Media diversification: Redefining reliance on advertising revenue and autonomy implications

The search for a media funding model has attracted scholarly attention over the years due to the growing strategic importance of the media in spearheading critical public debates in contemporary societies. With the recent global financial and economic turmoil, it has become imperative that the search for funding model continues, especially for a developing country like Ghana where there is limited body of literature on the subject without sacrificing its global significance. On the premise that media should be strengthened financially to survive in a competitive market to better execute its public mandate functions, media businesses, particularly newspapers, need to explore revenue generation sources to ensure that they do not lean on a lone income stream. The present study examines the extent to which newspapers have diversified into non-media ventures and argues that by this funding approach, print firms have a better chance of sustaining their businesses, publications and achieving autonomy. Overall, this work shows that majority of the print firms in Ghana have not diversified at all, the few diversified ones are within the media industry and only Daily Graphic has invested into non-media ventures to generate revenue.