Serbian Radio Stations Embrace Online Tools

Despite efforts to earn more revenue through their websites, many radio stations in Serbia face serious challenges from clients who are not enthusiastic about advertising on new media platforms. One key obstacle is the notion of advertising on a radio station’s website as a free extension of traditional radio advertising, rather than a dynamic and important way to capture more of an audience’s attention.

IREX’s USAID-funded Serbia Media Assistance Program brought together radio station representatives from across the country – from RTV Jedinstvo, Radio Sto Plus, Radio 021, City Radio, RTV 017, Radio Luna and OK Radio – to learn how to develop an online presence and harness the power of new media as the convergence of “old” and “new” media moves forward in Serbia.

Topics discussed included the impact of convergence, digital content production and search engine optimization on TV, web, and mobile technologies. Participants also discussed generating revenue from a station’s website with business models tailored for the local market. Those business models focused on homepage redesigns; repurposing, repackaging, and re-branding content so that it will remain relevant longer instead of appearing outdated; and the importance of social networking.

“Since I'm in charge of marketing on our radio station it was very useful for me to learn more about actually monetizing the radio station’s web presentation,” said Nebojsa Stosic, OK Radio’s marketing manager. “We will use this (workshop) to come up with some better offer for advertising with us and increase ad revenues.”

A session on social networking and its use in promoting radio stations to garner more listeners – and greater revenue – proved to be useful to the participants as the concept of social networking as a tool for promotions and communications was new to most of the participants. All the sessions emphasized thinking beyond a static website and focused on establishing a dynamic online presence, one that will encourage listeners to actively seek out information from various media sources. Participants actively used new media tools as part of the workshop, creating and using Twitter accounts, for instance.
“The individual who plans to work with a pen and paper in tomorrow's journalism is (misguided),” said Radoman Iric, general manager of RTV 017 in Vranje. “We need to find our target group on all those social networks and start communicating with them.”

The Serbian Media Assistance Program strengthens the capacity and legal environment of media organizations in Serbia through training, technical assistance, and small grants.