Twelve owners, managers and directors of broadcasters and print media from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia during a three-day workshop wrote a working version of a marketing plan for their media outlets which will help them in future work.The workshop “Effective Media Marketing Plan” was held on 19-21 February 2007 at Mediacentar Sarajevo.

This was the first commercial workshop on media management held in the region whose participation costs and costs of travel and stay in Sarajevo were covered by the participants themselves.
During the three-day workshop, the participants learned about ways of researching and defining the market, SWOT analysis, ways of defining business goals, ways of creating a market strategy and own promotion and advertising.
“I’m very pleased with the workshop program and organization, and especially with the lecturer. What I liked most of all was her presentation of material and how she adjusted the program to the workshop participants to suit the professional diversity of the group. I can’t single out any of the modules as being particularly useful because all thematic units that we covered during the workshop made up a whole which will be exceptionally important in my future work,” said Vesna Rodić, Marketing Manager, RTRS, Banja Luka.
Some of the participants arranged future cooperation with the trainer.
“The workshop was very useful for me and I think this was an excellent way to establish contact with colleagues from the region and an opportunity to arrange with the trainer to hold in-house training for our media outlet so that people can get more education in the area of marketing and realize that they are responsible for successful media operation,” said Roberta Sušić, Propagandist in the Marketing Department of Dubrovački vjesnik from Dubrovnik.
According to the trainer, the participants were most interested in learning on practical examples.
“All participants wrote a working version of a media marketing plan for their respective media and showed most interest in that. Although this was media marketing training, I also spoke to them about certain aspects of financial management to help them better understand the media marketing plan as a whole,” said Gordana Svirac, Lead Trainer in the workshop.
The experience they acquired in the workshop will help some of the participants implement new business ideas.
“I found this education very useful and it will help me most of all in implementing a new programming schedule and making new television shows,” said Nemanja Milenkovića, Director of Television Novi Sad.
The participants were:
• Stevan Bijelić, JU Media Mont - Podgorica, Montenegro• Emil Daus, Radio Istra - Pazin, Croatia• Zvjezdan Jurcola, Radio Istra - Pazin, Croatia• Manuela Grbić, Dubrovački Vjesnik - Dubrovnik, Croatia• Azra Kahvo, Stela Media - Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina • Nemanja Milenkoivć, Television Novi Sad - Novi Sad, Serbia• Mladen Milutinović, JU Media Mont - Podgorica, Montenegro• Milenko Miljić, Television Novi Sad - Novi Sad, Serbia• Mićo Perduh, RTRS - Banja Luka, Bosnia-Herzegovina • Vesna Rodić, RTRS - Banja Luka, Bosnia-Herzegovina • Roberta Sušić, Dubrovački Vjesnik - Dubrovnik, Croatia• Sanja Solak, RTRS - Banja Luka, Bosnia-Herzegovina
The lead trainer in the workshop was Gordana Svirac, who has worked as Business Consultant for many companies, such as USAID Media, Press Now, OSCE, IREX Promedia, Mediacentar Sarajevo.
The workshop was held on 19-21 February 2007 at Mediacentar. Together with the workshop organizers, the diploma on completion of the workshop was signed and awarded by the trainer Gordana Svirac.
The workshop was organized by NetNovinar – Center for Investigative Reporting and Media Education (founders: Mediacentar Sarajevo and Investigative Journalism Center, Zagreb).