The future of alternative media in Bangladesh

With a massive young audience size and global social media reach, digital media companies once sought to rival the biggest names in the traditional news industry. 

But those days are long gone. 

Recently the world witnessed the closure of BuzzFeed News, while Vice has also filed for bankruptcy protection. Now, questions are looming large about whether such digital media – alternatively called  'alternative media' – can really survive and put up a fight against the media moguls deep-rooted in the mainstream meadow. 

And so, it seems like a fitting time to look at the current situation of the alternative media in Bangladesh. In recent years, there have been several initiatives to launch these platforms, with Roar Bangla and Egiye Cholo becoming the most prominent names. 

While Roar Bangla over the years has established itself as the biggest hub for feature content in Bangla, both in article and video formats, Egiye Cholo also showed immense potential by introducing online-based citizen journalism in the country, but had to shut down its operation in 2021.

Among other alternative media platforms, Think Bangla has been dedicated to producing scientific explanatory videos, and Cablgram and The Front Page are confined to resharing trending news stories collected from the country's mainstream media. 

It turns out that Roar Bangla, a subsidiary company of the Sri Lanka-based media network platform Roar Global, is so far the only successful and established alternative media in the country. 

Roar Bangla started its journey in Bangladesh back in 2016 and has since produced around 15,000 articles and videos covering topics from both national and international angles. 

Tahseen Mahmood, the editor-in-chief of Roar Bangla, recently spoke with The Business Standard and outlined his thoughts on the sustainability of alternative media platforms. 

Tahseen further mentioned that the quantity of content has been depleting in recent months while the taste of the audience is rapidly changing, and the company had to cut off their in-office staff to less than half following the coronavirus pandemic and economic recession. 

Tahseen Mahmood, the editor-in-chief of Roar Bangla. Photo: Noor-A-Alam

'Content is king' 

The failures of BuzzFeed and Vice have made headlines for the last couple of months, but for industry insiders, even in Bangladesh, it was anticipated. 

"It's devastating news for us, as we always looked up to digital media platforms like Vice," said Tahseen. "But at the same time, it's not really shocking. We had been anticipating that something like this could happen for a long time."

He believes that these failures are not necessarily indicators of what the future holds for alternative media in Bangladesh, it has instead once again shown the necessity of quality content, besides heeding what the Gen Z audience wants. 

And according to Tahseen, they too have a lot to learn from this. "It reminds us that if we aim to survive in the content industry, we have to be more smart and creative in terms of producing the content because, at the end of the day, content is king." 

Tahseen, however, believes that the danger is not yet imminent for them, because BuzzFeed and Vice are the kind of media that had ascended to the peak of their success before the fall. However, Roar Bangla is still far from reaching its full potential. 

"Notwithstanding, we have to be prepared from now on. We have two options: one, we can keep producing content in our classic style, or two, we can listen to what Gen Z are demanding and cash in on that. And of course, the latter will help us attain a sustainable future, unlike BuzzFeed or Vice."

But unfortunately, giving in to the younger generation's demand might also result in a compromise in quality and quantity. This is evident if you were to sweep through Roar Bangla's library of recently produced content. 

The fault in our attention span 

There was a time, specifically between the years 2017 and 2020, when Roar Bangla was at the height of its popularity. And it was also the most active at that time. 

"We used to publish around 20 articles daily, because every month we would receive 600-700 articles in total, from our regular writers and contributors. But now the figure has come down to two-three articles per day. 

Even if we publish more articles, we wouldn't garner enough readership, and we would incur loss instead," Tahseen informed. 

Additionally, the size of the articles has also decreased manifold. 

"Once there was no word cap to our articles. 900-1,000 words were the standard size, but one could even write as long as 5,000-6,000 words. We also published articles having more than 14,000 words. 

But now three-fifths of our new articles are around 900-1,000 words, and one-fifth are 500-600 words. The rest are 250-300 words," Tahseen added. 

Tahseen blames two things for this. 

The first is of course the decline in young audience's attention span. They no longer want to read long articles, because they have the alternative options to know a story through two-minute reels or 50-word social media posts. 

But interestingly, the reluctance of new writers to work harder is also to be blamed. 

"Our writers are mainly university students. The previous batch of writers was more enthusiastic about writing long reads, exploring every single angle and aspect of a story. They were also patient enough to include all the references in their write-ups," Tahseen said. 

But most of those writers aren't actively participating in Roar Bangla's content creation any more, as they have either set up their individual platforms or started writing books, or joined the formal workforce after completing university-level education (Bachelor's degree).

"Things have changed in the last few years. Today's newcomers neither want to write long or put in the effort behind research work that goes into writing an in-depth article that ticks all the boxes [covers all bases/angles]," Tahseen regretted. 

The same thing is also happening with Roar Bangla's videos. When Roar Bangla first started making videos in early 2018, they actually ventured into new territory and came out with flying colours. But lately, they have been focusing on producing shorter videos. 

"We used to make explanatory videos in Bangla, which was a completely new thing in Bangladesh. Our inspiration was Vice, Vox, BBC and World Economic Forum. They had earlier set a standard, and we just followed suit. 

Those videos were longer in duration, and our audience really liked them. So, we achieved unexpected popularity within a short frame of time. But again, due to this generation's lack of attention span, we are now forced to produce shorter videos, and accommodate everything within a limited space," Tahseen said. 

So, going forward, Roar Bangla's biggest challenge will be to strike a balance between the quality of its content and the demand of the young generation.

"It's the trickiest part. We have to give our audience what they want but also maintain the quality we have so far been appreciated for. Only then we can avoid getting doomed." 

Lay-offs on the horizon? 

Even if Roar Bangla can avoid the same fate as BuzzFeed or Vice, they couldn't totally circumvent the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, followed by the global recession. 

In 2019, Roar Bangla had as many as 35 full-time staff members (excluding the writers who are paid per article). During the pandemic, they had to take a salary cut.

After the pandemic was over, the world was taken over by an economic crisis. This is when the platform tried to hold firm for some time, but at one point, it couldn't help cutting their in-office staff off to less than half. 

"We kept the struggle going for seven-eight months, but then we had to let go of some of our workers," said Tahseen. Right now, there are only 16 full-timers in the company. 

"But it wasn't a layoff in its traditional sense. We were in the midst of a crisis, but we came to a mutual agreement with each and every staff member. We gave them prior notice, and adequate time so that they could settle down elsewhere," Tahseen claimed. 

Even now, the company is not in its former best shape, and Tahseen said they could assume a more hybrid model in the future. "We always tried our best to provide our staff with a better salary scale than what is offered in the country's traditional media sector. But right now, we aren't fully capable of doing so. 

"For example, we have many experienced workers who deserve a higher salary. But with the revenue we are generating at the moment, we can't offer them a better deal. So, definitely, they are being underpaid compared to their worth," Tahseen said. 

"If the situation doesn't improve, we might see some more layoffs, and get a big chunk of our content produced through freelancers," he added. 

Having said that, Tahseen is optimistic that as an alternative media; Roar Bangla's future is still very promising and it will keep leading the sector in the coming years. 

"As far as Bangla feature content is concerned, we are still at the top of the mountain in spite of being an alternative media. There are some other mainstream media that have also been doing great lately. For example, Prothom Alo has always been there, and now The Daily Star and The Business Standard are also producing good Bangla features [in their online Bangla sections].

"Most importantly, our audience is still evolving. Once our audience is fully matured, we will likely enjoy a greater following. At the moment, we just have to stick around with quality content as always," Tahseen signed off.