value-propos cavans<\/a> for the persona of the mentor, and map the dominant gains\/pains that the mentors have. After that, to think about what the program can do, so that through various activities and approaches during the project, the level of motivation and involvement of the mentors will be as high as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIt also makes sense to mention the essential difference between mentors and experts\/consultants. This (and similar) projects mainly provide the media with experts\/consultants, who use their knowledge and experience to help the media achieve a defined goal. This is a (at least on paper) rather transactional relationship, that is, it implies that primarily the expert shares his\/her knowledge. In contrast, the relationship between mentor and mentee is much deeper, it goes beyond a classic business relationship, and implies a two-way sharing of knowledge. Both approaches (expert and mentor) make sense, and one cannot simply say which one is more adequate for such projects.<\/strong> During the Media for All project, my impression is that the media built a relationship with their mentors, i.e. experts\/consultants that best suits their business needs and personal capacities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/figure>\n\n\n\nBureaucracy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n The sheer volume of administration and bureaucracy required by this project was overwhelming. This should somehow be reduced, as it is very demotivating for mentors to spend large amounts of time on writing reports and filling tables<\/strong>. Working with high profile mentors usually means that they are either full time employed or engaged in many consultancies, so spending considerable amounts of time on administration makes no sense. This can be resolved by reducing the number of reports, notes and other administrative deliverables from the donor side, or by providing a person from the donor side who would handle these activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAdditionally, tech solutions for tracking project activities, media outlet progress, reporting, etc. were subpar for the project of this size and for the amount of data which needed to be recorded. Developing a custom solution for these activities or implementing and customizing an out-of-the-box solution is advised for the next similar projects. The Thomson Foundation team tried to mitigate these shortcomings by pre-filling tables and generally being supportive during the process, but the core solution was lacking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Communication with media outlets was often challenging – they are not used to function remotely, and often do not show up for meetings. While monthly meetings were scheduled for the whole period of 12 months in advance, media outlets often failed to show up on them. With a large number of media outlets to mentor, this situation becomes tiresome, as enormous amounts of time are spent on scheduling, communication, rescheduling, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/figure>\n\n\n\nConclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n Business support programs for the media are needed, but only if they succeed in being truly business-oriented and contribute to directing the media towards designing and developing their own media business. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat should be avoided by all means is that the media enter such programs for “free money” (because free money does not exist) and fear that if they miss this program, they will lose donors and some future projects.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Both for the media and for donors – it is necessary to ensure that the business capacities of the media are really raised and ensure the organizational memory of acquired skills. It is pointless that every business support program covers the same topics and concepts over and over again. In particular, if the media once learned and did the business model canvas, I expect that the subsequent support programs imply that the media know the basic concepts. The new program should bring value through knowledge building, not repetition of already adopted concepts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For almost two years, I had the opportunity to work with the media and mentors through the Media for All project. Initially, I developed an online course that dealt with the development of business model for the media, and then I worked as a mentor with several media. I learned a lot during this process […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":16777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,25,41],"tags":[1509,419,1049,1510],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Lessons learned from delivering business support to media outlets - Journalift<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n