Friend's endeavor is payment

How do you start a community newspaper when the “community” is a metropolis of 3 to 4 million people?
That’s just one of the questions facing a friend of mine. And — by extension — it’s facing me as well.
I met Nyan Lynn in March of 2012 when I was working in Burma/Myanmar, teaching a week-long class in election reporting on behalf of the U.S. Embassy.
Nyan Lynn, a journalist by profession, served as interpreter much of the week. His English is good to very good, though he’d be the first to admit it could be better.
The seminar involved two groups, one in the morning and another in the afternoon. And Nyan Lynn was a little uncomfortable in the afternoon session since one of the reporters from The Myanmar Times was an ex-girlfriend. So he was subjected to a certain amount of kidding whenever she was around.
Nyan Lynn also accompanied me on follow-up visits and on-site training at participating newspapers, and the two of us talked shop in the evening with our mutual friend, Htin Aung Kyaw, over beers at a little Chinese restaurant down by the docks in Yangon.
That all seems a bit like a dream a year and a half later, but the memories flooded back when an email arrived.
“I have started a community newspaper,” Nyan Lynn told me.
Yangon — an enormous, teeming city of 3 to 4 million — has government newspapers, political newspapers, entertainment newspapers, sports newspapers and more.
But a community newspaper — one like The Commercial Review or The News and Sun — is hard to find.
And that’s the model Nyan Lynn believes he wants to follow.
So far, he’s on the right track.
He identified a particular neighborhood, a township actually, in Yangon. It’s near the university and not far from Inya Lake and the U.S. Embassy. There are lots of small shops, and there are thousands of students and other young people.
On top of that, there’s a strong sense of community identity. It’s a small city within a big city.
“My paper is receiving very positive feedback from the targeted community,” Nyan Lynn wrote. “People in this community feel that this paper belongs to them. They come/call and express their concerns. There are some success stories, too. Because of our coverage, there are some changes in the township.”
But there’s a long way to go.
The Kamaryut Times is only about eight editions old and is struggling to become self-sufficient. To help Nyan Lynn get ideas about content, he’s been set up with an online subscription to The CR.
Meanwhile, I’ve peppered him with questions about his staff, his market, his organizational structure and more. And he’s peppered me with questions about pricing, promotions and advertising sales.
Some of my suggestions won’t be applicable in Myanmar. It’s a completely different environment. But Nyan Lynn has eagerly adopted others and put them to work already.
And for me, that’s payment enough for this particular consulting gig.[[In-content Ad]]