Details

The Media Innovation Bootcamp for Community News Leaders was a three-day media capacity development training targeting news leaders who include independent solo journalism creators, publishers and broadcasters, newsroom managers and editors drawn from community-focused newsrooms and independent news start-ups across Zimbabwe. The News Leadership Bootcamp aimed to build the capacity of community news leaders on community building, product development and revenue modeling.

The three-day Media Innovation Bootcamp for Community News Leaders equipped fifteen changemakers with the knowledge, skills, and networks necessary to lead the transformation of the news business. The general consesus was there is need to develop and sustain the news space from the community level. The challenge of generating revenue was at the forefront of most of the participant's minds as this drives the newsroom. The trainers highlighted all the links between this problem and aspects of product development and building and sustaining communities around their content. It is difficult to have one without strength in the others. The News Leaders were challenged to create value for their audience in order to attract interest in their media products.

The participants emerged with new skills to (re)build news products for their newsrooms, launch new revenue streams, and develop strategies to build loyal audiences around their work. All the participants shared the activities they plan to implement in their news organizations after the training and we look forward to feedback on how the knowledge gained impacts their work.