Mongolia: Codifying and funding the media ecosystem
A Splice Media report for Nest Center for Journalism, Innovation and Development and People in Need.
Introduction
"There is press freedom in Mongolia but no free press."
— Borgilmaa Zagdsuren,
Confederation of Mongolian Journalists
Mongolia’s media industry is a story of too many undifferentiated players chasing a market that’s too small to support mass advertising. On the surface of it, a market with about 500 media companies would be heralded as a success in diversity and access to information.
However, in the case of Mongolia, media ownership is concentrated in the hands of politicians and business interests. Media, politics, business — these overlap in Mongolia. As a result, many media companies are run as marketing companies, instead of viable media businesses, resulting in low quality content that perpetuates the view that journalists are biased, unprofessional and irrelevant to a young generation of digital natives.
Often, with limited cash flow, these companies struggle with paying salaries, let alone with investment in better training for their employees.
The net result is that the media industry suffers from low credibility and relevance. News media delivers low value to its users, making reader-supported models incredibly challenging.
In spite of the state of the industry, we see immense potential for the creation of a generation of digital-first newsrooms that are independent of major business and political interests — small, niche, and nimble organizations that are focused on servicing specific communities instead of chasing a mass but limited audience for ad impressions.
We believe there’s an opportunity to catalyze this change towards a generation of digital-first media organizations through funding, coaching and certification — a two-step process that, if delivered well, could improve the function of the media ecosystem, as well as add credibility and value to its practitioners.
As part of this study, we’ve spoken with digital-first media startups, legacy media companies, NGOs, educators, early career journalists, freelancers, and YouTubers. In this report, we’ll detail the trends observed, the threats and opportunities they represent, and our recommendations on what could be done within the next two years.
Problems to solve
The problems to solve, at least within the scope of this report, are credibility and value — to create something of value for audiences, while building up the tarnished image of journalists and the work that they do.
We believe there’s a need to focus on specific skills of modern media — differentiated products, new formats, marketing, distribution — through a user-centric mindset that focuses on the user problem to be solved, and in the creation of media organizations or products to solve or address those issues.
According to Borgilmaa Zagdsuren at the Confederation of Mongolian Journalists, there’s an overproduction of news in Mongolia, with much of this being driven by outdated workflows that make it impossible to keep up with the speed of social media, or to serve audiences who’ve flocked to platforms such as Facebook. Batlkhagva Tumenjargal, a media student at Mongolian State University of Arts and Culture, told us he’s worried that the workflows of traditional journalism are too slow to keep up with social media.
Media organizations need to build their business strategy around specific market opportunities rather than traditional, outdated content-first publishing structures.
It’s easy to assume that “saving” Mongolian media would require a reversal of the convergence of media, business, and politics. That’s far too shortsighted and dismisses the potential of a younger, tech-leaning generation of media professionals to transform this space.
It also presents an inherent bias towards more traditional formats of journalism, like print, newspapers, and broadcast television. Journalism school students don't necessarily see what opportunities are out there for them because these are framed by how traditional media currently works — slow production processes, poor wages, low quality, and increasing irrelevance to a digital-first generation.
There is potential for media products for audiences that already derive their information and entertainment from different sources and in different forms. At the same time, there’s also a corresponding need to nurture differentiated early stage media companies and to find new ways to protect them from political and business interests.
And ultimately, viability is the best defense against vested interests. How can one build a healthy creator economy where media startups can be built, grown to revenue, and sold?
We have spoken with people in the ecosystem who told us that deriving revenue from branded content, content marketing or advertorials is seen as embarrassing, perhaps because this is a holdover from more traditional newsrooms in the past and the so-called separation of the church and state — of journalism being insulated from the commercial parts of the business.
A change in mindset around the necessary and transparent productization of media products for a market of audiences is needed. This could create healthier competition around higher quality media products for audiences.
Definitions
Media We take a broad view of media — anything that uses content as a way to inform, engage, or entertain a group of people. We believe that for far too long, we’ve defined media within editorial lines, and in doing so, we’ve failed as an industry to understand both the threats and the opportunities that have been created by the internet.
Media ecosystem We believe that a modern definition of media needs to take into account all the components of a healthy ecosystem, which includes journalists, training institutions, tech companies, investors, creators, and accelerator programs.
Media startup We define a media startup as an organization that is in a phase of testing its business model around content.
Independent media Refers to a media organization that isn’t directed by political or business interests.
Content Defined as the output — information, entertainment, or tools — in the form of a product or service that is relevant to an audience. The idea is to stop defaulting to the text article as the atom around which we define the output of a media organization.
User We tend to use the term interchangeably with terms like ‘audience’, ‘reader’, ‘viewer’, ‘customer’, but the intent is to describe the consumer of any content or output produced by a media organization. The idea is to evolve the relationship between the user and the media organization by building media products that are valuable enough to pay for.
Blind spots, biases, limitations, and disclaimers
This is a pilot project on a limited budget created as a way to test out this idea. Due to Covid, we were unable to travel to Mongolia as we had intended. All of these interviews were conducted on Google Meet, which made it impossible for us to pick up nuances that could have derived from observing staff at work, or through a stronger rapport from a face-to-face session. This also limited us to a relatively small sample size of insights and experience.
Most of these sessions were also translated between Mongolian and English, which may have resulted in misunderstandings between us and the interviewees. Public documents, especially in the area of regulation, are also in Mongolian and required translation.
Apart from the selection of interviewees, neither Nest nor People in Need were involved in the articulation of these findings. They allowed us a free hand in this process without interference. Therefore, these views and their shortcomings are ours alone.
We have been fortunate enough to have worked with Tim Jenkins of People in Need when he was part of a UNDP Cambodia team that commissioned Splice to do a landscape study and report on the media ecosystem in Cambodia in 2019.
Splice is also overwhelmingly pro media startup. We believe the best way to grow and defend the media industry is to nurture a generation of nimble digital-first media organizations. This bias may leave us blind to seeing large-scale transformational effects at major legacy newsrooms.
And finally, Splice is a two-man team in Singapore, which limits our ability to deliver a more comprehensive, gender-balanced view.
Acknowledgements and thanks
A big thank you to Dulamkhorloo Baatar and Aminaa Unenbat at the Nest Center for Journalism Innovation and Development for the perfectly organized schedule and their patience in the translation process. They not only assembled a series of great interviewees, but they also ensured that we had gender balance among them.
We also want to thank Tim Jenkins at People in Need for his encouragement and support for all that we do at Splice — we hope you know how much we treasure you.
We also want to acknowledge the generosity, time, and knowledge of the people we interviewed.
Oyuntsetseg Rinchinbat
Ikon News
Myadagbadam Jarantai
Eguur.mn
Gankhuyag Bat-Erdene
Mongol TV
Anu Harchu
Content creator
Munkhmandakh Myagmar
Press Institute of Mongolia
Erdenechimeg
Gogo.mn
Batlkhagva Tumenjargal
Junior journalism student
Anand Tumurtogoo
Freelancer
Iderjargal Dashdondog
Journalism lecturer,
National University of Mongolia
Suvd-Erdene Khishigbayar
Goviin Naran TV
Zolzaya Arild
CITA
Borgilmaa Zagdsuren
Acting President of Mongolia's Confederation of Journalists, former Editor-in-Chief of Ugloonii Sonin
“Only two things are making money in Mongolia in the next five years: mining and marketing.”
— Anu Harchu,
YouTube and Instagram creator
Key trends in Mongolian media
1. Limited market puts the squeeze on advertising-based mass media, forcing a race to the bottom for eyeballs
Mongolia’s media market is limited by its 3.3 million population, more than half of which is concentrated in Ulaanbaatar. This relatively small addressable market is challenging for mass advertising-based models whose success depends on reach.
The limited market size is also compounded by the sheer number of media companies competing for fragments of the audience.
In a 2019 research by Press Institute of Mongolia, there were a total of 502 media outlets: 84 newspapers, 51 radio stations, 140 TV stations and 154 internet news portals.
On a simple average, that means one media company for 6,800 people — far too small for a successful media company based primarily on advertising. (Note: Many of these companies exist for political or business interests and aren’t meant to be viable companies — a point we’ll cover in the next sections.)
Mongolia enjoys a 62.5% internet penetration, according to the International Telecommunication Union. The online media market is overwhelmingly dominated by Facebook with a near 80% reach. Facebook Messenger and Instagram are also widely used as a result. This is a challenge for media companies — to reach an online audience, you invariably need to win on the Facebook platforms through building massive Likes and other engagement. On the flip side, Facebook’s dominance provides a rich dataset for specific content targeting.
Implications To maximize reach, these companies will be forced to live off low quality viral content, especially in the entertainment category. News remains a second-class citizen on that journey given its relatively low reach for advertisers.
The inevitable arrival of programmatic advertising on digital platforms will further drive the creation of more low-quality content. Programmatic advertising, which is driven by bots, will require publishers to ensure more clicks to pages — more page views literally means more revenue. This was the basis of the click-baity business model of companies such as BuzzFeed, Upworthy, Mashable, and VICE.
Opportunities The undifferentiated supply of media content suggests there’s plenty of room for emerging startups and relevant products to stand out, especially at the intersection of the creator economy and media, as we’ve seen in other countries.
In the case of Anu Harchu, an influential YouTube and Instagram creator who focuses on personal finance, health, beauty, sustainability, and bullet journaling, she was able to quickly respond to gaps in the market to create user-focused content around recovering from Covid-19.
She also studied and tested strategies on tools, workflows, audience feedback, and analytics to build her relevance to audiences on multiple social platforms — rare in the media space, even though it’s table stakes in a digital economy. There is an opportunity for her — or other startups — to build a consolidated service for creators around talent management, marketing, pipeline management, sponsorships, and marketplaces for talent.
2. Consolidation in broadcast will raise the quality of video content, but further entrench the biggest TV companies
The Broadcast Act, in effect since July 2020, is meant to limit the ownership of free-to-air TV and radio services. The ownership requirements under the law has forced a consolidation of players, although it’s not exactly clear how much political interests remain.
The law also seeks to raise the level of broadcast content by ensuring funding for Mongolian heritage content, which should raise the standard on programming.
However, the law also creates a higher barrier to entry for new entrants, especially when it comes to internet-delivered content.
Implications The Broadcast Act will also have implications for the telecom sector. As IP-based broadcasts become mainstream, telcos would either collaborate with or acquire media companies for their content, as we’ve seen in the U.S.: Verizon’s acquisition of Yahoo, AOL, Huffington Post. This would further entrench media in the hands of a select group of companies and their business interests.
The move to standardized broadcast metrics and ratings in 2023 will also be one to watch as a positive indicator. With a clear set of metrics, advertisers would be able to buy campaigns across networks, while networks would be in a better position to bargain for better rates. This will create a more professional media and advertising industry.
At the same time, this could also drive the consolidation of broadcasters into the hands of a small group of investors. According to Gankhuyag Bat-Erdene of Mongol TV, who expects about 10 mass broadcasters to emerge in the end from about 18 currently.
The consolidation would be positive in driving change, but at the same time, may handicap small publishers such as newspapers or digital startups who aren’t covered by standardized metrics.
3. Credibility of journalists and media organizations will continue to slide
The low credibility of journalists and the work of journalism was a common refrain in our conversations. “Nobody really sees media as a business,” said Gankhuyag Bat-Erdene of Mongol TV. This view stems from the ownership of the newsrooms by politicians or businesses — that journalists represent vested interests and lack independence in their reporting. Media companies are run as marketing companies instead of viable businesses, reducing any incentive for transformation. Plagiarism is also rife in the industry, noted Erdenechimeg at Gogo.
Journalism is also considered a relatively poor cousin when compared with adjacent fields of marketing and public relations. Entry-level journalists make about US$350 a month, half of what their marketing peers make. Many aren’t paid on time, if at all. This state of affairs leaves journalists particularly vulnerable to conflicts of interests, or potential corruption.
The sad state of funding also reflects the weak development of talent. Newsrooms generally don’t have budgets set aside for training or prioritize the development of their staff. “Free” courses are however available from businesses (eg. banks running courses on financial reporting) or government ministries. Neither are ideal in the growth and credibility of independent media.
The view from the freelance industry is similarly bleak, if not worse, according to Anand Tumurtogoo, a freelance journalist who writes for international media. According to him, local freelance work is scarce, and is “not seen as professional.”
4. An over-dependence on ad revenue and NGO funding limits opportunities for growth and the creation of deep relationships with consumers
Mongolia’s media industry remains overdependent on traditional advertising at a time of new options afforded by a shift to digital. As we note above, the mass advertising market is too small, given Mongolia’s population.
In our conversations with newsroom managers, we also noted a lack of incentive and motivation to move beyond advertising models, or to test new products that could lead to new revenue streams. The embrace of traditional advertising also meant a lack of research into audience behavior — who’s watching what? How do people use media? What do people want? This gap in audience knowledge was also seen at digital-first startups such as the advertising-based Ikon News which described its readership merely as “educated people”.
We’re also concerned about an increasing reliance on grant-funded NGO campaigns around issues such as health and the environment. We saw this at startups such as Eguur, Gogo, as well as Ikon.
These campaigns tend to be supply-led, ie. the funding of content production to address specific issues, but never connecting with actual demand for such content, or even to ask what consumers are meant to do with such content. How can they act on it? There are also deeper questions here about the viability of such projects since they’re typically short-term and do little to support the building of actual media businesses. This is a subject that requires further research.
5. Current journalism education isn’t preparing people for future digital jobs
Most of our respondents were critical of the current content and structure of formal journalism training in Mongolia as being out of touch with what the industry needs. "I'm not sure what universities are teaching students right now,” said Oyuntsetseg Rinchinbat at Ikon News, who would like to see data journalism being taught.
Iderjargal Dashdondog, a journalism lecturer at National University of Mongolia, too believes that data skills also need to be taught as it’s important to be able to make sense of state data. She’s tried unsuccessfully — twice — to introduce a data journalism course at her School of Social Studies.
A consistent view was that journalism school students don't see what opportunities are out there for them because these are often framed by how traditional legacy media has worked, with antiquated production structures, distribution processes, and organisational hierarchies.
Another contributing factor is that reaccreditation at the National University of Mongolia is done every five years — far too long, given how rapidly changes in the media and technology industries happen.
This puts any product of formal journalism education decidedly out of touch with where media is headed. Much of this stems from a very limited definition of what media is. Mongolian State University, for example, teaches newspaper writing and broadcast, with no connection to social videos or podcasts.
What also emerged was the need for students to receive training in media management, data journalism, and content production training. Anu Harchu, a YouTuber who worked at Bloomberg for eight years, said that media organisations are getting into "Buzzfeed-like content" and that there is a demand for production and video-editing talent. “The ecosystem is growing but needs better organisation.”
The need for practical training was also highlighted by Munkhmandakh Myagmar, the executive director of the Press Institute since 2002, which has run a number of workshops and training programs over the years. “Journalism training can be very academic and theoretical; I think it should be practical.”
She said that training was necessary for business and management training at an executive level — “something that donors don't understand”. Early media entrepreneurs tend to give up after about two years because they don’t have adequate business skills. She believes there’s a need for training and research around sustainable media businesses.
OUR RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Prototyping fund
Create a small but focused prototyping fund for independent media startups. This fund would be administered by a community of media professionals and NGOs with the goal of creating a generation of diverse digital- and user-first newsrooms. The idea is to take the focus off content and around professionalising how startups and freelancers work. This would also be a good way to transition mid-career journalists in traditional media businesses to modern digital ones.
A purpose-built seed fund could incentivize independence from political interests soaking up and weaponizing media. The idea would be to fund business models towards viability, perhaps even investability — not content models or capacity-building.
This fund would provide
A training program around media viability targeted at younger, digital-first media professionals keen to start something of their own. Training would cover areas such as building a business plan, creating a pitch deck for grants and investments, as well as creating a product mindset
One year of financial runway through micro grants to launch and test products and business models that serve a specific community or niche category
A potential path for follow-on funding for pre-seed investments
Legal and financial services to support the creation of a business entity
Networking and mentorship with other media entrepreneurs
We’ve seen various permutations of this through accelerators, incubators, or “innovation labs” based on the Y Combinator model. These were often a combination of grants, training, networking, and sometimes investments. Examples include:
Matter (now defunct)
2. Code of conduct
“We see a demand in Mongolia for trusted information. The more organizations that adhere to the ethical code around journalism the better we will be as an industry as a whole."
— Oyuntsetseg Rinchinbat, Ikon News
Create an industry Code of Conduct that provides a highly visible, coveted certification program to reset the declining standards of professional media, with rules and guidelines that would apply both to journalists as well as creators. This would be built on values of transparency — both in editorial as well as finances.
The Code would cover areas such as
Ownership of media company
Declared conflicts of interests
Methodology of newsgathering and production process
Revenue and other sources of income
Personal investments
In particular, this is an opportunity for a media organisation — or a coalition of organisations — to create a codified playbook around quality and standards acceptable to the industry. It could for example be directed by a board of advisors representing all sections of the media ecosystem — educators, journalists, tech, investors, NGOs, etc.
This compliance is critical for the credibility of the Code. Enforcement by the industry itself is necessary. For example, this certification would be reviewed annually for compliance, and therefore it would follow an annual timetable for improvement and certification. It is important that the Code isn’t seen to be a mere set of language, but instead is meant to be the foundation on which the industry’s credibility is built on.
If done well, this Code would be a badge of honor carried by websites and the professionals behind them. This could also be used as a prerequisite for entry into the fund as recommended above, or training programs.
Two things matter for the Code to be successful.
Ease of use and implementation This is possible through a series of small, achievable governance guidelines that allow for incremental implementation in a newsroom’s content, management, and revenue processes.
High global visibility Building — or rebuilding — trust in public is arguably one of the most trustworthy things a media organisation could do. It holds organisations accountable to its audiences, to each other, and to the global media ecosystem. A step towards visibility is a consistent social presence that advocates for a conversation around standards, with updates on trust indicators, new organisations that have signed up, and uses case studies to showcase newsrooms that have implemented the Code.
We recommend paying attention to the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at Poynter. This was a program created in 2015 to accredit global fact-checking organizations through a series of five principles:
A commitment to non-partisanship and fairness
A commitment to standards and transparency of sources
A commitment to transparency of funding and organization
A commitment to standards and transparency of methodology
A commitment to an open and honest corrections policy
Certified organizations would then have access to a network of grants, training, and other resources. These would also have the right to publish a badge on their website.
Other references: The Trust Project, News Integrity Initiative, Trust & News Initiative, NewsGuard, The Journalism Trust Initiative, MEAA Journalist Code of Ethics