That is the whole point of discrete editorial magazines – for advertisers you are buying into a unique

That is the whole point of discrete editorial magazines – for advertisers, you are buying into a unique environment.”Surjit Singh Ghuman founded his Panjabi radio station five years ago. “We are as complicated as the middle class you will find anywhere in Middle England. But advertisers are struggling to understand these tenets of modern Britishness,” he says.To illustrate the point, he reveals his own media preferences; BBC Radio 4’s Today programme in the morning, the Financial Times on Saturday and reggae music on satellite TV on Sunday.Yvonne Wilks, the deputy managing director of GV Media Group, which owns the Gleaner and in 2004 bought out the struggling Voice newspaper, says the ethnic-minority media offer a more authentic voice to their readers, and so offer advertisers a unique platform.”It is the same rationale as for specialist magazines. Memoa will lobby leading UK advertising executives and promote the “ethnic consumer success story”.Yearwood believes advertisers are wrong in believing they can reach ethnic minorities, and the burgeoning non-white middle class, through mainstream media alone. The inaugural reception of the Multi-Ethnic Media Owners Association (Memoa) will be hosted by the culture minister David Lammy. He will argue that it is time that politicians engaged with all members of the media in an attempt to “plug into all our communities”.Memoa was the brainchild of Glen Yearwood, a second-generation Caribbean social entrepreneur who, from his office in Brick Lane, has been helping arts institutions shake off their white, elitist image.

Firms are slowly waking to the potential, but many believe that non-mainstream brands are being let down by the media agencies and their clients. They are accused of having failed lamentably to understand the complexities of Britain’s modern communities.The other major problem facing ethnic media is that the often crucial public-sector advertising, which was once placed in big volumes by government departments and local authorities anxious to be seen as equal opportunities employers, is becoming increasingly scarce.To overcome this, a new trade body will be launched at the House of Commons next Monday. Society has travelled a long way.
Britain’s ethnic minority media has a potential audience of 8 to 10 per cent of the population. After the high-profile pursuit of the pink pound and the grey pound, surely the race is on for the black or brown pound?The leading players behind some of the most successful ethnic media brands would say – if only it were that easy.

Today, black and Asian newspapers jostle for space on the newsstands. Bhangra and urban music stations ring out amid the babble of the digital airwaves, while African football results or the latest Bollywood news are just a remote control away. In 1951, a slim weekly digest of news and cricket results from the Caribbean’s oldest newspaper arrived in Britain. The Weekly Gleaner, targeted at the Windrush generation, brought with it a sunshine taste of home for the new arrivals shivering in the austerity and overt racism of post-war London. From these humble beginnings, the black and minority ethnic media were born. When Dave Morley and I decided to leave to start our production company, TV21, again Paul was completely supportive.

Some bosses would have been very possessive with their producers but Paul was the opposite, advising us in setting it up.I was only at Noel Gay for 15 months but it was an incredible experience and gave me the launch pad to later become a commissioning editor at Channel 4. If ever I’ve had any issues over programmes or my career, Paul has always found time. Everyone’s career goes up and down, and Paul has been there for me, on the end of a phone or willing to meet up. He has been in America for the last three years and every time I’ve been over there I’ve hooked up with him for another entertaining and gossipy lunch. Now he’s gone to ITV and that’s fantastic.Graham Smith is Controller of Comedy at Five and Paramount Comedy Channel.Paul Jackson is Director of Entertainment and Comedy at ITV.