fraycollege partnered with the Association of Independent Publishers to provide training to publishers marketing and sales training for their platforms. The training was conducted online over two weeks in February and gave publishers foundational skills in marketing their platforms.
Kate Skinner, AIP’s executive director said they wanted their members to have this training because to survive, publishers need to be able to sell their publications to different stakeholders.
“AIP’s central focus over the last few years has been about sustainability. Publishers need to be able to produce quality news products and to be able to sell these products to audiences and advertisers. This course ticked all those boxes,” said Skinner.
Mamaponya Motsai, CEO of fraycollege, agreed with Skinner and said publishers need to be able to tell the story of the impact of their work on communities.
“Publishers and journalists are very good at telling other people’s stories but are often not very good at telling their own. As we try to find ways of sustainably doing journalism in Africa, one of the things we have to do is to tell the story of what we do and why it matters. We need to help our audiences understand us and the impact of what we do,” said Motsai.
The training, which included key topics like marketing, sales and photography, was attended by over 60 participants in total, with most being AIP members and others from community radio and other community media platforms not affiliated with AIP.
Skinner said working with fraycollege on this project was a very professional experience. “The trainers were excellent with a deep understanding of community media and the struggles we experience.”
