Cinthia Membreño (Confidencial) and Sonny Swe (Frontier Myanmar) explain why memberships can be a lifesaver for media companies facing financial challenges even before going into exile.
Transcript
Ep 4: Diversifying your revenue
Cinthia Membreño:
Welcome to the Exile Media Podcast. I’m your host, Cinthia Membreño. I work as an Audience Loyalty Manager at CONFIDENCIAL, a Nicaraguan, independent media outlet based in exile, in Costa Rica.
Today we have with us the always energetic, hands-on professional Sonny Swe, CEO and founder of Frontier Myanmar, an independent media outlet from Myanmar based in exile, in Thailand. Sonny, how are you? Thank you for joining us today.
Sonny:
Thank you, Cinthia. I’m very honored to be a part of your show.
Cinthia:
So, today we’re gonna discuss media revenue streams and how to diversify them while in exile. But before we dig deeper into this topic, I would like to take a step back and give some context to those who are listening and may not be familiar with the situation in Myanmar. I know it’s not easy to put into a few words, but Sonny, could you briefly explain what has happened in your country over the past two years, and how this has affected millions of Burmese citizens?
Sonny:
Myanmar is, currently, under a military coup. We had elections in 2020 and a democratic party won a landslide for this election, but the military and military supporting parties complained that there was an election rig. The government ignored it because it was a free and fair election. But while we were having a very bad COVID-19 second wave, while everyone was dying, while the economy and health care systems were deteriorating because of COVID-19, on top of the pandemic, we had this military coup on the 1st of February, 2021.
It’s been difficult for the Myanmar people. I think there are more than three million people now in the IDP camps. People lost their homes, and there is a civil war happening in Myanmar. Every business has been affected, and you can imagine the media landscape in Myanmar, it’s just very difficult to operate. So that’s why we decided to relocate to Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Cinthia:
In the context that led to the 2021 coup, Frontier Myanmar decided to embark on a big change. You launched a membership model. Why did you conclude that Frontier Myanmar’s business model needed to take that shift?
Sonny:
Because of two things. One is the election. After the election, the economy became very soggy, and it was difficult to make money out of advertising. The second thing was the rise of technology. People started to use smartphones. And the way we publish has changed from print-only to digital, right? So for Frontier, it is the same.
We were struggling because the advertising and circulation revenue dried out. If we had kept going like that we wouldn’t have survived. We were very close to shutting down the operation because we were basically running out of money. That’s when I told my team that we had to think out of the box. We had to do something about it.
So we participated in the GNI Innovation Challenge in 2018-19, and we won for Asia-Pacific. So that’s how we decided to switch our business model from print-only and digital-only to community building. That was the push. The push was really strong because we had no choice but to do it. Otherwise, we all were going to fail.
Cinthia:
I completely understand because we were also forced to do a membership program in Nicaragua in the middle of a political crisis, and we were a bit scared of asking for money. We didn’t know how people were going to react. We didn’t know how the government was going to react. But after being expelled from national TV and going into exile, we said what are we gonna do? Fuck it! Let’s do it.
But what I do know is that asking for money —whether that is through memberships, donations, or subscriptions— is something that journalists, at least in the beginning, don’t feel too comfortable with. How did you and your team feel while thinking of launching the membership program? And how did your audience react?
Sonny:
I told my team:
“You know what? You are not going to like this. You are going to have to start thinking about money. We all have to think of money.”
When I said this, everybody freaked out. I told everyone, why don’t I sell your journalism to make money? And it was like, “Oh no. No, we can’t do this.”
I said, “No, no, please listen. You don’t have to bend any of your ethics. You just do what you do best and let me sell this quality of journalism.”
It was a huge debate. And of course, I mean, we were desperate for money. We were thinking of a reader paywall, a hard paywall, and different sorts of options, but membership sounded really nice. So, memberships, yeah, let’s do memberships.
So we started brainstorming about memberships. Again, we didn’t have any choice but to think out of the box and do something about it, be creative, and make sure that every single person on the team came on board with this mission. We needed to be on the same page so that we could go in the same direction. It wasn’t very difficult to convince everyone because we all understood that we had to do something about it.
Cinthia:
And when you launched the membership, what were the first impressions that you got from the audience? Because I know that it’s very scary to take that leap and say: “Hey, there’s a membership program. Will you be so kind as to pay something so that we can survive? It can either go right or wrong. How did it go for you?
Sonny:
So, we did a 14-month research before launching.
Cinthia:
Wow!
Sonny:
We started with a very simple landing page. By then, the publication was already five years old. We had a lot of archives and we already had a reputation. So everybody understood where we stood and that we had been doing investigative reporting analysis.
On the landing page, we declared the mission. We said that we were building a community around responsible and independent media. We told the audience: “If you believe in our mission, please join us.”
A few people signed up. I think we started with 50-60 people and we just snowballed. We asked whoever signed up to answer some questions. So we chose five different personas. Journalists, diplomats, NGOs, businessmen, and academics. We did the first focus groups as well as one-on-one interviews with them. We let the community be involved with the building process and the products. It was their idea. The pricing of the subscription is how much they decided they wanted to pay. We asked the community even before our first product came up. They already understood what we were doing.
So I’m very grateful that one month after we launched, there was a pandemic. During the pandemic, it was easier to build a community because they (the readers) didn’t want to see independent media die. We have been very vocal about it and said: “Hi, we are in trouble”.
Media is basically a family, right? When you have an upset stomach, you talk about it. When you have a headache, you talk to your mom. It is the same thing. We share all the good news and the bad news with the community. I think it is important for the community to understand what the struggles that you are facing are.
Cinthia:
This mindset, was it easy to change it in the newsroom or did you guys have some adjusting process to that?
Sonny:
Membership is not a one-man show. Membership is all teamwork. It is like a football game. Everybody has to play their role. And the first thing that I did was to draw a huge picture, trying to explain why we need to do this and why they need to change. Not only me, you know, everybody has to change. But luckily, my team was probably 54-55 people at that time, so it’s quite easy to make a U-turn.
I started with the department heads. I talked to the head of commercial, the head of finance, and the head of news, and then we formed a very solid team with the department heads and then we started recruiting. Whoever we needed, one after one. We don’t recruit everybody at the same time. We handpick one after another and then we show them a lot of tests, a lot of experiments, a lot of going back and forth, and then everybody understands that oh, wow, this is so cool. Let’s do this, right?
We have a newsroom, but we have two different teams. One that normally produces analysis, and feature stories. And another one is serving the community. So we have a team of 16 people doing the commercial side now. We have newsletter writers and editors. We have a community manager and a community director. We have an events team. We also have data scientists, data analysts, and researchers, because everybody has to play a role in this.
Cinthia:
Okay, but at some point Frontier Myanmar decided to go into exile. What happened with the membership model and your business model, in general, when you decided to operate abroad?
Sonny:
We tripled our community because of the coup. The pandemic was really bad for everyone, but in a way, it was a good stepping stone for community building because people cared and wanted to support. That is how we were growing our community. But then, we had to suspend operations for two months because of our relocation. We had no complaints, nothing, nada.
Cinthia:
Incredible.
Sonny:
Everybody understood what we had to do. Two months later, we resumed our reporting. But then, one of our reporters got arrested and we had to suspend operations again. So, to make the long story short, we suspended operations for almost seven months because it was very difficult. We just couldn’t resume because everybody was on the run looking for safety. It was my first time going into exile, so I had no idea of what to expect and I had to learn everything on the fly.
But anyway, we managed to keep on pushing. We have been relocated here (in Thailand) for 12 months. Everything is in full swing. Everything is operational again. Everyone is busy. And the community has very much appreciated this.
Cinthia:
So just to clarify, during the seven months that you guys couldn’t resume, was the community still helping financially?
Sonny:
Yes. We talked to the community. We have five different newsletters and once in a while, we have this special edition sharing breaking news about what is happening to us. As long as you keep informing your community about every step that you take, and every struggle that you face, they appreciate it.
I think we did the right setting from the beginning. We only designed what they (the audience) wanted. These five products that we are sending to our members have been all requested by our community. We need to solve their problems.
I told you this when we met in Chiang Mai in November: ten years ago, my dream was to have a really big newsroom like BBC, or CNN International. But now it has completely changed. I think the trend has changed. It’s all about community. I only serve my community, and now I’m enjoying it. They love it.
This is how it is, and I am very thankful that we managed to do this even before the pandemic. We were so lucky to be able to launch and that is why we are surviving. It’s all about community support.
Cinthia:
When you tell me these stories, my heart gets warm. I think that when you have a membership model you realize, for the first time, that you are really not alone, that there are people who care about your work, and that perhaps you don’t know them by face, but they are pushing so that you can survive.
Sonny:
Yes. It’s amazing how in July last year, I organized the seventh anniversary of Frontier Myanmar. That was a few months after we relocated to Thailand. We wanted to test the waters and see how the community would respond to us. It was a sold-out event. Everybody came. A lot of people flew to Thailand just to attend our anniversary and people flew from all over the world to show their support.
I’m having goosebumps now.
Cinthia:
Me too!
Sonny:
And it is good to see how much they care about us. We are leaning into each other. We can’t survive without a community, and the community also needs us to understand what’s going on in their lives. And in the political and economic aspects of life. So I think it worked out really, really well.
Cinthia:
Sonny, especially for media outlets that operate in exile, grants play a huge role in their sustainability. I would say grants are critical during the first years in which media outlets are operating in a completely different environment. Do you see grants as a permanent revenue stream in your business model?
Sonny:
That’s a very controversial question. I will tell you what I believe. Grants are really helpful when you go into exile. The first twelve months, eighteen months, and twenty-four months are fine. But I don’t think a newsroom should be relying 100% on grants, because grants make people very lazy. Knowing that you don’t need the revenue stream, knowing that at the end of the day, someone will always give you the money, it’s bad for your sustainability. That means you always have to chase the grants. Having your own revenue stream is the long-term solution for your business sustainability.
Cinthia:
I think that’s why I see you in different endeavors. You said that you have a marketing agency that supports the sustainability of Frontier. And in Chiang Mai, when we met, you also talked about a new initiative called Greenhouse, which you described as a “home away from home”. Tell us a little bit about this project and how it’s related to Frontier’s business model.
Sonny:
You have to understand the background of this project. We have tens of thousands of people migrating to Thailand every month. Every day, thousands of people are crossing the border trying to come to Thailand. Home is very important to us because this is where all our loved ones stay. When we leave, we have to leave everything behind.
We intend to contribute something to this fast-changing, evolving media ecosystem in Chiang Mai. First, we were thinking of a coffee shop. Nothing to do with the co-working space, but then we started thinking: “Okay, why don’t we just have a good working space so that we can train people and provide a recording room for the podcasters, YouTubers, and TikTokers.”
We call it Greenhouse because a greenhouse is where you put the little plants you nurse. That’s the DNA that we are trying to build. Our idea is to provide a second home with Myanmar tea and pictures. A place where we can speak the same language. In the Greenhouse, people will find an editing suite, an office space, and a laptop. We are going to be there. So this is for those people and also for international organizations that come for training events. That will be the revenue stream for the Greenhouse.
Cinthia:
Sonny, having membership or subscription models, as well as places to organize in-person events and trainings is part of a new trend in media business models. But doing all of this while in exile is not easy. What are the biggest challenges that you are facing during this diversification process? Do you think there are certain requirements that a media outlet must have to survive this process?
Sonny:
Right away, I would say you need a good team. You cannot solve problems alone. The biggest challenge that I faced after relocation was motivation. I don’t know how to motivate someone via Zoom. It’s almost impossible. So I encouraged everyone to move here. I have a team next to me so that I can do proper motivation.
That’s one. Second, the majority of the sources and journalists left Myanmar. So, when we do an event, our biggest problem is to line up the speakers. We cannot pick someone from inside the country because it is very risky. They can get into trouble. So, we are getting a lot of criticism because there are not enough people from Myanmar, but they don’t understand how risky it is. So I neglect those kinds of comments.
Cinthia:
If someone had told you a few years ago that you would be leading a media outlet in exile, and that you wouldn’t rely on a traditional revenue model, would have you believed them?
Sonny:
That’s the world that we live in. Publishing is always full of chills and thrills. Twelve months later, look at us. The way we operate is very different from when we were in the country, right?
I think we are all stubborn in a way. We don’t want to give up easily because we’ve been banging our heads against the wall. It’s amazing the way we turned out to be. We call it “exiled media” like it or not, and then community building. And then, building another community with the Greenhouse. And now I’m going to think of another business line because there are many options that we can do. It’s an amazing, interesting journey.
Cinthia:
What would be the biggest advice for those media outlets who are entering the world of exile?
Sonny:
I’m the media owner. So my advice would be for the media owners.
The first thing you do is to take good care of your team. And second, we are in the Golden Age of publishing. It doesn’t matter if in exile or anywhere in the world, we can publish, no? Look at you, you are in Europe and you are still crunching away, right? You’re still doing everything remotely and that’s the advantage of a digital era.
So we are so lucky to be publishers in these times because everything is so easy at the moment. Just within your reach. So, if you build a good team, and you take care of your team, your team will respond and then the team will fulfill your mission and your vision. So that’s two things. Please take good care of your team, and then just do the crazy thing because we are in the digital age and everything is possible nowadays. We are in the Golden Age of media.
Cinthia:
You’re so right. Well, that is it for today. Ladies and gentlemen, this was Sonny Swe, speaking from Thailand. Thank you Sonny for sharing your experience with us.
Sonny:
Thank you so much for having me.
Cinthia:
I hope this information is useful for our audience. I’m Cinthia Membreño, and I look forward to having you on our next episode. Cheers!
