The Star Newspaper’s Chief Operating Officer Agnes Kalekye has been elected to the World Association of News Publishers supervisory board.
Kalekye was elected on June 17, alongside ten other directors from across the world.
Another 14 directors were reelected to continue serving the board for another term.
Speaking on her new role, Kalekye said the appointment will help members access professional services to help their businesses prosper especially at this time where newspaper publishers are facing existential crisis due to drop in readership and advertising in Kenya.
"The industry will be able to tap into expertise delivered by teams/media houses that have successfully pivoted to create successful sustainable publishing business," she said.
"Most important for publishers will be to protect the rights of journalists in Kenya to sustain independent media which will be done through various ways like direct support to local media and journalists working in challenging environment and markets."
Kalekye added that they will also push for inclusion of more women in leadership.
"Through our membership we will work towards improving gender equality across all publishers as well as increasing our proportion of women in leadership positions through trainings on priority areas like digital transformation to equip women journalist towards leadership," she stated.
Wan-Ifra Chief executive Vincent Peyregne said the new team signifies the organisations commitment to expand expertise on the board and achieving gender equity in media management.
“Today’s announcement advances our ongoing efforts to expand the expertise and diversity of our Board and confirms that a growing number of women are taking up senior positions in the media. However, we are far from the parity we aspire to as an industry. I hope this and future elections will lead the way.”
Standard Group Digital Editor Caroline Kimutai was also elected to the board.
The Board is designed to help the organisation focus on activities that contribute most to Wan-Ifra’s overall objectives.
It is also responsible for the strategic planning of programmes and the patronage of the association.
The World Association of News Publishers, or Wan-Ifra, is the global organisation of the world’s press.
It was founded in 1948, and has a global network of 3,000 news publishing companies and technology entrepreneurs, as well as 60 member publisher associations representing 18,000 publications in 120 countries.
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