State media need strategy, not just retooling – President Mahama
President John Dramani Mahama has emphasised that reviving Ghana’s state-owned media requires more than just retooling, urging a holistic strategy to secure their relevance in today’s rapidly evolving media landscape.
His comments came in response to an appeal from the President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Albert Kwabena Dwumfuor, who called for urgent government intervention to rescue struggling state media outlets. Dwumfuor reminded the President of his 2024 campaign pledge to revitalise the sector, warning of imminent collapse without decisive action.
“We need government intervention to save our dying state-owned media from collapsing. Ahead of the 2024 election, the then presidential candidate, John Dramani Mahama, pledged at a media engagement to retool the state media and bring life into it. You even promised that you will under no circumstances privilege it,” Dwumfuor said.
Responding, President Mahama acknowledged the structural and financial challenges but stressed that the difficulties go beyond resources.
“The state media are caught up in the changing media. Because the landscape has changed, and people are consuming information from more sources than before. This means people are reading fewer newspapers, and people want less of the traditional media and getting a lot of their information from short videos and bloggers,” he explained.
He added that while retooling remains important, focus must shift to strengthening content and production to meet modern audience demands.
“It is not enough to just retool the state media, but also see how we can enhance their production so that they continue to remain relevant. We can take best practices from international news platforms,” President Mahama said, citing the Financial Times and The New York Times as examples of successful adaptation in the digital age.
