Tuesday 4th August: Using financial journalism to eradicate poverty

August 04, 2020

Good morning! Today's Media Roundup is brought to you by Esther.

Adesola Akindele-Afolabi, a former Reuters Institute Journalism Fellow and current Deputy Editor of Stears Business in Nigeria, was working as a finance journalist at a weekly business newspaper in Lagos, but realised her articles had been focused on the wrong audience.

"I’d been ignoring the people who needed me the most," she writes. "My audience had been finance regulators, CEOs of banks, listed companies, insurance firms...but my country is the poverty capital of the world."

"So with my own experience of navigating the waves of poverty, and the evident degrading economic situation of Nigeria, I started to ask myself: what am I doing to change this narrative? What is my true responsibility as a financial journalist and an economist?"

Adesola's research project focuses on the role of media in financial literacy and poverty eradication in Nigeria. This article gives a good overview of her story, and her full paper is linked at the bottom if you're interested in reading more.

The bottom line? Media can make a real difference in the world, if you focus it on where it's needed most.

Edition-based publishing isn't something many publishers have to worry about any more, but I love these behind-the-scenes looks at how digital teams go about solving technical problems like this. There's always something to learn, even if it's to make sure you don't typo auth keys!

Buckle up! Damian Radcliffe has put together the most enormous list of ways publishers are making money across advertising, content, business models, philanthropy, eCommerce and more. Plenty of ideas, however large or small your business is.

If you haven't yet had chance to catch our final episode of the season with The Conversation CEO Chris Waiting, we've done a write-up here of how their traffic records have given them a unique opportunity to build bridges with an audience who are now eager to hear from trusted experts.

August archive dives:

The 19th has officially just launched, so today feels like an appropriate time to throw back to our conversation with co-founder Amanda Zamora back in March where she discussed why the site is needed, the lessons she'll be taking from her time in legacy newsrooms, and early priorities.

Fed up of the same old view from your desk? Swap it with this brilliant site, which allows you to look through someone else's window, somewhere in the world. I can't be held responsible for your productivity decreasing this week.