Dear Friends,

On behalf of the Salzburg Global Seminar (SGS), the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD), I want to welcome you to the website of the Strengthening Independent Media Initiative. We believe this initiative will represent a major milestone in the progress and effectiveness of the international media development sector, and we hope this website can serve as an important resource for funders, editors, and media development implementers.

There are good reasons to begin this initiative now. Over the past decade public and philanthropic investment in the field of media development has increased significantly, with an estimated $250 million now spent annually through a combination of government sources, multilateral institutions, and private foundations. These investments, aimed at increasing the quality, openness, and effectiveness of news and information, have targeted the persistent challenges facing media development work in many parts of the world - among them poor regulatory environments, the need for infrastructure development, journalist training and support for high standards, ensuring a framework of legal rights and responsibilities, and the sustainability of news and information enterprises. Substantial additional funding has gone towards communications efforts designed to accelerate progress against health, agriculture, education, and other critical development goals.

Alongside these developments, the pace of technological change has quickened and is dramatically affecting the way that news and information is produced, as well as how it is shared and consumed. In growing regions of the world, traditional media models have been disrupted, and commercial companies are moving with growing urgency to find ways of monetizing information products and services. Even where newspapers and broadcast services are flourishing, technology is drastically affecting the way knowledge and information is shared. Viewed over the span of a dozen or more years into the future, virtually every aspect of how media operate are likely to be affected worldwide. New opportunities are being created as old models fail. Questions about who is a journalist, how consumers find information they can trust, and who pays for its creation are becoming ever more critical. Through the SIM initiative we will seek to bring influential investors and innovators in the field of media development together with others who have made significant breakthroughs in related fields to set a framework for the future and act to achieve specific goals. Through scenario building, examining innovative examples, and identifying key barriers and unfolding opportunities, we also hope to set an agenda for further investigation leading to recommendations for future investment. As we proceed, we believe we can also strengthen the case for why independent media matter fundamentally in the quest to achieve economic and social advancement.

The Strengthening Independent Media will extend over the coming three years, and during that time, we intend to place a strong emphasis on the advances being made in networked technologies, internet communications, and the increasing significance of mobile handheld technology. These advances will continue to fundamentally change the way people communicate, including the means by which information is created, shared, and used. And, through these changes, questions of how to best support quality, openness, and effectiveness of news and information will remain a central challenge both for existing funders and for new investors looking to enter the field in innovative ways.

In partnership with the Knight Foundation and the GFMD, we seek to use this process to encourage more streamlined and long-term investment, technical innovation and policy change. Ideally, the initiative will produce a groundswell of leadership and financial support for more effective strategies in global media development. We feel that the time is ripe to look more closely at the link between media development and human advancement, as well as to marshal all possible forces to accelerate progress in this vital field. We hope you will agree to join us in this undertaking.

With very best wishes,
Stephen Salyer
President & CEO
Salzburg Global Seminar