Shared newsroom to cut many jobs at Radio Africa

Tension is rising at Radio Africa Group after the management this morning announced a restructuring that would lead to layoffs in the next one month.

Mr Patrick Quarcoo, the co-founder of the company told his staff that the restructuring will come with a change in its business model to embrace convergence where staff will no longer work for a particular platform but cut across its print, digital, radio and TV businesses.

Radio Africa Group owns the Star newspaper, Kiss TV, and a number of radio stations including the hugely popular Classic 105, Kiss FM, Radio Jambo, X-FM and East FM.

Speaking at the staff meeting held at its Lion’s Place head offices, Mr Quarcoo said under the converged newsroom, journalists will be categorized in three groups of Super Desk consisting of news hounds who will deliver breaking news; Analytical Desk that will glean analyses from daily news; and the Leaders Desk which comprises mainly top editors who will be tasked to “think and plan.”

Also see: How William Pike pushed David Okwemba out of Star newsroom

“Now as a newspaper reporter when I am sent out I will be required to carry a recorder for radio and camera to take photos,” said a correspondent of the Star newspaper, who said the model will be difficult to implement.

The move towards convergence will help Radio Africa cut costs by weeding out what Mr Quarco referred to in his address as “slackers”, a politically-correct word for joyriders or simply poor performers, by February this year.  This change in strategy is expected to render about 15 Star employees redundant, mostly journalists.

It is not clear how many it will claim from its radio stations, but an insider says from the look of things it will be a good number.

The Star newspaper is hoping to reverse a fall in its readership under this arrangement and further boost its digital edition which has been gaining readership over the past one year. Most media houses are jumping onto the convergence bandwagon, with Nation Media Group and Mediamax experimenting with the system.