MDIF Program Director (Media Development Investment Fund) for Southeastern Europe, Jelena Milosevic, talks about why media sustainability is not just a matter of finances, why capital is especially important in small markets, and how business models, technology, and the very understanding of what we call media today are changing.
- When we talk about sustainability, we usually first think of energy, the environment, or responsible business. Why should the media be included in this story?
Because no society can seriously talk about sustainability if its citizens do not have reliable information on which to base their decisions. We can have the best strategies, investments and climate goals, but someone has to explain what is being done, check the results and ask the uncomfortable question when something is not working. This is where the media becomes part of the infrastructure of a sustainable society.
- You've spent practically your entire career in the media. Is sustainability being talked about more today than before?
Much more. When I started, no one came to a meeting and said, "Let's talk about sustainability."
We talked about sales, circulation, viewership, advertisers, new products, competition. But when I look back today, I realize that all along we were actually talking about the same question: how to create a medium that is relevant to the audience and a good enough business to last.
What has changed is how much more complicated it is today. You used to know at least pretty well who your competitors were and where most of your revenue came from. Today you are competing with the entire internet for audience time, a large part of advertising ends up on global platforms, audience habits are changing at an enormous rate, and now artificial intelligence opens up a whole new round of questions.
There's another thing about our markets: we're small. In a big market, a wrong business decision can remain an experiment from which you learn something. In ours, it can sometimes seriously jeopardize a company.
So for me, sustainability is not “how do we get through another year.” The point is not just to survive. The point is to have enough strength to be able to choose what to do next.
- When you say "powers", do you primarily think of money?
No. Money is important, of course, but you can have money and do completely wrong things.
The company's strength is a combination of a good product, people, relationships with the audience, multiple sources of revenue, good management, and the ability to change when the market changes.
Capital is one part of that story.
In our region, there is a good quote by Željko Ivanović, one of the founders of "Vijesti".
Speaking about what they wanted to create, he described Vijesti as “an independent institution, a free media outlet, which no one can influence.” At first glance, that sounds like just a story about editorial independence. But to me, it also has a very clear business dimension. To truly be able to say that you make your own decisions, you have to have a company that can stand on its own two feet.
Freedom is much more difficult when you don't know how you're going to pay your salaries every month.
- Does this mean that the media needs to think more like businesses?
Yes, but that doesn't mean they should become obsessed with profit.
I think that for too long we have had a somewhat artificial division: on one side, journalism and mission, and on the other, "business," as something almost unpleasant that doesn't need to be talked about much.
And to me, that's completely illogical. If you want a good editorial team, you have to pay good journalists. If you want a quality digital product, you have to invest in technology. If you want to understand your audience, you need analytics. If you want to experiment, you have to allow yourself the occasional failed experiment. All of that costs money.
That's why I don't see profit as an end in itself. Profit is a space for freedom, investment, and the next decision.
- Where are grants in this picture, and where is investment capital?
Both have their place. In my opinion, it is wrong to make an ideological debate out of this.
There are types of journalism that the market alone can hardly finance, and grants can be crucial here. I see no reason to refuse a grant when it is available to you. But we must keep in mind that we cannot build a long-term sustainable business solely on funding that depends on the changing priorities of donors. The region felt very concretely how risky such dependence is when the priorities of American development assistance changed overnight in early 2025.
Venture capital has a different logic. It's supposed to help a company develop something that will keep it going. Maybe it's a new product. Maybe it's a new technology. Maybe it's a sales team. Entering a new market. A new source of revenue.
And sometimes the most important thing is that capital buys you time. Time to try something, change it, maybe even make mistakes, without one mistake endangering the entire company.
A good investor doesn't just bring money. He brings experience, knowledge, contacts, and the ability to connect a problem you're seeing for the first time with something he's already seen in another market.
Thirty successful years of MDIF
- MDIF celebrates three decades of work this year. What do the numbers say about this approach?
According to the MDIF Impact Dashboard 2025, our organization has so far invested $270 million through loans and equity investments in 154 media companies in 49 countries, with an additional $55 million in technical assistance and grants.
But, I'm more interested in numbers that show what happens to companies over time.
On average, clients increased their revenue by 257 percent, their audience reach by 398 percent, and their number of employees by 25 percent during their time with MDIF. Of course, this is not something MDIF takes credit for. A company's success is influenced by its people, management, market, product, and many other things. The Impact Dashboard itself makes this very clear.
Perhaps even more interesting to me is the fact that all surveyed clients rate MDIF financing and support as valuable or very valuable, and nine out of ten say that after this support they are better prepared for growth.
Because the goal of a good investor is not for the company to depend on him forever. In fact, it's the opposite: for it to become stronger over time and more capable of choosing its own path.
- Why is access to capital particularly difficult in the Western Balkans?
Because we are stuck between two financing logics.
Many of our markets are too small for classic venture or private equity capital. A media company from Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, or North Macedonia can hardly promise the size and speed of growth that a commercial investor often expects from a technology startup.
On the other hand, grants are mostly project-based and time-limited.
Between these two worlds, there are a large number of very good companies that have a product, an audience, people, and an idea of what to do next, but do not have adequate capital to take that next step.
Media must change in order to remain what it is. It must change its products, its technology, its way of reaching its audience, and its sources of revenue. But there are things that should not be subject to change – which is why the editorial board has the right to do its job.
This is perhaps especially evident in Montenegro. Vijesti has gone through changes in the market, ownership structures, technology and very difficult political circumstances for almost three decades, and the continuity of its editorial independence shows how sustainable a long-term business it really is.
To me, that's a good definition of sustainability: it's not enough to keep a company from changing. You have to change it enough to keep what's important in it.
- Does the very definition of media change then?
It has already changed. When we say "media," most people still think first of television, newspapers, or a portal. But the way people get information today is much broader.
MDIF's portfolio already includes traditional and digital media, as well as technology and information platforms. Digital businesses make up the largest portion of the portfolio, with 67 percent of companies having four or more revenue streams.
My opinion is that this boundary will shift even further. There are already newsletters, podcasts, membership models, digital communities, data services and AI tools, and many products are probably still coming our way that we don't yet have a good categorization for today.
What I find particularly interesting in the region are the younger media outlets and newsrooms that may have the fewest resources, but often most naturally combine the best of classic journalism – fieldwork, reporting, research, community outreach – with technology that they use without much fear or grand theories. They don’t think of digital as a separate project; for them, it’s simply a way of working.
And there is a very healthy relationship in both directions. We can help them turn a good idea and good journalism into a more sustainable business, but we also learn from them how to find an audience today, how to build a community and how to achieve serious results with very few resources. It seems to me that some of the most interesting models for the future of media in the region will come from such editorial offices.
That's why the more important question for me is what the product does than what we call it: does it give people relevant information, does it solve a real need, and is there a business model that allows it to last?
- And artificial intelligence? Is it a great opportunity for the media or another threat?
Probably both. I've been in media long enough that I've heard many times that some new technology will either save the industry or completely destroy it. Usually, neither ends up happening.
AI can already help a lot in analytics, production, search, distribution, audience engagement, sales. But, in my opinion, there is a danger right now that we are all asking the same wrong question: “Are we using AI?”
More importantly, what specific problem does AI solve for us? If it saves you time that journalists can spend on better work, great. If it helps you understand your audience better, great.
If you're just introducing another tool because everyone mentions it at conferences, that's not a strategy.
- When it comes to sustainability and leadership, where are women in the media industry today?
Much further than when I started, but not yet where they should be.
Women have long been no exception in the newsrooms of our region. We have great female journalists, editors, and managers. But the closer we get to ownership, capital, and the places where the biggest business decisions are made, the picture becomes different.
This is important to me for a very practical reason. When you work with companies in a small region, you can't afford to ignore half the talent. And access to capital is not just a matter of a good idea. It's also a matter of a network of people, the confidence to sit across from investors, previous experience, and who introduces you to the room.
In the MDIF portfolio, women now make up 46 percent of employees and 41 percent of management. That's a serious step forward, but it's more important to me to see more women founding companies, taking ownership responsibility, and seeking capital for growth.
Not because we need to have a special category of women's businesses, but because good companies should not remain small just because their founders did not have equal access to capital and networks.
- And finally, why is media business sustainability important to people who don't work in the media at all?
Because it's very easy to talk about the media as just another industry, until you need their information.
When there are elections. When there is corruption. When a decision is made that affects your city.
When a health crisis breaks out. When you want to understand what the government, company, bank or local government is doing to you.
Then we quickly remember why it's important to us that there are people whose job it is to ask questions and check facts.
MDIF clients provided access to news and information to around 234 million people, approximately three percent of the world's population, in 2024. At the same time, 83 percent of companies reported that their work led to concrete changes in society.
If we want independent information to exist, someone has to build sustainable companies to produce it. Ultimately, sustainability is not just a question of energy, resources, and capital. Sustainability is also a question of whether we will have someone to trust tomorrow when we need it most.
Check out the online edition of the magazine "Sustainability Leaders" HERE
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