The sustainability crisis of society, e.g. environmental crises, democratic crises, poverty, financial crises, armed conflicts, etc. Obviously, journalism has a crucial role to play here since it contributes greatly to the public agenda, as well as people’s understanding – and hence the handling – of such challenges. The sustainability crisis of journalism itself, which stems from lower advertising, decreasing subsidies for public service media, falling consumption, lack of trust in media among citizens, and fierce competition from online information brokers and advertising.

The complex reality of today requires this kind of integrated journalistic approach in order to uphold the democratic function and not least the legitimacy of professional journalism. Consequently, journalism’s response to the sustainability challenges can be seen as a prerequisite for the future sustainability of journalism itself, ranging from high-quality, in-depth coverage to robust business models, but also extending into considerations of media systems and relations with governments and business interests.

In this way, sustainable journalism attempts to counter the obvious risk that the efforts to maintain economic sustainability of the journalistic enterprise take place at the expense of professional journalism’s social/democratic mission – to hold power to account and to inform citizens, and to spur public engagement about current and future economic, social, and environmental challenges.

Furthermore, sustainable journalism refers to journalism that integrates the three sustainability dimensions in its coverage and its financing and does not isolate environmental issues from social and economic conditions as if they were siloed issues. Examples of this kind of integrated approach would be journalism that:

• reflects the economic aspects of an increasingly globalising society at the same time as it acknowledges the social and environmental consequences of these aspects,
• is underwritten by value from new advertising formats that doesn’t jeopardise the integrity and trust of citizens, and
• interlinks local and national consequences of (for instance) climate change with their economic and social ramifications on a global scale.

Given the importance of the Agenda 2030 and the Paris agreement, another function of sustainable journalism can be seen as carefully scrutinising the compliance of the Paris Agreement and Agenda 2030 as well as exposing the sustainability challenges associated with them.

However, sustainable journalism may not be practised in the same way in all countries and by each publisher, as each country and media institution has unique challenges that confront their sustainability. In order to appreciate how sustainable journalism is to be practised in the sub-Saharan African context, it is important to establish the setting within which media organisations and journalists carry out their informational mandate. It is equally important to explore the issues that confront the environmental, social and economic sustainability of media within sub-Saharan Africa.

This study consequently includes a summary of three different sets of discussions, held over a two-week period in January 2021 with reporters, news editors and representatives of media development organisations in Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, and Kenya. The aim was to ascertain how these key stakeholders regard sustainable journalism and its possible application in sub-Saharan Africa.

The golden thread that ran through discussions was that sustainable journalism connects critical developmental issues in sub-Saharan Africa to the practice of journalism. Participants were of the view that there is a general trend of slow social and economic development within sub-Saharan Africa, coupled with a looming environmental crisis, due inter alia to poor environmental governance. They also agreed that what uniquely sets sustainable journalism apart from other new journalistic approaches is the provision of a model or framework for journalists to address contemporary issues that are tied to sustainable development. And while providing this framework, it also obliges journalists to concentrate on local contexts and the three interdependent dimensions of sustainability, and to find ways to win support for the sustainability of their own service to society.