost solely on government interventions. They also generate their own revenue, but are accountable to the state authorities who are responsible for their existence or operations. The private media, [on the otherhand], mostly depend on private companies who advertise in them (Info-6). By this, newspapers’ over-reliance on advertising is attributed to limited circulation and, subsequently, meagre revenue from its sale. The crucial role of advertising in the running of Ghanaian newspapers have implications for their autonomy with respect to the stories they churn out. Beyond newspapers’ general reliance on advertising, government papers, in addition to fishing for their own revenue, also rely on central government (as owner) for interventions where necessary, while private papers rely exclusively on corporate advertising. This shows that ownership is inseparable from funding issues, and hence plays a vital role in media independence. Additionally, the study captured: … it is all because of the circumstances we find ourselves in this country [Ghana] where income from sales generally cannot cover printing. The media is then compelled to rely on adverts not because it is something we wish to. The circumstances have compelled us [media] (Info-10). To this end, industry players agree that over-reliance on adverts is unhealthy for media’s function. However, the unfavourable economic atmosphere in Ghana dictates the revenue generation option to adopt. For instance, an industry player reinterates: once we [newspaper firms] increase cover price, sales reduce or stagnate so we try to “synchronise and balance the equation”. Thus, the tendency to fall on advertisements and over-rely on it is the strategy to go by. Nevertheless, it is not the best practice because adverts were taking 40% and news 60% [of the print space], but now it is rather 55% or 60% for adverts and 40% or 45% for news. Overall, the firm needs to meet its financial commitments: salaries, other staff entitlements and emoluments therefore we look at areas that can best help us advance our course (Info-2). Here, over-reliance by most papers on advertising is attributed to reader’s unpreparedness/inability to pay for increases in the price of the paper. Thus, any attempt to earn extra revenue through price increase of the paper rather leads to a fall in revenue, and would require firms to tap into advertising for funding. The content-mix of some papers in Ghana need modification because advertising is assigned more content space now, which hinders the main watchdog responsibility of the media through providing factual stories to the public. Currently, efforts are made to ensure 50–50 content composition. This situation confirms the escalating global trends in media commercialisation. The need to fund the numerous operations of firms are deemed so vital that it is given prominence over other public interest content. Overall, it emerged that: In this part of the world [Ghana], [personal] incomes are generally very low and therefore projections linked to cover price derails because readers may not even buy the paper especially if they get exposure from broadcast stations. Considering these limitedness, the tendency is to shift focus onto advertising. We have structured our operations in such a way that we have newspapers that target the medium and small-scale ventures and the big multi-nationals among others. They advertise in our flagship paper, the Daily Graphic, but some companies are cutting down on advertising. However, in areas like obituary even when we increase the rates, people still patronise it (Info-8). Generally, apart from the growth of broadcasting poaching readers, it also appears to have captured a chunk of the adverts in the market which hitherto were published by newspapers. The type of product advertised determines the extent to which a rise in ad rate leads to a fall in demand. By this, funereal advertisement has inelastic demand and strong cultural attachment may be the underlining factor because funerals are so revered in Ghana and largely Africa. Globally, it is expected that other cultures will identify these products with inelastic demand in their own contexts and rate them accordingly to raise more revenue.

However, other positions contrast the above arguments: … [Yes!]the media has over-relied on advertising. But for revenue generation, most newspapers look forward to it, but if they don’t get it [adverts], they still remain in business. By this, the conclusion one could draw is that they do some sales of the newspapers to get revenue because advertisement in Ghana is concentrated in few newspapers like Daily Graphic, B&FT, Ghanaian Times and Daily Guide. Thus, one cannot say that newspapers concentrate on advertising for revenue. That will not be fair (Info-7). This explains that “over-concentration of advertising” is at work within the newspaper industry in Ghana instead of “over-dependence on advertising” by “all” newspapers. By these terms, the chunk of advertising is published in few papers at the exclusion of majority of the newspapers in the media market especially the private ones. This shows that many papers go without advertising, and those that receive chunks of adverts are government owned.

4.2. Circulation sales

Sales is another revenue source for newspapers in Ghana. According to an industry player: If you look through the media [environment], you will see that many newspapers particularly do not have enough advertisements so they rely more on sales from circulation than on advertisement for their survival (Info-1). This shows that in the Ghanaian newspaper market, newspapers that fall within the “few or no advert category” rely on sales to sustain their operations. Furthermore, an informant reiterates: Ah! How won’t you rely on advertising? You see, you have to over-rely on it if you want to make good money but in our case that is not the reality, so you have a situation where the chunk of your revenue come from the sale of the paper (Info-4). The foregoing identifies ad income as the ideal stream but in its absence, income from sales become the last resort to survive publication.

Due to the weak financial state of many newspapers especially the private ones, many of them publish fewer pages compared to government ones, which circulate nationwide. Despite this disparity between state and private outlets, both advertising and sales incomes have proven to be unreliable sources for private papers. The following response elaborates: Few papers get adverts and there are some that can go for weeks, months without any advert and you ask yourself: How do they survive? And then selling too, readers don’t buy a lot that is why most of the papers have twelve, fifteen, and eighteen pages. Political papers don’t really depend on adverts, but are funded by their owners for politics. Advertisements [appear in] the state media especially [Daily] Graphic because they have wide coverage so advertisers prefer to advertise there but for the private media, except the Daily Guide who are second in circulation, adverts are hard to come by (Info-9). While the foregoing shows that political papers are resourced by their owners to ran specific agenda, it also justifies that state media’s attraction of ads is attributed to its wide coverage across Ghana. It is noteworthy that advertisers do not merely pay for the sake of getting published by a media, but their choice of medium is dictated by how far the said media can expose their product to a greater number of the populace. Finally, sport papers also rely on purchases made by their supporters and ownership sponsor. Generally, many print firms in Ghana due to financial challenges do not have documented remuneration packages for their staff as captured in the statement: Sports papers survive on sports patronage and also depend on their paymasters. Papers like Kotoko Sponsor, Hearts of Oak, Sports Wonders and others champion football cause. [The] majority of the newspapers don’t even have a salary structure in place and their conditions of service are poor (Info-13).

4.3. Diversification

In the situation where advertising and sales are unreliable sources, the need to explore the extent to which newspapers have ventured into non-media revenue streams become imperative. In this regard, an industry player notes: I see very few establishments diversifying their models into event organisation and have used their vehicle to promote show business. The bulk of the newspapers are just doing pure “mortar and brick” prints business and do not go beyond the main media industry. A lot of us [newspapers] haven’t seen the value to be derived from going into, say, research and consultancy for big companies because probably we do not have the resources to go into such area. We tend to limit ourselves to our comfort zones which are the media and PR, but I think that it would help greatly if media firms can get big contracts from research companies (Info-3). This shows that media diversification is essential for newspapers in Ghana; however, most outlets have not embraced this strategy to modify their business models for revenue generation. The majority of the newspapers have not recognised the need to venture into other business areas. They have stuck to their traditional business of printing news because they lack the required capital to venture into new business avenues. By implication, diversification into non-media business areas is far from reality. Similarly, the study records: I need to clarify that when you talk about “diversification”, innovation and business initiatives are at play but unfortunately for us in Ghana, we have print owners who are not business-minded. Most of them are crusaders who operated newspapers: two-page, four-page, and leaflets to accelerate Ghana’s pre-independence struggle and were not businessmen. The same can be said of today’s newspaper publishers and owners. Those who are businessmen belong to the electronic media who have invested into broadcast stations. In the print media, believe me, about 98% of our members are journalists who decided to create job for themselves. So the majority of them are not business men and women. No! Not all (Info-13). Here, two reasons explain why many Ghanaian newspapers have not diversified their models. First, the historical objective of the creation of newspapers was more political than economic. The descriptions of the volume of publication of these papers suggest that most of them are very “small outlets” and financially feeble to enter into any meaningful venture. This, to some extent, explains why many of them neither get revenue from advertising nor circulation sales. Second, it follows that the desires of print owners are not business-like unlike their broadcast counterparts. By this, the shift in content consumption from print to broadcasting is not a coincidence but a calculated investment drive by electronic media owners to achieve a viable financial sustainability which the print should emulate. These developments appear to question the independent reportage of many newspapers because there is the likelihood that they speak the mind of their funders instead of the public, at whose service they function. By this, the buzzword “diversification” is virtually absent in the operational equation of many newspapers in Ghana. Furthermore, the study captured: Media ownership does not give you the opportunity to diversify. The man who is investing in that media wants you to carry a certain political story in the front page and that is it. He [the owner] is not thinking about allowing the newspaper to grow and diversify into other areas to make more money and continue to provide services to the public. In my outlet for instance, we had commercial printing department but it is closed down. Daily Graphic is the only diversified outlet into areas outside the strictly newspaper business for incomes. They have a packaging business that produce wrappers on many products, sell bond paper, and also entered into courier services; [but] majority of Ghanaian newspapers are not doing anything. Even for the [government owned] Ghanaian Times, I don’t see that they have any such business (Info-7). The foregoing buttresses the view that many newspapers in Ghana only print news and have not entered into other revenue generation ventures. Among the many newspapers in Ghana, only the state-owned Daily Graphic operates other production lines to give it extra money. Moreover, most of the persons or organisations who gave birth to the newspapers do not subscribe to the diversification agenda. Thus, the priority of the owners is to convey political headlines to project their image and such an operational custom in newspaper running makes them susceptible to funders who tend to single-handedly determine “what is news?”. Considering some emerging trends in attempts to diversify, it emerged from the study that: To a little extent, few papers have started diversifying into printing press to generate funds. Daily Guide owns printing press so they print for some papers and other clients to raise money. The Enquirer also runs a printing press business to support their main newspaper business, but they don’t get a lot of money from [it]. Recently, Insight Newspaper also got a printing press that prints commercially to augment their finances. That is why we [our newspaper] intends to enter into it [printing press], but we are a “non-profit-making organisation”. We are somewhat entitled to apply for funds from the “Skills Development Fund” and aiming to get some papers that are neutral, politically non-aligned, so that we come together to acquire a printing press to support us (Info-9). Here, the expectation is that newspapers go into commercial printing press to enable them to print their own newspapers to reduce production cost and also accept printing jobs from other newspaper outlets and the general public at a fee to sustain them financially in business. However, not all the newspaper firms that entered into printing press are reaping adequate gains. Irrespective of this situation, other newspaper outlets are considering to going into it. Moreover, it is striking to note that commercial printing itself falls within the publishing sector which is largely “media” in scope. This shows that most of the media outlets in Ghana have not diversified into non-media areas. More significantly, for a non-profit newspaper outlet to be seeking partnership with a “non-political” and “objective” newspaper suggests that newspapers with the foregoing orientations are many in Ghana. By this, the postulation that philanthro-journalism is fully sponsored by NGO is gradually fading and giving way for commercialisation.

5. Discussion

The foregoing has explored newspaper revenue sources and the extent to which Ghanaian newspapers have diversified their operations beyond the media industry. Generally in Ghana, both state and private newspapers over-rely on advertising for funding and will struggle to survive without revenues from it. R. G. Picard (2002) concurs. Generally, newspapers’ over-reliance on advertising does not augur well for their autonomy, especially in Ghana where government controls lots of adverts. There is a “concentration of advertising” phenomenon in the Ghanaian newspaper market where adverts are published in few papers like Daily Graphic, B&FT, Ghanaian Times, Business Week and the Daily Guide, and this denies many of the small private newspapers advertisements. By this, the principle of “circulation spiral” is evident in Ghana’s newspaper market. It is the situation where leading financially and economically stable newspapers, due to their wide circulation in the market, pull the existing audience of weak newspapers and their incomes from advertising regardless of how close their circulation are (R. G. Picard, 2004, p. 111). Overall, Cagé (2014, p. 10) observes that “only long-established newspapers with a high-enough circulation and a constant identifiable readership can capture the few advertising resources”.

All the outlets in the newspaper industry target circulation sales as the expected revenue source to fund their newspapers beyond advertising, but actual sales are insignificant to sustain operations. Newspapers that neither get advertising nor circulation sales see both streams as unreliable reflecting the observation of Kurpius et al. (2010) that almost all the funding models are driven by subsidies instead of market tendencies. By this, Will Lewis, Ex-boss of Dow Jones described advertising-based models as “gone” (Tobitt, 2020b). Overall, newspapers in Ghana source their revenues from advertising, sales, public relation programmes, show business (show-biz), sponsorships and owner-funded sources like politicians, private investors or NGOs. However, according to Kurpius et al. (2010), grants from NGOs are relatively small and cover short time periods. Newspapers in Ghana over-rely on advertising due to the general unfavourable economic condition in the country because increases in the production cost of newspaper are not commensurate with increases in the price of the newspapers. This is because newspaper consumers are unprepared and/or unable to pay for the slightest increase in the cover price. However, newspaper outlets have been successful in raising the ad rates on products with inelastic demand. Generally, elasticity is the degree of responsiveness of a percentage change in quantity demanded attributed to a percentage change in price (Griffifiths & Wall, 2000). To them, elasticity is elastic or inelastic. The over-reliance on advertising is demonstrated by some newspapers alloting a greater space to advertising at the expense of public interest stories thereby making Ghana’s print media commercialised. This phenomenon contrasts the global content balance convention of 60% news and 40% advertising (International Research and Exchange Board [IREX], 2010).

Considering the foregoing background, it is essential for newspapers in Ghana to diversify their operations to generate revenue, but few of them have undertaken that venture in the market. With the exception of Daily Graphic that has successfully managed some non-media businesses, the others (Daily Guide, The Enquirer, Insight Newspaper, etc.) have diversified within the traditional media sector with extensions into commercial printing press which according to Wolford (2016), is also struggling to survive with the upsurge of digitisation and may explain why the in-house printing press operated by the state-owned Ghanaian Times collapsed. For instance, Herman and Chomsky (2002, p. 13) recorded that “non-media interests of most of the media giants are not large, and, excluding the GE and Westinghouse Systems, they account for only a small fraction of their total revenue”. Though extra revenue streams will help reduce over-reliance on advertising in Ghana, a study in Kenya showed that beyond the chunk of their revenue from advertising, the other revenue sources, especially from huge corporate entities, equally influenced media (IREX, 2010). These concerns call for diversification outside the media industry; and proposes that new non-media business entities should be registered under different name, managed and operated independently of its parent media body. Here, revenue inflows from the new business to media is expected to sustain its operations with a high possibility of widening the gap which exist directly between media as a civil society entity on one hand, and the corporates and government on the other. Thus, the diversified business area(s) serve as an invisible funding hand to feed media. Through this approach, media is expected to relieve itself from excessive “lobbying” for advertising contracts which tends to weaken criticality and to ensure that ad contracts are attracted based on the professional performance of the media in the marketplace. This reiterates the postulation of Li and Thorson (2015) that the number of adverts media publish increases whenever there is improvement in content clarity and diversity, well-informed articles, professionalism and wide coverage. For instance, Chinula (2018) argues under the “quality journalism model” that people will only pay for trending content they find worth their money. By way of recommendation, Will Lewis, notes that high-quality impactful journalism that tells readers issues in business, politics, culture and does not just reproduce corporate and government press releases is the model to adopt (Tobitt, 2020b). The attainment of this standard enables a highly professional media to “attract ad contracts” and not “beg for them” due to its autonomy implications. Three major factors answer why many outlets in Ghana have not diversified. First, the inability to raise the required capital to venture into new business areas; second, the historical motive for the establishment of newspapers was political and this objective has not changed appreciably. In contrast, Naspers’ Media 24 in South Africa switched from political ideology-based practice to financial sustainability strategy (Teer-Tomaselli et al., 2019); and third, many owners are not business-minded and hence do not encourage diversification. However, the Editor of Accra-based B&FT Edith Dankwa explains that her newspaper has successfully diversified globally and operates in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa (Dankwa, 2015). By this, diversification enables them to accrue revenue from both internal and external domains (Jung & Chan-Olmsted, 2005). In the context of “media diversification” generally, Herman and Chomsky (2002, p. 13) observed, “the television networks, television syndicators, major news magazines, and motion-picture studios all do extensive business abroad, and they derive substantial fraction of their revenues from foreign sales and the operation of foreign affiliates”. Consequently, this study defines “media diversification” as the exploration, identification and investment beyond intra and inter-media platforms into non-media ventures with the aim of reducing or mitigating over-reliance on a lone income source to enhance its autonomy.

6. Conclusion

First, it is notable that generally newspapers in Ghana have over-relied on advertising because all newspapers yearn to publish advertising to raise income to cover production cost; however, some of them do not get them because adverts are concentrated in few papers. To those newspapers which do not get adverts, it is an illusion to conclude that media generally over-rely on advertising revenue to survive. The high-advert concentrated newspapers have become commoditised so much so that they give more content space to “sell products” compared to that for “public-concerned news”. This work defines “over-reliance” as the dependence on a lone income by firms amid other legitimate revenue streams within the media industry which threatens their very existence and autonomy. Second, many newspapers suffocate if they do not tap into advertising because revenue from circulation sales, the next option for these papers is insignificant because subscription is low amid growing competition from the broadcast sector who are more business-conscious. Beyond advertising and sales, newspapers, especially the private ones have leaned on owner-funded source. As a result, newspapers have the option to diversify their operations for revenue generation purpose to ensure sustainable funding, many of them have remained undiversified because (i) they are smaller outlets, (ii) publish few pages with limited circulation, (iii) their ideologies have largely been political and not business, (iv) inability to raise needed capital and (v) ownership does not subscribe to the diversification strategy. The few diversified newspapers are still within commercial printing and publishing industry which is also media in disguise. Only Daily Graphic has diversified within and beyond the media sector into packaging production and courier services, and this explains why it was the only publishing house that optimally continued news production during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Overall, diversification is infant in Ghana. In terms of the influence funding exert on media autonomy; the diversification strategy into non-media venture comes as a promising avenue to make newspapers resilient. However, the diversification drive may be dependent on the prevailing ownership style which, according to this study, tends to hinder private media compared to the state ones. For instance, the state-owned Daily Graphic has proven to be financially viable by paying annual dividend to the owner (government) and more recently published sensitive issues on government which hitherto was impossible.

While this study proposes that diversification beyond media is needful for newspaper sustenance and autonomy, the researcher is mindful of the African setting where the general economic and technological base is now growing, hence seeing revenue from advertising, at least, at the introductory stage of a newspaper product cycle as a leeway to raise capital to venture into new business areas. The caution by R. G. Picard (2008) that advertising revenue will grow to its peak and fall in the future to rob newspapers of their sustenance should awaken industry players to the question: should we wait for advertising revenue to fall before we act? Thus, tapping into advertising revenue should not be adopted as indefinite model but a temporal measure to migrate to a more sustainable revenue source(s) before it even declines. Generally, newspaper firms are encouraged to increase advertisement rates for products with inelastic demand to generate revenue, and most importantly to adopt the diversified experience of Daily Graphic as a strategic revenue model.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Prof. Elizabeth Ruth Teer-Tomaselli for supervising this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no direct funding for this research.

Notes on contributors

Jacob Nyarko

Jacob Nyarko is a full-time senior lecturer at the Department of Communication Studies of the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. He holds a PhD in media studies from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. Jacob has taught courses in media planning, newspaper management/production, corporate communications and research among others. He is a mixed-researcher with emphasis on qualitative explorations. He has published in scholarly journals on the state of the Ghanaian media: freedoms, developments, ethics, effects, funding and political economy, terror reporting, and authored a research book