Media as SMEs
Recognising media as drivers of sustainable growth and accountability
🧭 Purpose
Independent and public-interest media are not only democratic institutions — they are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that create jobs, stimulate innovation, and anchor local economies in transparency and trust.
Recognising media as SMEs enables financial actors such as the European Investment Bank (EIB), European Investment Fund (EIF), and InvestEU to extend existing business-development and financing tools to media enterprises. Doing so shifts the narrative from aid dependency to investment in viable, high-impact businesses that generate both economic and democratic returns.
⚖️ Opportunities and Challenges
Opportunities
Untapped economic potential: Local and independent media are employers, innovators, and service providers in their own right. Integrating them into SME financing frameworks strengthens resilience, skills, and value creation within national economies.
Accountability dividends: Supporting viable media businesses reinforces transparency, reduces corruption risks, and improves the investment climate — key goals of the EU’s global financing agenda.
Growing investor interest: Impact investors and philanthropic funds increasingly recognise information integrity as a form of governance capital, opening pathways for blended financing.
Challenges
Limited access to finance: Many independent outlets cannot meet collateral or credit requirements, leaving them excluded from commercial SME schemes.
Knowledge gaps: Financial institutions and local banks often lack understanding of the media business model, risk assessment, and return structures.
Measurement complexity: Quantifying the societal impact of journalism remains difficult, and investors risk “impact washing” without clear metrics.
🧩 Strategic Recommendations
1. Position Media within Entrepreneurial Ecosystems
Recognise media as micro- and small-enterprises within EIB/EIF and InvestEU entrepreneurship programmes.
Integrate media support into local business-development initiatives, linking journalism, digital innovation, and creative industries.
Engage local banking and community finance institutions as partners — even if not traditional actors — to unlock domestic capital flows.
2. Scale Up Capacity Development
Expand access to accelerators, mentorships, and advisory networks that help outlets become investment-ready.
Develop cohort-based programmes to build peer learning between media entrepreneurs and other SMEs.
Pair financial products with targeted support in governance, compliance, and digital transformation, ensuring financing translates into resilience.
3. Address Systemic Barriers
Coordinate with initiatives such as the Global Public Investment Network to tackle cross-sector challenges around inequality and information integrity.
Apply a joint, multidisciplinary approach that connects media viability with broader reforms in business climate, transparency, and accountability.
4. Build Evidence and Measure Impact
Adopt structured impact-measurement frameworks that track both business performance and societal value.
Use mixed methods — quantitative metrics (reach, revenue, sustainability) combined with qualitative evidence (policy impact, social inclusion, public engagement).
Align measurement with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (especially SDG 16) to demonstrate media’s contribution to peace, justice, and strong institutions.
5. Foster Multistakeholder Collaboration
Support the creation of a Media Viability Task Force linking EIB, EIF, philanthropic funds, and private investors.
Join global platforms such as the Media Viability Manifesto to develop common standards for media investment and learning.
Encourage partnerships between public development banks, philanthropic investors, and media funds to scale blended financing and knowledge exchange.
📚 Go Deeper
🗣️ “We must treat journalism not as a grant dependency, but as a functioning enterprise with measurable returns — economic, social, and democratic.” — Dr Clare Cook, Head of Journalism and Media Viability, International Media Support
Dr Clare Cook attended the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) in Seville as part of the Danish civil society delegation. Read her full analysis: The Compromiso de Sevilla: Media’s Undervalued but Vital Role in Financing for Development (GFMD, 2025).
🧑🎓 Learn from Practice
Measuring Impact — Lessons from the Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF)
In 2021, the Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) published a 15-year review of how to measure and report the social value of media investment. Key lessons include:
1. Develop a system that works for you
Track both business viability and journalistic impact.
Collect partner feedback to understand how financing and advisory support affect operations.
Use iterative evaluation that adapts to market and societal changes.
2. Embed impact measurement in the investment process
Apply the principle of additionality: invest where commercial finance cannot reach without compromising independence.
Tie fund managers’ incentives to mission-related impact indicators to align financial and social goals.
3. Leverage multiple data sources
Combine internal monitoring with surveys and external benchmarks (e.g., press freedom indices, social progress indicators).
Limit reporting to priority indicators that balance depth with efficiency.
4. Go beyond numbers
Complement financial and audience metrics with qualitative evidence of societal impact — e.g., policy reforms, public mobilisation, or corruption exposure.
Use narrative case studies to communicate journalism’s civic value to investors and policymakers.
5. Be transparent and realistic
Avoid over-claiming causality: acknowledge that investment contributes to, but does not single-handedly cause, change.
Ensure data validation and transparency of methods to maintain credibility.
6. Align with SDGs and global frameworks
Tailor measurement to media’s specific contributions to information integrity, equality, and governance.
Link to relevant SDGs, including SDG 5 (Gender Equality) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), to show cross-cutting impact.
💡 Key Takeaway
Media enterprises are both economic actors and democratic safeguards. Recognising and financing them as SMEs ensures that Europe’s investment architecture — from EIB to InvestEU — supports local growth, accountability, and resilience in equal measure.
📚 Go Deeper
🗣️ “We must treat journalism not as a grant dependency, but as a functioning enterprise with measurable returns — economic, social, and democratic.” — Dr Clare Cook, Head of Journalism and Media Viability, International Media Support
Dr Clare Cook attended the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) in Seville as part of the Danish civil society delegation. Read her full analysis: The Compromiso de Sevilla: Media’s Undervalued but Vital Role in Financing for Development (GFMD, 2025).
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