Tough market for local magazines competing with online platforms

A newsstand in Nairobi: Magazines are finding it difficult to stay afloat in the era of social platforms. FILE PHOTO | NMG 

By NG'ANG'A MBUGUA
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Summary

• However, a few, like Parents, True Love and Business Monthly have demonstrated staying power, re-inventing themselves to remain relevant in a market that has not been friendly to monthly publications.

The magazines business in Kenya is a rollercoaster, with exciting moments when new players come into the market, and the steep dips when they exit unceremoniously because not all of them have staying power.

Indeed, the mortality rate of new entrants can be unnerving, and, like shooting stars, some soon burn out never to be heard of again.

Character, which was published in the late 1990s and early 2000s easily comes to mind. Drum, which was popular in the 1980s and which was later re-invented in the mid 2000s is a more memorable brand that came and went, so to speak.

However, a few, like Parents, True Love and Business Monthly have demonstrated staying power, re-inventing themselves to remain relevant in a market that has not been friendly to monthly publications.

The Business Monthly, for instance, marked 25 years on the newsstands, despite its humble and unlikely beginnings.

And to mark the milestone, the February edition selected 25 company CEOs who are poised to set the business agenda in Kenya this year.

Of course, with his work cut out for him in the rebrand from Barclays Bank to Absa, the bank's managing director, Jeremy Awori, was ranked first among equals.

Barclays’ has been one interesting journey.

In their book, Kenya Pioneer Chronicles, Errol Trzebinski and Stephen Mills, recall that the bank was born when its predecessor, the National Bank of South Africa, set up in Kenya in 1916.

"It became only the third banking enterprise to open a branch in Kenya," the two authors say.

According to one source, in those days, making withdrawals required notifying the bank, in writing, specifying the day. That was then.

Today, Absa, the successor of Barclays, actually sends customers notifications every time they make a withdrawal. That is how times have changed.

Besides, corporate leaders like Mr Awori, the magazine’s anniversary edition also features industry leaders like Carole Kariuki, CEO of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa) and Phyllis Wakiaga, her counterpart at the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM).

What is more important is not just the sharing of their stories but their transformative agenda and what their work means for the country and the economy.

"The Top 25 leaders honoured here have worked and continue to work to improve the wider business landscape, each fired by entirely different set of compulsions," says the the publisher, former Media Owners Association of Kenya chairman Hannington Gaya, who publishes seven other magazines under his Media Seven stable.

The leaders were selected in partnership with The Knowledge Warehouse in collaboration with public relations companies.

TOP ACHIEVERS

Besides the top achievers, the magazine has also honoured 10 other business leaders for their lifetime achievement, starting with Benson Wairegi, the group Managing Director of Britam and closing with Darshan Chandaria, group CEO of Chandaria Group.

Andrew Mutuma, the Managing Director of DHL Express Kenya, closes the honours list as CEO of the month.

Many of the CEOs featured in the issue have had to lead their organisations through difficult transitions and all of them embody the spirit of continuous learning, which is critical for both personal and organisational growth.

Their stories are at once informative as they are inspiring, light a path for those seeking to grow in their leadership roles.

These leaders also embody courage and that is what makes each of them outstanding and their profiles evergreen.

And this is a role that magazines play very well.

They ossify human stories in small nuggets that in our hurried world, readers can consume on the go even as they keep some for the morrow.

"When you are in magazine publishing, every issues must have fresh, interesting and engaging content," says the publisher, underlining the challenges that magazines face in a world where readers are seeking instant gratification from online platforms, making the shelf life of magazines perilously low and the desire to produce unperishable content all the more consuming.