With most journalists falling for the glamour and less-stressful careers in government and the corporate world, there are certainly fewer good journalists to go round the industry. Yet in an industry where employer loyalty is a rare commodity, there’s no price for guessing the journalists who are likely to change their media brands.

In 2020, Kenya experienced a 28% dip in advertising revenues as outdoor advertising fell sharply after companies cut spending during the Covid-19 pandemic. “This year, not surprisingly, the twin forces induced by COVID-19 — economic disruption and powerful shifts in consumer behaviour — challenge our underlying assumptions and frame our insights," the report says.

The big 4 of Kenyan mainstream media - Royal Media Services (RMS), Nation Media Group (NMG), Standard Group Plc and Radio Africa Group (RAG) - all make money via SMS-based gaming programming on their radio and TV stations. Being the most easily accessible media platform in Kenya with the widest national reach, radio is the most heavily targeted when it comes to making money off gaming, polls and trivia shows.

These media deaths are three too many and should galvanize action from government and media owners and managers to find ways of better protecting journalists not only by having them vaccinated as a priority but also protected in the course of their work. Since Covid-19 outbreak in Kenya in March 2020, there have been many undocumented cases of journalists being infected, and silently battling it out, with some even dying.

Nation Media Group management has over the past decade watched helplessly the massive haemorrhage of top talent.