The media sector has for many years been urged to contemplate pooling resources to build stronger and resourceful media houses. The fractured nature of most small outfits are not competitive and are compelled to scramble for the small advertising pie. Yet in numbers therein lies strength, as other sectors in our economy and society have shown; from the thousands of microfinance organisations to public transport companies, they have persevered because of coming together. Ten years ago, cooperatives were synonymous with village level groupings with limited resources. They lacked ambition beyond advocacy and being springboards to attain government or NGO aid. Today, that notion has turned over its head. Business people are no longer a “one man show”, they have embarked on seeking partnerships to pool their resources. It is difficult, if not impossible, to put a face on those behind the changing Kigali landscape. Mega-markets, workshops, bus parks, agricultural and energy projects are sprouting up all over the country, and they do not seek publicity as they are busy building the nation; no one seeks individual credit from their success, they are at it together. In the current state of things, coming together is the small media houses’ only salvation, otherwise, it might mean sacrificing ethics on the altar of survival.
