Regional Media Business Advisor- Africa At Internews Network

ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY

The Regional Media Business Advisor provides technical support to Internews’ programs in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) that have components focusing on the financial sustainability, resilience, and success of media businesses. This work focuses on delivering: improved strategies; increased organizational capacities; better use of performance data; strengthened performance in generating audience scale, engagement and loyalty; better use of social media; increased revenues from advertising and subscriptions.

Meeting the needs of a growing portfolio of projects and partners, this role enables Internews to deliver stronger support to media businesses at scale, across SSA, jointly led by the organization’s Media Business Unit (MBU) and Africa teams. This position will work under the supervision of the Regional Director for Africa and the Senior Director of Media Business.

This role has input into the full lifecycle of Internews’ work with media outlets, including: informing program design; assisting with media business environment research; identifying relevant partners; gathering and using media outlet performance data; training media outlet beneficiaries as well as colleagues; being part of e-learning development; reporting; assisting in sourcing local specialists.

Much of Internews’ work in SSA is with digital media, along with local and community-based radio.

The Regional Media Business Advisor will also be a day-to-day interface between the MBU and a growing cohort of media business advisors in specific SSA countries, sharing insights from the region and bringing knowledge from Internews’ global efforts to improve the financial sustainability of trusted, independent media.

LOGISTICS

Internews has field offices in Nairobi, Kenya. The ideal candidate will be based in and able to work out of the Nairobi, Kenya office. However, remote candidates in Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Tanzania and South Africa will be considered.

Wherever possible, we work to try to find solutions for international hiring that work for both the company and the candidate. This means that some of the particulars around the offer for a role will be dependent on several factors, and that the benefits and salary structure that apply to a position will ultimately be based upon the candidate’s location and where the role is hired.

OUR COMMITMENT TO FOSTERING A CULTURE OF BELONGING

We are an organization of dynamic, mission-driven individuals who are passionate about our core values and about supporting positive change in the world. We pride ourselves on our commitment to innovation and flexibility. We believe that diverse teams are strong teams and work to support an ethic of belonging, dignity, and justice for all people. Our current team includes a mix of genders, parents and non-parents, and people of multiple races, nationalities, ages, sexual orientations and socioeconomic backgrounds. We are an EEO employer and encourage candidates of all races, genders, ages, orientations, ethnicities, and national origins to apply, and welcome those with alternative backgrounds and experiences.

DAY-TO-DAY TASKS will include:

Program design

• Assist in designing media business activities that are relevant to their regional and country contexts.

Media business environment research

• Assist in researching market contexts, and sourcing local experts to contribute to that research, so that business strategy recommendations to media outlets are relevant to their market conditions.

Partner selection and assessment

• Using standardized formats, assist in evaluating media outlets for inclusion in Internews’ SSA programs (and in some cases, funding), and then evaluate their ongoing performance against agreed targets and milestones;
• Ensure Internews works with media outlets that are committed to improving their business performance and have the resources and capabilities to absorb support.

Training and mentoring

• Work with media outlets on strategies and action plans enabling them to become more financially sustainable;
• Provide training on core business skills such as budgeting, financial management, goal setting and tracking results;
• Provide training on audience expansion, audience engagement, and audience loyalty;
• Provide practical advice to strengthen partner media outlets’ revenue generation capacities, in order to enable them to achieve improved financial performance;
• Lead virtual and in-person training sessions for participants based on best practices;
• Provide ongoing mentoring to media outlets to increase their knowledge, technical skills and apply their training.

Support to country teams

• Introduce the essentials of financial sustainability to Internews’ program teams in countries not covered by an active program with media financial sustainability components;
• Assess the quality of Internews’ support to African media houses in business management, digital and social media, and provide recommendations. If needed, provide direct support;
• Guide Internews’ key partner media houses in the region, assess their digital and social media activity, and provide recommendations for action. If needed, provide direct support;
• Work with Internews’ Headquarters to implement Internews’ 2020-2025 Strategy in Sub-Saharan Africa and provide strategic guidance to prevent/counter media market collapse in Africa. The Strategy can be found here;
• Publish stories and short publications on Internews’ website about market challenges and media support solutions in Sub-Saharan Africa.

E-learning

• Contribute expertise and content to Internews’ e-learning materials, intended for both external and internal users.

Reporting

• Help track project metrics that serve to measure the success of project activities;
• Contribute to the writing and compiling of program reporting, including quarterly reports and other project-related reports;
• Draft, review and provide input to project work plans, proposals, and quarterly reports.

Other duties

• Complete other duties as assigned;
• In all duties, an understanding of and demonstrated commitment to upholding Internews’ Core Values.

QUALIFICATIONS WE’RE LOOKING FOR:

Required

• Degree in business administration, media management, communications, or a related field;
• Minimum of 5 years’ leadership or management experience in media, with demonstrable results;
• Experience in strategic business management and organizational capacity development;
• Strong understanding of media business and advertising landscapes in SSA;
• Experience in adult learning and/or providing training;
• Demonstrated organizational skills, ability to prioritize workload and multi-task in a fast-paced environment with a strong track record of meeting deliverables;
• Experience with audience analytics, using tools such as Google Analytics, YouTube Analytics and Facebook Business Suite;
• Excellent soft skills, including interpersonal and communication skills, with a problem-solving attitude and as a self-starter who works both independently and as a collaborative team player;
• Being self-reliant, resourceful, a good problem-solver, good humored, and flexible;
• Ability to travel within and spend extended time in the field, with limited facilities, often under harsh conditions;
• African nationality required.

Preferred

Note: Candidates who do not have these preferred qualifications, but are interested and willing to learn, are encouraged to apply.

• Experience with search engine optimization, social media management, advertising sales;
• Experience with financial management;
• Experience with local and/or community radio;
• Demonstrable knowledge of the challenges facing media in Liberia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.