Next Media has announced a nationwide call for organisations to join its expanding Creative Media Skilling and Work Transition programme, a move that some analysts believe will help the company strengthen its influence in the face of competition from several digital content creators.
The plan has a sweetener: Next Media will fund partner organisations that sign up. The actual amount was not disclosed.
The announcement comes only days after Kin Kariisa, the chief executive officer of Next Media, warned that digital content creators on YouTube and other platforms were eating into the revenues of mainstream media organisations like his.
Speaking at the annual general meeting of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), Kariisa said advertisers who once relied on television stations now split their budgets with influencers, vloggers, and online entertainers.
He called upon the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), the media regulator, to subject these platforms to scrutiny and handle them like they do mainstream media organisations, a suggestion that attracted criticism in some quarters, especially among content creators who make a living off various digital platforms.
However, in the meantime, he appears to be working on a plan that he hopes will strengthen Next Media’s position in the digital space.
According to the plan, pasted on Next Media’s website, the company will start by supporting female content creators by partnering with organisations such as NGOs or smaller media firms that can train the content creators.
The “Downstream Partners,” Next Media said, are expected to deliver hands-on training in media production, graphics, editing, and digital content.
They are also expected to provide safe, functional production environments, such as studios or community media labs, and support transition into gigs, internships, contracts, and creator-platform opportunities.
In return, Next Media says the partners will receive performance-based funding linked to verified results.
“They will also gain access to standardised training modules, cohort frameworks, and ongoing program support. Most importantly, they will be integrated into the wider Next Media ecosystem, which the company says will give them visibility and contacts they would not normally access,” the company noted.
Next Media said the programme will offer real work pathways for young women who want to enter the creative and digital media industry but lack opportunities.
Organisations interested in becoming Next Media’s “Downstream Partners” have been asked to submit detailed proposals explaining how they will support learners and how their community ties will help expand the programme. The company says it expects strong interest from entities already training young people in media skills.
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Future media strategy?
While on the surface the move might appear like part of Next Media’s corporate social responsibility initiative, analysts think that it is about a survival strategy. Some say by launching this plan, Next Media hopes to build a future pipeline of content creators who are trained within its structures and who will later feed into its platforms.
Over the last two years, the company has been trying to reposition itself within the digital space after discovering that many of its younger audiences had shifted to digital platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
Its own digital experiments have produced mixed results.
Last year, NBS TV launched “Next Kulture Konnect”, a Gen-Z-focused news bulletin to engage the youth. The bulletin has struggled to gain traction compared with the company’s other traditional programmes like political talk shows.
Will this new plan succeed?
