The fate of Joseph Odindo remains unclear three days after being appointed as the Editorial Director at the Standard Group, Kenya’s second biggest media house.
The company’s CEO Sam Shollei has not been seen at the office since yesterday morning after he abruptly cancelled a meeting to introduce the new editorial head to senior managers and editors.
According to a memo from Human resources director Pauline Kiraithe to all staff, Mr Shollei travelled to Tanzania yesterday for “an emergency trip” and can only be available for consultation from Monday next week.
Related: Confusion as Standard Group board stops Odindo’s appointment
Mr Odindo, reading the mood change, did not work today and his office remained closed, according to sources at Standard Centre on Mombasa Road. Some sources say he was seen around briefly.
It is understood that Mr Shollei is consulting with the members of the board who stopped the orientation meeting yesterday after reading about the appointment in the Standard newspaper’s Thursday edition. Many, though, believe the emergency Tanzania trip is a smokescreen to allow the CEO uninterrupted time to engage the board.
Mr Odindo, a former Nation Media Group editorial boss, was primed to take the job and his appointment has been received positively by the industry.
“Shollei means well to appoint Odindo because he has the capacity to help Standard rise again,” said a senior Standard journalist who asked not to be named. “But it seems the company politics could be against progressive changes.”
Standard Group’s media platforms – the Standard newspaper, KTN and Radio Maisha – are facing lean times after losing audience to rivals and eventually squeezing revenues, which led to the company announcing a pretax profit of Ksh21 million for the half-year to June 2015 and subsequently issuing a profit warning for the full year.
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