• It is absolutely the wrong moment for finger pointing and blame shifting as the situation becomes worse.
• What happens to our society and our ability to self-govern, when our credible news sources collapse?
Image: OZONE
It is not news that all newspapers in Kenya have been hemorrhaging money trying to shrink themselves into a survival mode by laying off staff, delaying suppliers and staffers’ payments and cutting down on content.
This downward trajectory will put most newspapers out of business, if no action is taken. The effect will be life changing from the employees who lose jobs, and income to diminishing access to news and credible information, which is necessary in a growing democracy.
All the newspapers in Kenya have taken the cost cutting route, as producing news is costly in this economy. However, pinned down by the changing business model and revenue loss against debt obligations that newspapers are facing, the only option left is to cut down resources to the newsroom.
Consequently, this negatively affects the quality of reporting and newspapers offering less of everything that in turn drives readers away. Fewer readers means fewer subscription and copy sales, less advertising revenues and thus more newsroom cuts. It is a vicious cycle.
Fingers have been pointed to poor business practices, growing debt, changing business models and to a bigger extent, to platform giants such as Google and Facebook, who have been accused of abuse of concentrated economic power and failing to pay for content generated by news organisations.
All these factors and more have contributed to newspapers’ declining fortunes but the reality is that there is also apathy from readers and consumer acceptance to paid content in Kenya. Revenue generated from paid concept is still very low and not enough to sustain a vibrant journalism and compensate for the losses in the physical paper.
We are also not giving the audiences what they want, yet at the same time, we are pounding on their doors daily asking them for money. There is also a demand size problem as readers have migrated to other platforms. As grim as it sounds, this is the sad reality of our industry.
It is absolutely the wrong moment for finger pointing and blame shifting as the situation becomes worse. What happens to our society and our ability to self-govern, when our credible news sources collapse?
As citizens, we will be exposed to misinformation from all sources and we will have no one to hold the powerful interests to account. As imperfect newspapers are, they hold an important role as public watchdogs and are the largest, credible and most influential gathering source of news.
Social media platforms are on the rise and they are said to take over news content. They make sharing of information easy but who will generate that information, if journalists are sent home? Who will verify that information? Who will give balance it?
What is clear is that in communities without strong print and digital news organisations, voter participation declines, and corruption increases.
It is time for the government to step in and help local news entities sustain themselves and transition to the internet era without compromising on their independence or public confidence. If news go out of business, the damage to our democracy will be irreplaceable
Playing this blame game will not help society. Kenyans must understand the existential threat that is facing the news industry and the value journalism brings to our democracy. It is time for the government, media owners, regulators and the Ministry of ICT come together to ensure economic viability of the news industry and protect journalism before it’s too late.
Agnes Kalekye is the chief operating officer, the Star