Over the course of NAMIP, I’ve had the privilege of stewarding bold ideas as they took shape and grew into resilient media organizations. What began as experiments have become real businesses with stronger revenues, larger audiences and leaders willing to wrestle with uncertainty. Along the way, newsrooms have found new life, collaborations have flourished and innovation has proven to be as much about people and leadership as it is about products and tools.
From this vantage point, a few insights stand out. These are lessons I believe deserve to be better understood by those looking in on Nigerian media from the outside and who want takeaways to help their own media:
1. Media innovation is more human than technical
Technology may enable, but people transform. The most meaningful breakthroughs come not from flashy tools, but from founders and teams who understand their audiences deeply and build trust in ways no platform alone can achieve.
2. One-size-fits-all support is a myth
Every newsroom is its own ecosystem. What works in Lagos might not work in Kano. Sustainability takes root when support is built on listening, bespoke, adaptive, responsive, and tailored to the unique ambitions of each organization.
3. Resilience is Nigeria’s hidden competitive advantage
Despite economic strain, political pressure and infrastructural gaps, independent media have shown extraordinary ingenuity; diversifying revenue, doubling audiences and pivoting operations in ways that global audiences rarely expect.
4. Grants must be a runway, not a landing strip
Seed funding provides the spark, but it’s only a means to test, learn and iterate. Long-term survival depends on building engines of growth that can keep running once the grant cycle ends. The real success is when organizations turn experiments into enduring revenue models.
5. To be sustainable, media have to think like a business
Independent media survive when they think like businesses: diversifying revenue and making deliberate choices about what they offer, who it serves and how it creates value. By grounding their models in solid business fundamentals, they safeguard their independence while showing that public interest journalism can remain both mission-driven and market-aware.
6. Scale looks different here
In fragile ecosystems, impact spreads horizontally through replication, adaptation and networks. The ecosystem strengthens when multiple players grow together.
7. Building trust – online and offline
Digital-first outlets are recognizing that loyalty is strengthened in real human spaces – events, meet-ups, workshops and community gatherings. And there is value in consolidating trust and community offline as well as online.
8. Collaboration is the new survival strategy
We have seen competitors become collaborators, pooling resources, co-building technology and co-hosting events. In unique contexts, bridges matter more than bunkers.
9. Leadership is the ultimate differentiator
Time and again, growth has hinged not just on skills or resources, but on leadership: clarity of vision, courage under pressure and agility to pivot when needed.
10. Nigerian media are rewriting the playbook
These organizations are not copying global models but designing solutions suited to their realities. Their ingenuity offers lessons for media development globally.
What I carry with me is the knowledge that sustainability is not a fixed destination but a journey – one that becomes possible when organizations are given space, support and encouragement to chart their own course and prove the unique solutions their audiences need. In essence, resilience in Nigerian media and anywhere else is built, not bestowed.
Our role was to provide the spark, but it was the ingenuity and grit of media leaders that kept the fire burning. I am convinced that these sparks will keep multiplying, lighting paths for freer and more vibrant media across Nigeria and Africa.
Thanks for reading,
Dara Ajala
Resources:
Over the last three-and-a-half years, NAMIP has published a range of materials that help understand the unique dynamics of the Nigerian media landscape and the sustainability challenge. Click on the links to know more:
Deji Adekunle’s personal reflections about the Nigerian media landscape.
MDIF CEO Harlan Mandel’s speech (starts at 01:21:16) at the Media Sustainability Conference in Abuja.
NAMIP case studies part 1 and 2.
NAMIP website.