BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM

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Eric Mugendi,

Managing Editor, Africa Uncensored

THE CHALLENGE

• Investigative journalism is expensive and risky.
• Donor funding is unpredictable and short-term.
• Non-profit models often limit innovation and commercial growth. They also carry a reputational risk in some countries, such as Kenya.
• The question: How can we sustain watchdog journalism without compromising integrity?

INCORPORATE AS A COMPANY

• Flexibility: Easier to create revenue streams.
• Ownership & Equity: Enables reinvestment and shared value for founders and team.
• Market Access: Compete for commercial contracts and co-productions.
• Independence: Reduces reliance on donor cycles.
• Sustainability: Builds assets and long-term enterprise value.

AFRICA UNCENSORED’S HYBRID MODEL

• 80% of our funding comes from grants, 20% comes from commercial revenue
• We are a mission-driven company with public interest journalism at its core.
• Our commitment is to:
• Produce hard-hitting investigations.
• Generate income through branded content, documentaries, training, and partnerships.
• Profits reinvested into investigative projects.

BUILDING LONG-TERM, STABLE FUNDING

• Revenue diversification:
• Commissioned documentaries
• Syndication and licensing – Monetizing the content library
• Media training and production services
• Content partnerships with platforms
• Building Shahara, our content publishing and monetization platform
• Audience engagement: YouTube, memberships, events, Patreon, CTAs
• Strategic donor partnerships aligned with commercial goals.

INVESTING IN PEOPLE

• Editorial excellence: Investigative, data, and documentary reporting.
• Technical depth: Video production, animation, and data viz.
• Training capacity: Building a training vertical that can leverage on organization’s reputation
• Admin functions:
• Internal M&E team – Project coordination, tracking impact, documenting wins
• Finance – Managing multiple grants, supporting the core team with budgeting, product packaging, proposal writing
• HR – Attracting and retaining talent

Me

DATA-DRIVEN DECISION-MAKING

• Think entrepreneurially – While pricing the work we do is difficult, we can still itemize things like staff time, inputs into stories and organizational overheads. That way, you can think of it as a formula: we need x number of stories to stay afloat for 6 months for example
• Build a culture of measuring impact and value – Track everything! What gets measured gets managed. Have an M&E mindset, keeping track of your progress and your failures. Tracking inputs and impact helps you do a better job.
• Reward innovation — new formats, new audiences. What do you need to do to get new people to engage with your content as you make sure that those already engaged are coming back? Don’t be afraid to experiment.
• Reward loyalty – You also need to give the people who keep showing up. They are choosing to give you their time, so how do you make it worthwhile?
• Pivot quickly – Find a working formula and replicate it. What content sustains itself? Is it a particular topic? Is it a particular style of storytelling? Look at where your audience drops off. Is that something you can fix?

WHAT’S WORKING SO FAR

• Consistent investigative output despite shrinking donor space.
• Partnerships with international broadcasters.
• Recognised brand credibility in East Africa.
• Growing pipeline of collaborations.

THE NEXT LEVEL —SUPPORT NEEDED

• Capital investment for production and tech infrastructure.
• Business development expertise.
• Content diversification – Formats, languages, areas of focus.
• Regional co-productions.
• Support for safety, legal defence, and staff well-being.

LESSONS FOR MEDIA ENTREPRENEURS

• Don’t wait for grants — build products people want.
• Train journalists to understand business.
• Hybrid funding = resilience.
• Mission + market = sustainability.

HOW DO WE MOVE FORWARD?

• Invest in African-led investigative storytelling.
• Support models that build capacity, not dependency.
• Join us in proving journalism can sustain itself — and thrive.

GET IN TOUCH!

Africa Uncensored — www.africauncensored.online

Email: mugendi@africauncensored.net

@afuncensored