Strategy

A media business is like a table with four legs. These are the media organisation's target audience, the core editorial proposition that it offers to that audience, the values that the business holds dear, and the market that sustains the business. Each leg has to be strong and firm. If one leg is weak, the table wobbles. A shaky media organisation is not good.

A media organisation must be clear about what it stands for. If your audience puts its trust in the news you produce, then you need to set out your editorial values and be ready to be judged.

Small news organisations, eager to offer their audience a wider choice of news, can now take advantage of a free international wires service currently syndicating in 90 languages.

The first step in setting up a media business is to identify the audience you plan to serve. You need to know their information needs so that you can better serve them.

A media organisation must always remain alert to changing audience demand and behaviour. This involves continually examining what is produced to ensure that it is relevant to those who consume it.

The challenge of keeping up with changing audience behaviour and ensuring that the content that is produced is available on all the devices the audience uses to access information.

Sustainable journalism in practice - how it affects newsrooms in terms of values, challenges, transparency and production.

In this example, we were asked at short notice to help produce a televised debate between political candidates before a general election. We had three-and-half weeks to make it happen.