Standard Group has begun relocating all its operations to back to the iconic I&M building in the city centre.
The second largest media house in Kenya is based on Mombasa Road at its Standard Group Centre, with a satellite office at the I&M building which houses its newsroom and part of the commercial operations.
The company announced yesterday, 3rd May 2017, that the move will start with the newsroom staff currently on the 16th Floor at I&M building being relocated to the 9th Floor tomorrow.
The Mombasa Road team, which is the nerve centre of Standard’s operations, hosting management, editorial, KTN and Radio Maisha studios, will shift in two weeks’ time.
Below is the memo by Standard Group Editorial Manager Andy Kagwa.
Relocation of Newsroom staff from 16th to 9th Floor, I&M Bank Tower
Please note that the Newsroom Staff currently on the 16th Floor at I&M building will be relocated to the 9th Floor on Friday, May 5, 2017. This exercise will start at 7am.
Our IT team will be at hand to assist in the movement and setting up of machines and at the same time ensuring that there is minimal disruption to our Newsroom operations.
Also, note that workstations will be allocated on a temporary basis. The final allocation will be done when the team from SGC, Mombasa road, moves to I&M.
Kindly co-operate with the team that will be carrying out this exercise.
Regards,
Andy Kagwa
It will be back home for Standard Group employees after nearly 10 years on Mombasa Road. The company had initially planned to move to the nearby ICEA Building, owned by JKUAT, but changed its mind after it emerged that the university would also hot its town campus on the same building, which would cause too much human traffic for a media house.
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Standard Group shifted its base from the city centre to its own premises, Standard Group Centre, to cut on rental and other operational costs. It left a skeleton newsroom at I&M, which occupies one floor. I&M Building is owned by I&M Bank.
The relocation to Standard Group Centre, which consolidated the group’s operations, including its printing press, has worked against it when it comes to covering events, especially press conferences, which are often concentrated in town.
The ever-crawling traffic jam on Mombasa road has not helped things, with its journalists getting late to functions or even missing functions entirely.
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A temporary measure of having a live link between Mombasa Road and I&M has not helped much with constant delays in relaying TV footage or photos to the editors sitting at Mombasa Road. TV interview subjects always frown on going all the way to Mombasa Road. For Standard, life on Mombasa Road has been hard.
The return to I&M will also rekindle the bad memories of the attack on Standard in March 2006, when mercenaries raided its KTN studios at the building and switched them off and burned newspapers at its printing press then located at Likoni Road in industrial area.
The relocation will work against some employees who had moved to stay in estates on Mombasa road for easy access to their workplace, who will now be forced to commute to town. It will also hurt its revenues by increasing costs, as the company is back to paying rent.
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