MUGANDA: The media scene has dramatically changed and we’re changing with it

The Nation Media Group chief executive speaks to Wallace Kantai about convergence, rationalisation and how he is repositioning the media house to deliver effectively in the face of competition from new media.

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What’s behind the the announcements you have recently made about adopting a new strategy?

We are a fairly successful organisation. That has been the case for a while. But one of the things that has been happening in the media is that the channels through which consumers are taking up our product are changing. So we are trying to ensure that we have a strategy that will deliver to those consumers.

What must we do? We have looked at our assets, and we are trying to deploy them in a manner that ensures that they are efficient and effective. We want to ensure that all business units are commercially successful.

To this end, towards the end of last year, we bought a new printing press that allows us to print much more efficiently. The quality of our product has improved; the speed with which we are able to deliver our product to consumers has improved. And this is a next step on that journey.

The digital world is a reality across the world. For us, this means converging the newsrooms, ensuring that the products as we have organised them can deliver to the consumer in the manner that is expected. We no longer break news: Social media platforms go ahead of us in doing that.

We have to make sure that in addition to competing with that media that is breaking news, we are doing what is called Day 2 journalism with our newspapers, telling our readers the reasons behind what is happening; we have to make sure that television is relevant — that we’re entertaining people in the manner that’s expected.

We’ll get to the issue of the printing press because it’s been quite a big issue strategically, but let’s talk about specific actions with regard to the announcements made on June 30.

We announced the rationalisation of our broadcasting division. We have two television channels – NTV and QTV. We’ve consolidated them into one strong multilingual television station, so it will deliver in both English and Kiswahili, under our flagship brand NTV.

This allows us to have a stronger and richer mix of programming, as well as a much more effective way of deploying resources.

We have also reviewed our radio business and come to the conclusion that it can’t go on as it is. So we have scaled it down. We will keep a live signal and maintain an online presence. Hence, we will not have QFM and Nation FM as they stand today.

READ: NMG reviews radio operations in new strategic move

Is the action you have taken a reflection of the fact that you think that the business has changed dramatically?

Yes, I think the business has changed quite dramatically. Anybody who thinks that consumers are behaving the way they behaved two years ago is kidding themselves.

The advent of smartphones is a fact of life. People are watching television and participating in interactive feedback. You can watch television, read your newspaper and listen to the radio on one device. So, it’s no longer the way it used to be, and we have to be alive to that fact and organise ourselves around the consumer. I think there is a huge shift in the way consumers are consuming the products that we produce.

You invested a significant chunk of money into a new printing press. Was that the right investment when the print business is declining?

I have heard those arguments put out before, but we are confident that the print media will continue to play a significant role in our business for many years to come. Hence, we have to be able to deliver the product the consumer wants.

The old printing press we had was over 18 years old. It was not operating at an optimal level — we were struggling to deliver the paper to far-flung areas of the country, so we took the prudent decision to protect our biggest source of revenue, which is the print business.

We are comfortable with the investment that we have made. We think that print still has relevance in this part of the world, and therefore we are confident that we made the right decision.

The printing press, the most modern in Africa, will ensure our continued dominance in the printing space by improving our printing quality and increasing colour capacity, combined with several additional features that are attractive to advertisers.

Let’s speak about newsrooms. What you have announced with regard to consolidation of businesses does mean that news will be affected. What will the new news business look like?

I think you only have to check the way people consume media. They will probably get it first on their WhatsApp or other social media platforms first, and then probably see it broadcast second, and ultimately for those who want to read the newspaper, they’ll do that the next day.

The reality is that if you are consuming print, for example, on your device, we have to be putting out those stories in a manner that suits consumers.

So, if consumers are pretty much on their phones at six in the morning — we are checking the patterns, and Kenyans wake up fairly early — we have to make sure that when you get stories, as you complete writing them you are uploading them. If you ask me what the newsroom will look like, I think it will be a very joined-up thing, as opposed to having separate newsrooms for digital, broadcast and print. It will be the backbone.

Is it that word — convergence?

Yes. It has to be converged and people have to be working together. The journalist of the future has to be somebody who can cut across all platforms.

The days of people having singular skills are fairly limited and we’re seeing this everywhere in the world. Those who can cut across that will be important.

We are training our younger journalists to ensure that they operate in that manner and, fortunately, they come into the system when they are already au fait with the devices that will allow them to operate in that manner.

People are very visual today. Six-hundred-word articles may not be what people want to read in the future and we have to be alive to that. The newsrooms will be converged, and that’s the way of the future. That is why we are going down that route.

Let’s speak about the less positive sides of such re-organisation or rationalisation — job losses, and what happens to the people in the divisions you are rationalising?

As we embark on our new strategy, regrettably, there will be a reduction of our workforce through job redundancies. It’s a very difficult moment in the organisation, when we have to lose some of our colleagues.

We will ensure that the exercise is carried out with due respect to our employees and within Kenyan law. It is a change in strategy, not that they have done anything wrong. We will follow the labour laws: We will give them counselling and support to ensure that they go through this as smoothly as is humanely possible.

Will this be the last rationalisation?

My response to that is that we are constantly reviewing our organisation. If I said that it was the last one, I would hope that it is. But we are forever internalising and checking that we are operating efficiently. But major announcements of this nature? I don’t think there will be too many.

Finally, when you do all these strategic changes, how should we measure you? At what point should we come to you and tell you – give us this metric or this number, and we’ll know if you’re successful or not?

Well, I am no different from any other CEO you would find in this country. The measure will be, have you delivered on your numbers? What is happening to the share price?

I do not think I will be giving you any specific numbers to look at. Just judge me by the performance of the business, as would be expected by the shareholders.