Star newspaper publisher Radio Africa Group has embarked on its second round of restructuring that has already seen some journalists pushed out. The move targets to cut the converged editorial department’s wage bill to manageable levels.
It is understood that Radio Africa’s editor-in-chief Charles Kerich has been tasked to slash the monthly wage bill by Ksh2 million, which adds up to Ksh24 million per year. This is expected to help the Star newspaper to stay afloat as circulation and ad revenues drop.
A number of its correspondents, both in-house and in the counties, who have fallen victim of the directive are receiving termination letters. The move to target poorly paid correspondents has been questioned by some journalists who believe it will not only affect the media house’s coverage of events ahead of the next elections but also have less impact on trimming the wage bill.
“How many correspondents earning 5k per month are they going to sack to hit two million shillings,” wondered a senior editor at the Star. “Kerich needs to focus on getting out some idle editors who blow huge salaries. Three of them can easily reduce the wage bill by one million.”
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A recent relaunch of the Star newspaper in May has failed to excite the market and sources at Radio Africa – which runs the Star newspaper, Kiss TV and a host of radio stations including Classic 105 and Kiss 100 – say the newspaper has been struggling to attract advertisers. First because of falling circulation and, second, its premium pricing of ads at par with market leaders Daily Nation in spite of its low circulation and readership.
The relaunch, which effectively made it a political newspaper, has hit headwinds in a political environment where influence peddlers have scared it from touching on hot buttons.
Real circulation figures are hard to come by but insiders say it could be the lowest circulating general daily newspaper in the market, trailing The People (which is freely circulated with a print run of over 50,000), The Standard (estimated at 60,000) and Daily Nation (at 100,000).
The company recently implemented the converged newsroom model which appears to be forcing a cut on staff. Under the model, journalists work across its print, electronic and digital platforms.
The company’s CEO Patrick Quarco has put staff on notice warning that those who don’t adapt to the changing media technologies would find it hard to keep their jobs.
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