Community radio gets a R10m boost to accelerate the digital evolution in Africa – Africanews English

Durban-based tech company, immedia has invested R10-million to help African media entrepreneurs to build sustainable community radio by using Fabrik (www.Fabrik.cloud), a set of cloud-enabled digital tools that empower media entities to live-stream shows, grow and engage with audiences around the world, and benefit financially by monetising their audiences.

The 25-year-old company, which has the backing of Microsoft and the Industrial Development Corporation, has been developing their Fabrik technology since 2017. Fabrik allows media entrepreneurs to upend the traditional notion of we broadcast and you receive, by creating a feedback loop that directly helps the stations and listeners that use it to leapfrog old technology, to become citizen journalists, and find their strategic space in a digitally transformed world. It is already being used by 15 commercial clients, including radio stations Gagasi FM, Smile 90.4FM and YFM.

As part of its Digital Leap programme (https://bit.ly/2Z8oQme), immedia will be giving its platform to qualifying media entrepreneurs across Africa for free for a year. This includes consultation, training and support to help monetize the technology, cumulatively valued at R10 million.

Phil Molefe, a veteran of broadcast radio in South Africa, Fabriks Head of Business Development & Strategy, says the programme was key to the companys vision to spearhead media transformation. He says the uptake of Fabrik by energetic entrepreneurs at community radio stations showed how empowering the suite of digital tools is. It enables them to deepen their relationship with their audience and monetise it sustainably because the quality of their engagement with listeners is meaningful.

Building stable, sustainable community radio across Africa

Molefe points out that while community media is often under-resourced and struggles to retain skills, the companys case studies have shown that it is more than possible for them to thrive and that the Digital Leap programme is the kind of opportunity they need, and can succeed on. Fabrik helps media entrepreneurs by solving key challenges for them, including:

Fabrik has a range of users, and about 60% of their listeners have an opt-in relationship with their broadcasters. By building and growing owned communities, stations then stand to benefit financially by serving highly relevant ads to their digital listeners. In addition, where sales conversions on social media are around 2%, Fabrik users enjoy 8%.

According to Tamie Mbombo, head of Marketing and PR at Izwi loMzansi, one of the largest community radio stations in South Africa, says that the platform has revolutionised the stations engagement with its listeners, and has led the digital charge with featured podcasts and integrated advertising campaigns on the Izwi mobile app. Community medias aim is to provide trusted information and expression, and Fabrik has helped do that, he says.

A change of mindset is required

The Fabrik team made some interesting observations based on the experiences of early adopters of the technology, including around community radio, where many advertisers and business decision makers are often dismissive of the audience. For example, one of our clients is a station with an audience in the LSM 4-6 range. That audience is typically regarded as too poor or too marginalised to go digital and yet our clients are proving that they are taking to it like ducks to water, Molefe says.

He says that the take up by media entrepreneurs, either regarded as on the fringes or as outliers, is the best showcase for Fabrik. They are doing what they do because nobody told them they couldnt and it is proving to be a great leveller. Weve seen how powerful this platform is in the community media space, which is why we are looking at boosting the rate of transformation.

Applications for the Fabrik Digital Leap programme are now open. For more information visit the website (https://bit.ly/2MXxy4e) or contact Jonathan Lumley at jonathan@fabrik.cloud.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Fabrik.

About Fabrik:The Fabrik (www.Fabrik.cloud) platform helps broadcast entities build independent, valuable and trusted communities in a safe space that you own and manage. Fabrik gives you progressively deeper data insights into your own community through real-time, human engagement. With the Fabrik platform and its impressive suite of services including customer data and insights and a powerful mobile application, you can grow audiences, increase customer engagement, gain valuable audience insights and statistics to help optimise content, and ultimately monetise your radio station.

For more information visit http://www.Fabrik.cloud.

Phil Molefe, Business Development and Strategy Lead at Fabrik, is a veteran journalist and Media Executive with a wealth of experience in both the print and electronic media that spans nearly 40 years.

Jonathan Lumley, Clients, Channels and Markets Lead at Fabrik, is a radio promotions veteran who now empowers stations to bring new value to their audiences and advertisers through innovative technology-enabled workflows and campaigns.

Africanews provides content from APO Group as a service to its readers, but does not edit the articles it publishes.

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Community radio gets a R10m boost to accelerate the digital evolution in Africa - Africanews English