[fullwidth background_color=”” background_image=”” background_parallax=”none” enable_mobile=”no” parallax_speed=”0.3″ background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_webm=”” video_mp4=”” video_ogv=”” video_preview_image=”” overlay_color=”” overlay_opacity=”0.5″ video_mute=”yes” video_loop=”yes” fade=”no” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding_top=”20″ padding_bottom=”20″ padding_left=”” padding_right=”” hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” menu_anchor=”” class=”” id=””][one_full last=”yes” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” hover_type=”none” link=”” border_position=”all” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ animation_offset=”” class=”” id=””][fusion_text]On Friday, July 19, 2024, I received an email from the IPI Media Innovation team congratulating the Lake Region Bulletin (LRB) for an offer in IPI’s 2024 Local News Accelerator program. As an organization, we were thrilled. A few months before, we had applied for this program which competitively picked 10 media organizations across the globe.
In our application, our main target was to get support on how to build our local audience through quality storytelling. Our main audience is people who directly depend on Lake Victoria resources, such as farmers, fishermen, and traders, as well as individuals and entities working towards the conservation of these resources. Many of these groups are diverse, spanning various age groups and genders.
Lake Region Bulletin was founded to fill the gap of untold community stories, focusing on solution-based community-driven stories in the Western part of Kenya. Many mainstream media organizations cover political stories, tragedies and scandals, with development given little attention. Lake Region Bulletin came in with a Solutions Journalism approach to storytelling, providing a platform for communities to share stories which inspire change and positive thinking. Even though there are problems in communities, which Lake Region Bulletin strives to highlight, we also want to create a platform for stories of solutions to these problems.[/fusion_text][fusion_text]
“Lake Region Bulletin was just slightly over two years old then, and we were looking for a way to boost our presence in the crowded online media landscape.”
To our delight, the Local News Accelerator provided exactly what we needed as a young organization. Through the training and coaching, we were able to discover ourselves better.[/fusion_text][fusion_code]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[/fusion_code][/one_full][one_full last=”yes” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” hover_type=”none” link=”” border_position=”all” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ animation_offset=”” class=”” id=””][fusion_text]
The Challenge
First, our greatest challenge was retaining talent. Being a small organization with limited resources, compensation for journalists is low. This means we have to hire young professionals, and it takes time to identify and develop talents. However, many of these talents leave after a short while, leaving us with gaps to fill. This has seen us experience a cycle of recruitment and training, which eventually led to us losing representation in some of the areas we cover.[/fusion_text][fusion_text]
The Solution
Through the Local News Accelerator, we looked at possibilities of partnering with local universities, where we can identify and train student journalists, to create a pool of local news contributors. We managed to design a program which would see Lake Region Bulletin develop a working formula with the learning institutions, develop a simple curriculum, and roll out the program.
The project would entail one training per year, targeting final-year students, and giving them the necessary skills to help them develop quality content from their localities that we serve.
This would help with building and sustaining our local audiences, as well as building a pool of skilled and experienced journalists that we can rely on. This program would also provide fresh graduates with a platform where they can publish and get exposed to real work in the media industry.[/fusion_text][fusion_text]During our one-on-one coaching sessions, we highlighted staff turnover as one of our key challenges. With subsequent sessions, we brainstormed on the possible solutions and came up with the idea of working with local universities to build a pool of reporters who could plug in to help us with quality content. Our coach helped us to refine the idea and come up with a proposal on how to implement it. We therefore considered signing an MoU with local universities, developing a curriculum with them, and identifying final-year students for training and mentorship. Those picked would contribute content to the Lake Region Bulletin. Since we are yet to move to the implementation stage, we are open to the input of the target universities to come up with a workable curriculum and viable implementation strategy.[/fusion_text][fusion_text]Many established media organizations focus on hiring journalists with notable profiles. This is however disadvantageous to the graduates who have not had the chance to apply their knowledge and develop their skills and portfolio, hence our project would make a great starting point for young professionals.
Through the program, Lake Region Bulletin also discovered the impact of new tools, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), creating journalistic content with mobile, and how we can equip our staff and contributors with relevant knowledge and skills to take advantage of such innovations.
Many audiences have become proactive, and they know what they want. The project provided us with an overview of how we can escalate audience engagement to make maximum impact with our stories.[/fusion_text][fusion_text]
What are Lake Region Bulletin’s plans for the future?
Our next step is to actualize our partnerships with local universities, to launch the training program. We see this as the launching pad for Lake Region Bulletin’s success in sustainable quality journalism.[/fusion_text][/one_full][one_full last=”yes” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” hover_type=”none” link=”” border_position=”all” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ animation_offset=”” class=”” id=””][content_boxes settings_lvl=”child” layout=”clean-horizontal” columns=”1″ icon_align=”left” title_size=”18px” title_color=”” body_color=”#141414″ backgroundcolor=”#b5e0f4″ icon_circle=”” icon_circle_radius=”” iconcolor=”” circlecolor=”” circlebordercolor=”” circlebordersize=”” outercirclebordercolor=”” outercirclebordersize=”” icon_size=”” icon_hover_type=”” hover_accent_color=”” link_type=”” link_area=”” link_target=”” animation_delay=”” animation_offset=”” animation_type=”0″ animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.1″ margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=””][content_box title=”Follow Lake Region Bulletin” icon=”” backgroundcolor=”” iconcolor=”” circlecolor=”” circlebordercolor=”” circlebordersize=”” outercirclebordercolor=”” outercirclebordersize=”” iconrotate=”” iconspin=”no” image=”” image_width=”35″ image_height=”35″ link=”” linktext=”” link_target=”_self” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=””][checklist icon=”fa-map-marker” iconcolor=”#000000″ circle=”no” circlecolor=”” size=”17px” class=”” id=””]
[li_item icon=”fa-globe”]Location: Kenya[/li_item]
[li_item icon=”fa-arrow-circle-right”]Website: lakeregionbulletin.co.ke [/li_item]
[li_item icon=”facebook”]Facebook: Lake Region Bulletin [/li_item][/checklist][/content_box][/content_boxes][fusion_text]
Lake Region Bulletin was one of the participants in IPI’s Local News Accelerator 2024, made possible with support from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.[/fusion_text][/one_full][/fullwidth]