To the Rwandan media; merge or specialise

Editor,Reference is made to Paul Ntambara’s article, “Media and business: Why Rwandan media need help”, published in The New Times on December 28.

Monday, December 30, 2013

Editor,Reference is made to Paul Ntambara’s article, "Media and business: Why Rwandan media need help”, published in The New Times on December 28.Recently, Kenneth Agutamba raised a similar argument. In this article, the author provides more examples cutting across both electronic and print media that form the basis of the problem.Indeed, our local radio stations suck to say the least. Both this article and Kenneth’s raise important issues – indeed the media should stop whining and look beyond handouts.I liked Kenneth’s two ideas: one that smaller firms could merge to emerge stronger financially (this is actually viable as that’s how Associated Press (AP) became so dominant) and his second proposal that news magazines should specialise in fields and create a niche for themselves, attracting a niche readership and opportunities for funding and training.I tend to believe that these for now are the best ideas that could help media CEO’s out of their predicament.Eugene, Canada