At the end of last year, API organized a webinar for directors and sales managers of regional media outlets, entitled "How to Prepare a Media Kit - Price List and Information for Potential Publicity Clients.” The participants were trained in how to present their media products to match the interests and preferences of potential publicity suppliers as well as in how to motivate and streamline advertisers’ work.

Irina Ghelbur, Media Management and Publicity Consultant at the Consultancy and Assistance Centre, set up by API, brought some successful examples of domestic and international media kit forms and contents. "Everything a newsroom makes can be sold. We, at Agora.md, have over 50 products. Not all of them sell well, as some of them are not understood yet by our customers, but we are working on promoting them. If you do not have a valuable offer, you do not need nice packaging either. Make good products, and then make attracting packaging. Newspapers have a certain advantage over news portals because they can make offers not only for online, but also for print versions. They can offer customers an extra platform, as a bonus, for the publicity requested. You have to make the most of this opportunity," I. Ghelbur recommended. Another topic that has been bothering media managers for a long time concerns how advertisers can be motivated to work better and how their work can be streamlined. Elena Cobasneanu, director of the newspaper Observatorul de Nord (Soroca) and of the portal Observatorul.md, recounted about their latest experience of this kind. “We hired two energetic young women with a touch with the press, and we spent one week calling potential advertising clients together. I was ready to give them a 20% sales commission but they very quickly decided this work was too hard for them and left.” When asked how sales managers could be financially motivated, Irina Ghelbur said “the best advertisers do not come from the media field but from other fields in which they had sold. Employers usually allocate a small budget as advertiser retribution and certain bonuses. To keep up the level of motivation and retention of the team/person, we must also offer them a motivating fixed monthly wage, with a clear establishment of responsibilities and sales indicators. Additional bonuses and benefits may be provided for reaching or exceeding the estimated indicators. In some companies, advertisers have higher or identical salaries to the company’s managers. Finally yet importantly, they need ongoing training, and beginners – also assistance for at least two months. The webinar recording is available HERE.

In December 2020, API also held a webinar for accountants on "Aspects of Accounting Policies: Changes in National Accounting Standards in 2020", delivered by the Accounting Consultant Tatiana Prisacar, at the Consultancy and Assistance Centre. Five other thematic webinars took place between August and November. In December 2020, a total of 84 staff of 22 newsrooms and media outlets benefited from the services of the Consulting and Assistance Centre, 242 media professionals in total in the five months from the Centre reactivation.

The Consultancy and Assistance Centre for regional independent media outlets will operate until June 2021, and newsrooms are urged to use consultant services whenever needed by using the application on the website www.api.md.

The project ”Program of Assistance for Independent Regional Media Outlets” is implemented by the Association of Independent Press Association (API) and funded by the US Embassy in the Republic of Moldova. The opinions expressed within the project belong to the authors of the project and do not necessarily correspond to those of the US Embassy.