January 31, 2014
The CSUN Journalism Department is hosting Dr. Mirsaid Sultonov, a Fulbright Visiting Scholar who is researching the development of economic sustainability in print media in the United States, during the 2013-14 academic year.
Sultonov is from the Republic of Tajikistan, where he is a media expert and journalism professor at the Russian-Tajik University.
Through his study of the business of media and journalism in the United States, Sultonov hopes to implement some free-market business strategies in Tajikistan. Sultonov has been meeting with local news outlets in the Los Angeles area to study their business models.
“After the collapse of the Soviet Union in Tajikistan, the journalism industry began to face serious economic difficulties,” Sultonov said. “Newspaper owners do not know how to survive and make their business profitable without government funding and under new conditions.”
One of the main differences between Tajikistan and U.S. media is the idea of being audience-centric, according to Sultonov. In the U.S., media outlets focus on the needs of their audience. But in Tajikistan, most media outlets are not aware of who their audience is, what they need and what they want.
“Most of newspapers in Tajikistan are very similar to each other,” Sultonov said. “They basically report and cover ideologies of the government or interests of their founders and rarely take into account demands of their audience. Sometimes the only difference between groups of newspapers is their name.”
Sultonov concluded that in order to improve print media in Tajikistan, marketing and public relations departments must be established in order to study target audiences.
Additionally, Sultonov’s research indicates that only about 10 percent of newspaper organizations use advertisements as a source of income. The others are simply not aware of the benefits of using them.
“I have participated in roundtables and seminars with journalism professors to teach them about the benefits of advertisements,” he said. “Some of those organization’s leaders I’ve presented to have recently opened advertisement specialist positions at their companies and a small number of ads have started appearing in those papers. This made me realize that my work can make a difference in helping the print industry become more sustainable and efficient.”
This realization prompted Sultonov to take his research to the next step and visit a more developed country to “directly experience the media, rather than via textbook.”
“My experience in the states thanks to my Fulbright scholarship will not only help my profession but will also improve and further develop an entire country,” he said.
When he returns to Tajikistan at the end of the school year, Sultonov plans to continue participating in educational seminars, write a book based on his research and take advantage of every opportunity to talk about his experience with media in the U.S.