Nation Media Group, through its recently launched digital platform, will start charging you for the content you consume. The move, similar to that of The New York Times, The Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal will allow you to navigate through the NMG platform and consume content only when you have paid a subscription fee. An amount is yet to be announced.
The Group Chairman Wilfred Kiboro, while speaking during the launch of the company’s new digital brand on Friday stated that the company has been working with experts from the New York Times, The Guardian, and The Financial Times.
“The new digital brand will allow us to monetize our content. We will charge you for this content but it will be value for your money while we remain steadfast in delivering value for our shareholders,” said Kiboro.
The move came in the wake of NMG, despite being one of the most admired brands in the region, reported a Ksh375.2 million net loss for the half-year ended June 2020 citing lower advertising proceeds. The fall into a loss-making company that in the past rarely reported losses meant that the group needed to find a way back to profitability before the situation persists.
The company had projected that declining trend of traditional media even before the announcement of the financial results thus prompting a shift in strategy hence the launch of the digital platform nation.africa
NMG has tapped IT experts from the Netherlands to help on the editorial aspects and to re-engineer its websites hence the orange and white color theme.
African Market
Media observers hold that NMG might have sensed that the East African audience alone will not be enough to achieve its goals hence the desire to shift to a more continental brand.
NMG, just like other giant publishers, is also seeking to emulate not only all transcended local audiences but also global publications that are read by millions of people across the world.
For instance, The New York Times (NYT) boasts of 6.5 million subscribers and 5.7 million digital-only subscribers and overall across the world according to figures disclosed recently in May. During the first quarter of 2020, the company acquired 600,000 new digital subscribers.
The New York Times charges one dollar per week for its basic subscription. It’s clearly a juicy approach only when implemented well. It now makes sense why NMG is pursuing a continental audience.
