BY JAMES MULIRO
The last decade has seen monumental shift in the media landscape not just in Kenya but also across the globe. Facebook was just starting in 2006 nearly a decade after the world of Internet picked momentum. Google on the other hand, which started in 1995, was to say the least, unknown.
The online space was growing at an alarming rate. University students, most of who could barely afford newspapers or magazines that would keep them ‘infotained’ (educated and informed), were gradually finding an alternative in online media and so were millions of other audiences. Newspapers, magazines and a whole new set of companies and individuals were setting up an online presence, providing news for ‘free’.
At this rate, who would want to buy a newspaper? There are the ardent readers who love the smell of newspapers and it may perhaps take them a while or not at all to out down the papers for a whole new world: online media. But the fact still remained; many of the young generation as well as the old, were shifting their readership base away from traditional-only to online and social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and websites such as nation.co.ke, standardmedia.co.ke, tuko.co.ke. In fact, when the latter was starting earlier this year, a cheeky advert sponsored by its founders, Genesis Technology Partners, sounded like this: ‘Don’t Waste Money on newspapers. Read Tuko.co.ke for free’, an advert that was running even on traditional media platforms’ websites.
An email written to staff on August 11, 2015 by Editor-in-chief at Nation Media Group was loaded with hope and uncertainty for some.
“(This is) just a reminder that we all are in the middle of a seismic transition and that we all must embrace efforts being made to help reduce the disruption. We are all required to proactively embrace and recognise that you are all required to think digital first. Systems have been put in place to ensure that those that need help do get it,” Mr Mshindi said.
His statement did not end at that. He shared a blog post of how a US media had to painfully readjust in the middle of a ‘terrorising’ digital media environment that appeared to haunt and inspire staff and management in equal measure. Haunt because many of them would be let go due to the tough times brought about by online media but inspiring because some of them had the motivation to acquire new multi-media skills and think digital first.
A blog post written by Brian McGrory, an editor at Boston Globe further gave a stark reminder to Boston Globein July 2015. He said that Globe, one of the best regional newspapers in the US that has been shrinking steadily (in staffing and adverts) over the past couple of years.
McGrory, who has been editor since December 2012, is presiding over the deliberate dismantling of the old print-focused system at the Globe and replacing it with “a predominantly digital, subscriber-based news operation”.
“In the worst kept secrets category, the Globe is launching another buyout programme next week, this one specific to the newsroom. We’ll use it as an opportunity to direct more resources to digital, a vital undertaking. Different than last year, it will also help us cut costs as we continue our transformation into a predominantly digital, subscriber-based news operation that will thrive for many years to come. If we fail in our savings goal through buyouts, we’ll be faced with the difficult prospect of layoffs… But we expect all copy editors and layout/makeup/slot editors to take on significant web responsibilities in the very near future,” McGrory wrote in a blog post.
The argument by media scholar Dan Kennedy, a professor of journalism at Northeastern University in Boston, indicates that the Globe’s owners know they have no other option – either they change or they die.
“This blog post is a stark statement of what we all confront if we do not embrace this change… The pain at theGlobe (declining readership, shrinking ad revenue, staff layoffs) will eventually come to other newspapers, even here in Africa. We’ll be better off if we learnt from the newsgathering and editing experiments going on at theGlobe and other newspapers around the world,” Mshindi said.
Equally, former Nation Media Group (NMG) chief executive officer Linus Gitahi could not have put any better than he did the permanent and inevitable role of digital and social media in today’s media world.
In his final message to staff a day before going into retirement after an eight-year stewardship of the largest multi-media house in East and Central Africa, Gitahi acknowledged the epic task his successor would face in steering the company through the massive technological changes that are now a permanent feature in society.
“I leave behind an industry that is going through major changes. When I joined in November 2006, Facebook was virtually unheard of; YouTube was just about a year old; Twitter had just been launched, and WhatsApp had not even been conceived.
Today Facebook has close to 1.5 billion users and almost a billion people use WhatsApp every day.
“The way people produce, consume and share information is changing almost daily, as are the underlying business models for the industry. I leave behind a successful business which has invested in legacy media assets, but which also has a Digital Division with a clear strategy to ensure that we are not left behind in this fast-changing landscape,” Gitahi’s message rang deep.
The former NMG CEO, speaking on November 13, 2015 at the African Media Leaders Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa, reiterated the fact that the future of media in Africa is digital.
“What I find surprising is that the older journalists and editors still cling to the good old newspaper and do not have time for Facebook, Twitter and digital media in general. They, like their American and European counterparts, are watching circulation go down and mourning in a little corner. In a nearby room would be young, enterprising digital journalists busy driving audiences without a clue how revenue can be made. Africa media need to make digital media mainstream and media owners ought to begin to make multimedia journalism an imperative. In my experience, the old, experienced well-known journalists are at times the biggest impediment to the entrenchment of new media in our organizations,” Gitahi said.
All major newsrooms in Kenya are now ‘thinking digital first’. They are encouraging their newsroom teams to think digital first in their day-to-day activities. Many of them such as the Nation Media Group, the Standard Group and Radio Africa Group, which owns the Star newspaper, have in place teams dedicated solely to digital media.
Many of them such as the Standard Group are now going heavy on hiring teams with digital/multimedia acumen. In September 2015, the oldest media house announced the position of General Manager, Digital.
Among the roles of this key managerial role would be to “Lead digital ‘evangelisation’ initiatives within the organisation, lead strategy development and provide management for the company’s Digital Division, including the organisation’s websites, social media presence and other digital communication channels and business to maximize reach and audience engagement and optimise revenue generation as well as meet the needs of stakeholders both internally and externally,” read the announcement.
They are not alone in a ‘shark-infested’ digital ocean. There is an explosion of websites offering a countless menu of news much to the bewilderment of the reader. The many websites posing as news channels are in fact, peddlers of rumours, lies and at times hate, and linger or largely unregulated. This is what has kept the mainstream media largely in business due in part to the reputation they have built over the years and an army of followers who still trust them as the go-to news source. Some other reputable news sites have however emerged and are now competing in the same digital space that the ‘big boys’ are now trying to adapt to. For naysayers, only time will tell how the future of media will turn out.
“Consumers will increasingly be more loyal to the news source rather than the platform, and good journalists are set to reap big in this emerging brave, new world. Restructuring the newsroom is probably an idea whose time has come,” Gitahi summed up.
