- Media Development Loan Fund
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Media Development Loan Fund (MDLF) is a New York-registered 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation and investment fund that provides low-cost financing to independent news media in countries with a history of media oppression. It works with newspapers, radio stations, and TV companies in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the CIS, and the Balkans.[1]
Through low-cost capital (mainly loans), business training and other advice and support, it aims to help news outlets committed to responsible journalism become commercially sustainable, believing that only financially independent news media can stay editorially independent over the long term.
Contents
History
MDLF was founded in 1995 by Saša Vučinić and Stuart Auerbach, the late Washington Post reporter and editor. Previously Vučinić was editor-in-chief and general manager of B92 radio in Belgrade when, in the early 1990s, the station started to experience financial problems caused by government interference.[2] Witnessing freedom of speech slowly slip away partly due to a lack of economic security, Vučinić had the idea of creating an organization that would provide independent media with access to capital.[3] The idea was pitched to George Soros, who provided the initial grant for MDLF's start-up.[3]
Activities
Financing
From 1996 to 30 September 2011, MDLF provided $110.6 million in affordable financing, including:
- $96.3 million in loans and equity investments;
- $13.8 million in technical assistance and other grants;
- Earned over $36 million in interest, dividends and capital gains.
It has financed 250 projects for 79 independent media companies in 27 countries and has written off only 1.96% of the total loaned and invested. MDLF has returned more than $16 million to investors. On 30 September 2011, MDLF's portfolio stood at $43.9 million in outstanding loans and investments..[4]
MDLF Impact:
- In 2009, more than 35 million people in developing democracies got their news from MDLF clients;
- After five years with MDLF, clients on average increased their sales by 294%;
- In 2009, MDLF clients generated over $113.5 million in sales;
- After five years with MDLF, clients on average increased their readers, listeners or viewers by 41%;
- In 2009, a total of 4,491 people were employed by MDLF clients;
- For every $10,000 invested in 2009, MDLF supported access to independent news for 8,651 readers, listeners and viewers;
- In 2009, each dollar invested by MDLF leveraged $2.80 in client sales; and
- In 2009, despite the global financial crisis, more than half of MDLF clients, 53%, were able to maintain a level of financial risk MDLF considers to be consistent with long-term sustainability.[5]
With its activities growing but the pool of development agency and private foundation funding limited, in 2006 MDLF, Swiss bank Vontobel Group and Zurich-based social investment specialists responsibility launched "Voncert responsibility Media Development". Voncerts are a bond-like investment that also include a loan to MDLF and are available in most countries outside the USA and UK. Voncerts are listed on the Zurich Stock Exchange.[6][7]
Funders of MDLF's Loan/Investment Pool include: Bank Vontobel, Calvert Social Investment Foundation, DOEN Foundation, Dreilinden gGmbH, Foundation for Democracy and Media, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Open Society Institute, Oxfam Novib, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and Alexej Fulmek.
Other support for MDLF's work has also come from: Council of Europe, Eurasia Foundation, J.M. Kaplan Fund, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.
CAMP and Sourcefabric
As in the developed world, media businesses in transitional countries must embrace developments in technology and changing customer demands if they are to survive. From interactive news services to broadcasting online, MDLF provides clients with strategic advice on some of the key challenges facing the media business worldwide and helps them to seize local first-mover advantage.
MDLF recognized the importance of technology to media as long ago as 1998 when it founded the Center for Advanced Media-Prague (CAMP). CAMP provided technology support to independent media in developing countries and developed open-source software solutions under the Campware brand. In May 2010, MDLF spun off CAMP as an independent organization, Sourcefabric, which continues to provide valuable support to news outlets in the majority world seeking to get the most out of technology.
All in all, Campsite cost between $100,000 and $250,000 over more than 5 years.[8]
MDLF's active partners in Campware were Redaktion und Alltag (Berlin) and the Department of Digital Design of the Parsons School of Design in New York.[9]
References
- ^ http://www.mdlf.org/
- ^ http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/21/business/fund22.php
- ^ a b http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4685289.stm
- ^ http://www.mdlf.org/en/main/about/55/
- ^ http://www.mdlf.org/en/main/impact/
- ^ http://www.editorsweblog.org/print_newspapers/2006/05/press_freedom_gets_a_listing_on_the_stoc.php
- ^ http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33292
- ^ Media Development Loan Fund: Web solutions for independent media in Window on the Media, October 2008
- ^ http://www.sourcefabric.org
See also
Free Press Investment Notes
Categories:
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
