Today, the largest proportion of consumers of media content falls in the youth category, requiring that media content producers must always factor the needs of the youth in their processes and schedules if they must be relevant, competitive and impactful on this critical segment of the population and gain from their potentials and strength to achieve sustainability and profitability.
Hence, the recent advocacy by the chairman of Thisday,/ Arise Media Group, Chief Nduka Obaigbena, at the recent Lateef Jakande Lecture organized by the Nigeria Guild of Editors, in this direction is very salutaty.
According to Chief Obaigbena, one of the strategies for survival and competitiveness required by the legacy media organisations t is to meet the needs of its young audience as he counselled media organizations to make conscious efforts to have youths in discussion of media issues and managing the media to get the attention of the large youth population in the country.
“Today, we say we are in survival mode. That survivor must come from the audience. And your audience in Nigeria is young people. Are you engaged with them? Are you working with them? Are they part of your news today?” he asked at the forum where he engaged media proprietors, raising germane concerns on Media sustainability.
The issue of how mainstream media organisations can keep up with the news needs of the younger generation was also the focus of the Journalism and Society Conversation hosted by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) on August 6.
Panelists at the conversation suggested that mainstream media must revolutionize their approach to news to meet the changing needs of the younger generation by adapting and producing relevant content, embracing new technologies, and prioritizing authenticity and transparency, among other steps.
The need for especially legacy media organisation to be more youth-conscious is indeed crucial to their continued existence or sustainability. With the alarmingly low patronage level media organizations are recording in terms of sales and attention, they cannot afford to stick to the old operational mode that does not factor in youth preferences in their content production and dissemination.
They must cover issues that affect the younger generation who constitute a large percentage of our population. They must utilize efficiently new media platforms preferred more by the young audience to source news and engage that segment.
The young staff of media organizations should be included in decision-making meetings on having inclusive content for all categories of audiences, because ultimately voice and participation of a target audience are critical success factors in any venture.
In addition, conditions of service should also be conducive to retaining younger staff to build the necessary labor force for the industry because motivation is an essential component of talent management and succession planning strategies.
Consequently in retaining talented youths through mechanisms of motivation can a media organization establish an organizational culture of loyalty and excellence that ultimately translate to sustainability and profitability of the private or institution media proprietors and investors.