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How mainstream media can survive in the digital era

BUSINESS TODAYMar 2, 20168 Mins read1.5k

In a TV ad, a man tries to persuade a boda boda rider to reduce the fare to his house where he is rushing to watch prime time news. When he is told that he need not hurry home as he can get all the breaking news via his phone, the excitement on the man’s face is palpable.

Although the ad is aired on a “mainstream” television channels, it carries an ominous message for traditional news media – newspapers, television and radio. For many years the source of news, both breaking and running, these traditional media are fighting for survival in the battle for eyeballs as web-based and digital media threaten to push them to the periphery, and eventually down the cliff.

Already, the strain is being felt in newsrooms and boardrooms in Nairobi, the regional media capital. Media executives, who apparently did not see it coming that fast, have lately been retreating to the drawing boards. Every board meeting results in causalities – massive lay-offs of journalists and advertising executives, closure of tittles and suspension of programmes.

While newspaper circulation has nosedived, TV viewership has plummeted and the ubiquitous radio is fast losing its appeal as a fast teller of news, thanks to the avalanche of information now available at a click.

Social media such as Facebook and Twitter are giving newspapers and TV a run for their money.

nd advertisers are taking note – they are following potential customers to the dynamic world of the Internet where “citizen journalists” stream live videos of news events and provide all sorts of interesting stuff that not even the most enterprising news media is capable of.

As the number of newspaper readers, TV viewers and radio listeners dwindle, that of “followers” on twitter, facebook, et cetera is climbing as more and more people on-line content served by start-ups with relish, as they throw in their 30 cent worth in form of feedback.

This was expected in a country that is among the fastest growing in the uptake of Internet and mobile telephony. By end of last year, over 82% of Kenyans were using mobile phones with those using Internet inching towards 30 million, according to Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK).

Aware that more and more Kenyans are subscribing to Internet data, mobile phone companies have increased investment in provision of Internet, and are giving Internet service providers a run for their money.

See Also: Citizen TV sacks top reporters

With the imminent lose of readers and viewers to the fast, fancy and fathomless platform of the Internet, traditional media are gasping for air, as they struggle to innovate in efforts to cling to the all important advertiser, the source of their bread.

Although at least all the main papers have on-line editions while the main TV stations are seeking salvation in interactive Internet-based platforms, none of them is able to beat the tenacity of bloggers and other as the ultimate breakers of news.

The printed newspaper is feeling the most heat; with revenues severely undermined as both readers and advertisers look elsewhere. Consequently sales have tumbled, with only the older generation visiting newsstands to buy copies of the dailies.

Although statistics are difficult to come by, because media companies are reluctant to release them, for obvious reasons, the daily newspaper sales are said to be below 200,000 cumulatively down from about 300,000 three years ago for all the four leading dailies, with the weekend sales improving slightly.

Daily Nation sells about 140, 000 daily, down from about 180,000 three years ago while the Standard does about 40,000 down from about 70,000 three years ago. The Star follows with about 20,000. Lower sales have translated into fewer ads, which have declined by a whopping 45% over the last five years.

The Nation Media Group, the regional giant that publishes the Daily and Sunday Nation, Taifa and the East African among other titles in the East African region announced a decline in profit for the half-year of 2015 compared.

Although the group blamed the 8% decline in revenues (from Sh1.56 billion to Sh1.43 billion) to the interruption caused by digital migration earlier in the year when the groups NTV and QTV were shut down for failing to meet the digital migration deadline, a decline in newspaper sales and advertising contributed to the drop.

The performance of the other listed company, the Standard Group, publishers of Kenya’s oldest newspaper, the Standard and Sunday Standard alongside racy city tabloid, the Nairobian, was even more dismal, with the group recording a 90% fall in pretax profit for the six months ending June 2015.

Pretax profit fell to a mere Sh21.3 million down from Sh205 million in the same period of 2014. Like the Nation Group, the media house blamed this on weakness in the company’s television segment. However, with TV providing less than 30% of the group’s revenues, the poor performance of the group’s newspaper segment played a big role in the disastrous financial performance.

Not long ago, both the Nation Group and the Standard Group stopped publication of a number of print titles when it became clear that they were not making money. Nation last year hurriedly folded Nairobi News and SportOn while the Standard quietly killed the Counties.

To stay afloat in the face of the assault from the internet, both Standard and the Nation, as well as the others newspapers, long established digital editions. However, the advertising on their digital versions have not picked up as fast as anticipated, Statistics are scarce on the amounts made from advertising on the on-line version.

Aware of the run-away success of internet and mobile social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram , Whatsapp among others and aware that a majority of the firms and persons in advertising have turned to this platforms, newspapers now operate accounts on this networks to no significant increase in revenues.

Read >> Radio Africa humiliates sacked editor

The growth of internet-based news and information platforms , including social media and their subsequent eating into the advertising pie, however, does not mean that traditional journalism is about to be replaced. But the fact is that on-the-spot witnesses are now as likely to be posting on social media as talking to a journalist.

Most of the newspaper readers in the coming years will be reading their favorite dailies on-line, with the number of printed copies continuing to dwindle.

With everyone having become a creator of content, the professional journalist still retains that crucial role of selecting and using only what is significant and verifying to ensure that only the truth is told. The professional journalist using social media has to look for that relevant piece of the tweet, or video that will define a story.

Secondly, because newspaper readers will be reading their favourite dailies online, with the number of printed copies continuing to dwindle, newspapers have no choice but to improve their online editions.

But even as they retreat to the internet, newspapers must rediscover themselves if they want to remain relevant. They should stop focusing on news events and delve deeper into areas such as investigative and watchdog journalism, where professionalism is the watchword.

Secondly, they should become masters of Day Two journalism, which can also be called analytic journalism. The reason readers have respected newspapers is because they watch over the powerful on behalf of the rest of us, because they are a watchdog of government.

Finally, they should step up campaign journalism by taking up issues and following them through with a desired objective in mind. Although the print media seems to be the one facing more heat from advances in technology, the juggernaut has not spared TV and radio.

Digital migration coup

For many years considered a fast and glamorous mass medium, traditional TV is now struggling to stay afloat as the internet not only threatens its claim to speed and glamour, but its flexibility and ubiquity is leaving both TV and radio breathless.

And with advent of digital TV, Kenyan mainstream stations, notably Citizen, NTV, KTN, KBC, K24, KISS, QTV among others now find themselves at crossroads and must be creative survive. Digital broadcasting is more efficient than analogue because it requires less bandwidth, which means it is now possible to broadcast up to six digital channels in the space that used to be taken up by just one analogue channel.

Even better, over-the-air digital signals don’t weaken over distance, as analog signals do. With digital decoders, Kenyans can now access hundreds of channels, local and foreign, which means international channels which only the able could access a year ago via satellite dishes, can now be accessed by everyone, in most cases freely, with the help of pocket size decoders.

This is bad news for established Kenyan channels. First it means that the field has been opened to other players who may not have the deep pockets hitherto required to set up a TV station.

There is now no need for expensive transmission equipment because unlike analogue broadcasting technology, which converts sound and pictures into waves that are transmitted and picked up by aerials, digital broadcasting converts sound and pictures into a series of binary digits, which are then transmitted without the help of expensive transmitters.

With many players storming the field, the scramble for the TV adverts is about to ensue, and only the most innovative will survive. Already, enterprising individuals have invaded the erstwhile exclusive business of TV broadcasting with vernacular TVs, with an eye on the majority rural viewers ala the vernacular radio stations that have stolen the show from national ones.

Aware of the impending doom, some like Royal Media, the owners of Citizen TV, have panicked and are hoping to replicate the success of their myriad vernacular radio stations by starting vernacular TV stations.

Worse for local stations that have for years exploited foreign programmes, mainly Mexican soaps, to capture advertisers of mainly consumer goods such as soaps, detergents, perfumes, alcohol among others, viewers can now watch these on the international channels available on DTV.

Advertising cash takes the vote

To sustain and improve user stickiness and also increase the advertising potential of the digital offering, TV stations have no choice but to change strategy. Some of the strategies they should employ include digital-first strategy (breaking news on digital platforms), leveraging social media for news sourcing and dissemination, user generated content, user groups and forums, localization and personalization of content.

The dilemma for traditional media comes amid interesting times in the arena of advertising, with mass media advertising recording phenomenal growth. Last year, companies spent Sh85.8 billion on advertising in traditional media compared to Sh79.2 billion in 2013, according to data from Reelforge.

Newspapers were the least favoured by advertisers, a clear indication of the dwindling fortunes of these most traditional of mass media. While TV stations made Sh41.8 billion and radio Sh36.3 billion , print managed a meagre Sh7.7 billion.

Data on digital advertising is not easy to obtain but anecdotal evidence suggests that it is substantial with companies such as Safaricon advertising on virtually all popular internet-based platforms.

Not surprising, communication-based companies such as Safaricom topped the list of spenders; Safaricom spent Sh8.05 billion while Airtel Kenya spent Sh1.6 billion. These companies also provide Internet services. Internet-based OLX Kenya was among the top ten advertisers, spending Sh1.31 billion.

The writing is on the wall for the Nation and Standard groups, Royal Media, Mediamax, among others that now dominate the local news industry – shape up or ship out.

(This article, written by David David Matende, first appeared in The Nairobi Business Monthly Dec. 2015 edition. Reprinted with permission.)

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