Despite daily obstacles such as low purchasing power and a weak advertising market, the rural weekly l’Etoile de la Menoua (the Menoua Star) continues to fight for a rich newspaper culture in Cameroon.

I should say that my decision to launch a rural newspaper came mainly from the fact that I am from a rural background. Not many newspapers really focus their attention on events that happen in the countryside. I wanted to bring to the limelight the lives of my brothers and sisters, says Jean Robert Mbané, editor-in-chief of the French-language newspaper.

For him, a rural newspaper has its very own, specific profile: A rural newspaper rarely covers the exciting lives of ministers and other members of the government, it rarely covers information about the cinema or celebrity gossip. It talks about the difficult life of rural people, their joys and their common struggles. Consequently his paper dedicates 60 percent of its pages to rural news, 20 percent to sport, 10 percent to foreign news and 10 percent to miscellaneous news. The newspaper is sixteen pages and prints in black and white. There are three full-time editorial staff.

Despite believing in the need for rural newspapers, Mbané concedes that the lack of a strong purchasing power in rural areas is a real problem to their success. Rural people are sometimes too poor to afford to buy a newspaper of CFA 300 (approx US$0.05). You just cannot sell rural newspapers as much as you sell urban newspapers. Although the newspaper is a weekly, due to financial constraints it sometimes appears only twice a month. Attracting advertisers in a market where advertising is virtually non-existant, remains the greatest challenge to survival: You have to have to particular relationship with potential advertisers such as friendship, brotherhood, or be a member of the same religion or political party to receive an advertisement. For example, we receive advertisements from one local enterprise because the man who leads that enterprise is from our tribe, says Mbané.

Mbané does not know the exact number of people who read his publication. The newspaper has never conducted an audience research survey, but at the end of the year it does publish the names of its premium readers and some subscribers to help attract more audience. Printing regularly is another challenge. We print at different printing plants depending on who offers the best price at that time. We stay with one distributor, however. Our newspaper is distributed by Messapresse, a private distributor which covers the entire country of Cameroon. Our policy is to focus on large distribution over the entire country. Competition is particular for rural newspapers, as most of Mbanés competition comes from newspapers that cover the lives of some tribes, rather than general or international news.

Despite these obstacles, Mbané remains committed to delivering information to his rural readers: People of the villages need to be informed about what is going on world-wide. Statistics say that between 60 and 70 percent of the Cameroonians live in villages. If information cannot reach this percentage of people, they are lost as the world becomes more and more of a global village. Today many young people, after some idle time in the cities, come back to their villages and if they are not informed, they will lose all track in life.