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Media Managers Learn How To ‘Control’ Spending And Generate Revenue
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Media managers are worried about the rising costs they incur to maintain their business but also about the slow pace with which they collect revenue. During the online workshop "A Media Outlet’s Financial Capacity, Estimating and Planning Development Indicators," Irina Ghelbur, Media Management Consultant, made recommendations to media directors on how to more effectively monitor financial indicators, analyze data correctly as well as how to intervene promptly to remedy unpleasant situations. The training which took place at the end of January was attended by managers and accountants from the newsrooms beneficiaries of the Center for Consulting and Assistance to Regional Independent Media Outlets.
In the first part of the workshop, Irina Ghelbur referred to the financial indicators that media managers need to monitor regularly in order to identify in time the problems that may arise, to make the right decisions and to plan the further activity. "Costs are rising every day, and a good manager must keep them in check so as not to grow beyond the company's ability to generate revenue. Your accountant only presents your income data to the tax authorities in March, while you need to know the situation for the previous year at the end of January at the latest. That is why I recommend that you ask the accountants for a special, quarterly report that includes all the revenue and cost sections, even the smallest ones. In this way, you will be able to follow where you have losses and in what periods, and to intervene radically, so that at the end of the year you are not shocked by what has happened," the facilitator said. She presented to the participants a few financial report samples (in Excel) intended for media managers for financial records and which are successfully used by the Agora.md news portal: “I recommend at least two of them - Profit & Loss) and Cash Flow. The former helps you to better keep track of the revenue-generating departments but also of the ones that generate costs, while data analysis allows you to intervene quarterly, if necessary. The latter enables you to be aware of the monthly flows that come and go from the newsroom. Let us say that every month the VAT payment leaves the newsroom on the 25th and you incur salary costs on the 31st, etc. This helps you to better organize the work of the sales managers who have to schedule and carefully monitor the advertising revenue from the customers up to the said dates.”
In the second part of the webinar, I. Ghelbur showed the participants how to complete the financial record files. The beneficiaries were satisfied with the practical usefulness of this training. "We know in general what a newsroom’s revenues and costs are but we receive this information late from the accountant. Nor do we have something systemic to guide us. What Irina suggests is much more useful, even if we have to make an extra effort at the beginning to get such a mechanism going. I am sure that in this way it will be much easier for us to keep the situation under control," Elena Cobăsneanu from Observatourl de Nord (Soroca) said. Lilia Curchi from Natura magazine added: “It is not a novelty that we have to follow the financial indicators but what Irina suggested is much better structured, which would enable us to avoid some risks in our work. We are once again convinced about how important it is to diversify the types of services that bring revenue, especially in the situation when costs are constantly rising."
Full webinar registration is available HERE.
Between July 2020, when the Consulting and Assistance Center was relaunched and until now, API has held other 17 thematic webinars, attended by over 282 media staff. During the 17 months of activity, a total of 729 media professionals have benefited from the Center’s consultant services.
The Consulting and Assistance Center was set up by API to help increase the sustainability and functionality of regional independent media outlets. The Center employs seven consultants in the following fields: media management, advertising, caselaw, IT, web design, print design, and accounting. API member newsrooms and regional media outlets which are not API members but meet the minimum criteria of editorial independence and professional integrity may request the Center’s services by accessing the application on the webpage www.api.md.
The project "Continuation of Assistance Program for Independent Regional Media" is implemented by the Association of Independent Press (API) and funded by the US Embassy to the Republic of Moldova. The views expressed within the project belong to the authors of the project and do not necessarily correspond to those of the US Embassy.
