Somalia was without an effective central government for much of the 1990s, after President Siad Barre’s 20 year-long military regime was overthrown in 1991 by opposing clans. Civil war ensued, and a transitional government set up in 2000 controls only parts of the country today.

RAP 21 spoke to Abdullahi Mohamed Hassan, editor of the Somali-language daily newspaper "Ayaamaha", on the challenges of operating a newspaper in post-conflict Somalia, and the problems facing the newspaper industry today.

RAP 21: How did "Ayaamaha" newspaper come into being?

Abdullahi Mohamed Hassan: During the military regime the free press was non-existent. After the fall of the regime in 1991, however, a huge number of newspapers came into circulation in various parts of Somalia. The bulk of them were from Mogadishu, the capital. I set up a newspaper called"Qaran" in 1991 with other colleagues in the media. Although it is still in circulation, I left it to launch my own newspaper "Ayaamaha" in 1995.

RAP 21: How has the newspaper been affected financially by the civil war?

Abdullahi Mohamed Hassan: What we earn from the paper doesn’t meet our immediate needs. Sometimes, we ask for subsidies from friends or associates. I don’t think "Ayaamaha" will fully recover financially until Somalia forms a legitimate government and life resumes back to normal.

RAP 21: How did the conflict affect "Ayaamaha’s" day to day operations?

Abdullahi Mohamed Hassan: I did not experience any interruptions in the operation of my newspaper since its launch, despite the ongoing civil war. However two staff members from the editorial side of the newspaper were laid off during the conflict. Since the end of the war, the newspaper staff has actually increased, but the majority of our editorial staff are apprentices who want to be trained as journalists by the newspaper, rather than full-fledged reporters.

RAP 21: Where does your newspaper’s revenue come from?

Abdullahi Mohamed Hassan: Most of the newspaper’s revenue comes from direct sales. "Ayaamaha’s" readers share one paper between five to ten people, or they hire it from news vendors, which has a negative impact on the revenue we generate from our direct sales. In an attempt to counter this, the newspaper’s strategy focuses on attracting readers; we try to be innovative and make the front and inside pages look attractive, as well as publish articles of general interest informally educating, informing and entertaining the readership.

RAP 21: How much of the paper’s revenue today comes from advertising?

Abdullahi Mohamed Hassan: Not much. The advertising market is not thriving as there are currently no well-developed corporate businesses in Somalia. In addition, we have no specific marketing strategy since readership is very limited and with the exception of the telecommunications sector, the business community is not interested in buying advertising space in our newspaper.

RAP 21: Did you have access to a printing press during the war? How do you print your newspaper today?

Abdullahi Mohamed Hassan: During the war we had no access to a printing press, and today we continue to produce the newspaper in-house. We use old photocopy machines left behind by the then government. This is inconvenient as often spare parts for the machines are not available. So we use components disassembled from the old machines as spare parts.

Although I am able to produce the paper on a regular basis, sometimes the newspaper itself appears in bad shape. This is a problem because if the newspaper appearances are not attractive for the readership then there will no profits at all!

RAP 21: Do you still suffer from distribution problems?

Abdullahi Mohamed Hassan: Yes. During the during war, we had no way of distributing "Ayaamaha" throughout the country because of homelands established by the warlords as strongholds. This problem continues today. It has severely affected my newspaper’s profits. Our problems with distribution have greatly affected circulation, which presently sits at around 600 copies. In fact, we even have difficulties of distributing to some parts of Mogadishu, let alone reaching the nearby regions.

RAP 21: What would you say are the biggest impediments to developing the newspaper industry in Somalia?

Abdullahi Mohamed Hassan: Somalia was in turmoil for over 13 years and every aspect of life has deteriorated from bad to worse. Developing the newspaper industry in Somalia first depends upon the establishment of a democratically elected government that is capable of restoring law and order in the country. I believe this is the first step, before we can focus on the business aspect of developing the newspaper industry.

Since we are living in a chaotic society, I feel the local media is duty-bound to educate the people on the motto "Put Down Your Guns and Take Up A Pen".