A three-day training on Entrepreneurial Journalism was held in Lahore with journalists from across Punjab on January 22nd, 23rd and 24th, 2021, with media industry and entrepreneurship experts leading the sessions.

On the first day, Mr. Aoun Abbas Sahi (Pulitzer winning senior journalist), Mr. Talha Ahad (founder and CEO of the Centrum Media) and Marium Chaudhry (seasoned journalist and founder of the Current) led segments on the need and fundamentals of entrepreneurial journalism, startups and ethical journalism in the digital age.

While Mr. Sahi talked about the rise of digital media and the opportunities it brings, especially in the post-COVID world, Mr. Ahad and Ms. Chaudhry took the participants through their journey of setting up media startups and how they mitigated the challenges.

On the second day of the training, Mr. Ali Raza (Google certified trainer and top blogger in Pakistan) and Ms. Faiza Khalid (Digital media marketing expert & founder of LOOP) worked with participants to help them understand digital media marketing, entrepreneurship and building digital news startups.

Both trainers helped participants understand how to build a brand identity and find a ‘sweet spot’, a unique service that differentiates one from their competition.

On the final day of the training, Mr. Badar Khushnood (founder Bramerz Pakistan and a growth-hacker) briefed participants about digital news media landscape in Pakistan, insights, penetration of digital news media, disruption, survival of the fastest and why startups fail to familiarize them with today’s fast paced startup models and digital needs.

Mr. Khushnood briefed participants about building brand loyalty through digital presence strategy and tools. Marketing strategies, tools, business modeling and tools, design elements and budgetary implications in marketing, and how to choose peak days and time through data-driven informed decision making were also explained to the participants in this session.