The People Daily, the ad-supported free newspaper for 10 years, has been shut down, as effects of low advertising continue to pummel the media industry. The newspaper, part of Mediamax Network Ltd owned by former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta family, printed its last issue on Friday 29th November 2024, a sort of anti-climax for a newspaper that has been on the streets for three decades.
To cut costs and survive in the current digital market, the People Daily has gone fully digital in the face of decreasing circulation and changing media consumption preferences. “Journalism insiders have known for a long time that the generation of newspaper readers who loved the smell of ink in a freshly published newspaper that they held in their hands are fading out and we must serve younger generations on the platforms where they hang out,” said Mr Mayaka Gekara, People Daily Managing Editor, said in the goodbye-to-print editorial.
Mr Mayaka said as the People Daily turns a new page to digital media platforms, it will continue to serve readers with content on how politics affects their lives, current affairs, personal finance, health, lifestyle, sports, culture, science, technology, and innovation, education, the environment, mental health and awareness. It was not immediately clear if this move will result in job losses.
Founded in 1992, The People weekly quickly became an influential newspaper in Kenya. During its weekly days, it was the go-to newspaper for political analysis and exclusives for its boldness, touching on stories that The Standard and Nation feared to. The newspaper’s legacy can be felt all over the industry having trained some of the big names in the media today.
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On July 1, 2014, The People Daily entered the unchartered market of a free-circulating newspapers, hoping to turn the high circulation from free copies into an advertising binge. It worked for some time – as Uhuru Kenyatta propped it up while serving as President, throwing it goodies through his influencers.
The going became bumpy last year when the government, in a decision that hurt most main stream newspapers, decided to direct all its advertising to The Star newspaper. Initially, government advertising was shared among the main newspapers. Without this stream, revenues dunked and printing became an unbearable expense for the free newspaper.
The People was founded and owned by politician Kenneth Matiba, started as a weekly, as it were, but turned daily with a Sunday edition in December 1998. In 2002 it had a daily circulation of 60,000, but steadily dropped as it could not sustain the quality and punch it had with the weekly newspaper. It was later sold to the Kenyatta family.
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