Nation Media Group has informed its journalists that the company is laying off a number of them as it embarks on another round of restructuring as it trims its payroll.
The announcement has been delivered by the Group’s Editorial Director Joe Ageyo in a staff briefing held this morning following a board meeting that was held on Friday last week.
Journalists have been asked to find out from their bosses whether they will be needed going forward or not.
“We have to integrate which means we will have fewer people in the newsroom and some of you have to go,” said Ageyo who was hired last year to lead the company in an ambitious restructuring exercise that hopes to transform it to a 21st century digital-first media house.
At the heart of the plan is a reduction on the reliance on its newspaper division which has been its bread and butter since 1961 in order to survive the changing times.
Media houses are facing a bumpy road ahead as the government will from July stop placing its advertisements in the newspapers due to what it terms lack of value for money due to dwindling circulation figures.
The industry is already facing a possible Sh2 billion loss if a proposed 15 percent excise duty on fees charged for the advertisement of betting, gaming, and alcohol-related activities is maintained for the second consecutive year.
All government departments have since 2017 been placing their advertisements through the Government Advertising Agency (GAA) which then runs them in ‘MyGov’ for onward distribution in the mainstream newspapers.
GAA has never been popular among media owners who have consistently argued that the centralisation of government advertising by retired President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration was “the single biggest threat to editorial independence and sustainability of the media.”
In its defence, the Kenyatta administration argued that the centralisation of government advertising had enabled it to save Sh6 billion by reducing ad spending from Sh8 billion annually to Sh2 billion.
Now that Sh2 billion a year that the mainstream newspapers have been getting is set to be withdrawn altogether. Instead, ‘My Gov’ will be distributed through Posta and through digital platforms.
Taking away another Sh2 billion on top of the 15 percent excise duty fees charged on betting, gaming and alcohol advertisements, will push an already fragile industry almost to its knees.
Like elsewhere in the world, Kenyan media have been laying off workers in a bid to cut costs as circulation and advertising revenues dwindle. Digital media has been partly to blame for this but also government policies aimed at crippling the industry.
