How Ethiopia’s Addis Maleda Left Print for Digital Media

In October 2022, the Ethiopian independent media outlet Addis Maleda ceased printing its weekly newspaper after a surge of more than 500 percent in production costs forced a pivot to the digital realm. Amanyehun R. Sisay, the founder and CEO of the publication, recounted the turbulent transition during a recent Virtual Study Visit organized by BBC Media Action and WAN-IFRA.

From Print Optimism to Publishing Realities

Named after the Amharic phrase for “a dawn of hope and a new beginning,” Addis Maleda launched in October 2018 during a window of political opening under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The administration had released jailed journalists, replaced the country’s most restrictive laws, and set the stage for Ethiopia to host UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day within a year.

We seized the opportunity, Sisay told BRAVE participants. It was a breed of optimism, renewal, and positive expectations after a long period of darkness.

Growth was rapid. The publication introduced a family-focused magazine in 2020 and, by 2021, became Ethiopia’s first trilingual publication, printing in Amharic, Afaan Oromo, and Somali—the nation’s three most widely spoken languages. Declaring itself a feminist outlet at launch, the paper referred to itself as “she” and centered regular reporting around gender justice and women’s leadership.

By avoiding press releases in favor of stories nobody else had, Addis Maleda quickly emerged as a reference in the region. Television channels, radio stations, and digital platforms began citing it, granting a weekly print publication the reach of a news agency.

However, the financial model soon fractured. The debut edition cost 6.35 birr ($0.039) to print and sold for 10 birr ($0.061), allowing sales alone to cover production. Four years later, printing expenses climbed to roughly 36 birr ($0.22) per copy. Concurrently, advertising budgets shrank as the COVID-19 pandemic rippled globally and war in the north strained the broader economy. Further compounding industry pressures, a new proclamation banned breweries from advertising on radio and television—stripping up to 40 percent of ad revenue from some broadcasters and intensifying competition for remaining capital.

Simultaneously, telecommunications reforms opened the sector to private operators, driving internet costs down and expanding the nation’s mobile subscriber base to nearly 100 million, ranking second in Africa only to Nigeria. With over 61 million citizens possessing smartphones or internet access—representing more than 45 percent of the population—audiences migrated online, sealing the fate of the print edition in October 2022.

Digital Adaptation and the Fresh-Graduate Strategy

Moving entirely online presented distinct operational hurdles. Adapting from the measured pace of a weekly print schedule to continuous digital publishing instituted what Sisay described as a perpetual state of urgency. To manage the shift, the newsroom integrated multimedia producers, digital editors, and specialized reporters while training existing journalists in search engine optimization, social media management, and digital tooling. Financial and strategic backing from BBC Media Action and the Media Development Investment Fund proved decisive during the overhaul.

Unchanged, however, was the outlet’s distinct recruitment model: Addis Maleda hires exclusively fresh graduates, putting them through a three-to-six-month internship inside live newsroom operations. With private universities barred from teaching journalism in Ethiopia, young graduates find a training ground within the newsroom, while the publication avoids habits carried over from other newsrooms.

Investing in young journalists has proven to be the most rewarding strategy, Sisay noted. While rival outlets frequently recruit these home-grown reporters—some of whom have moved to the BBC’s regional office in Nairobi—leadership views the continuous turnover as a badge of honor.

Despite successfully transitioning to multimedia, podcasts, and interactive visuals, digital publishing presents lingering hurdles. Online ad rates remain low, digital payment infrastructure for subscriptions is thin, and audiences increasingly gravitate toward free platforms where individual creators hold followings no newspaper can match. Reflecting on the digital pivot, Sisay acknowledged that establishing rigorous audience segmentation and a concrete commercial plan prior to formatting changes would have prevented unnecessary friction. The outlet now targets a tenfold increase in audience and revenue over a five-year horizon, aiming for full self-funding from its own operations while safeguarding its core editorial standards.