Shockwaves in the Kenyan media industry as Nation Media announces massive job cuts from January next year

NAIROBI—Employees of the Nation Media Group were shocked on Tuesday morning after the company announced it will cut jobs from January next year as the company braces for digital move in “strategic reorganization.”

Nation Media announced job cuts from January next year. Photo/ COURTESY

In a circular released on Tuesday, the company explained that its digital division was recording faster growth as the company gears towards a business modeled around digital content and monetization.

“Early this year, we embarked on a new strategic journey of transforming the Group into a modern Twenty First Century digital content company,” the head of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs at the Group,  Clifford Machoka,  explained.

“The reorganization is beginning to deliver the intended benefits including the digital division recording the fastest growth in 2016,” he added.

Clifford said the redundancy was the last phase of the strategic plan that involved the reorgernisation of operations across the Group in a bid to prioritise resource and content development, monitisation and innovation in line with the emerging ways of news consumption.

“This will allow us grow our new revenue streams while securing our current print and broadcasting businesses in a much more efficient and effective manner,” the Group said in a statement.

The publishers of the Daily Nation and Business Daily in Kenya, The Monitor in Uganda and The Citizen in Tanzania has previously shut down two radios and a TV. The Group also owns the The East African, a weekly magazine covering the region.

This latest announcement from the Nation comes a month after the Royal Media sent over 50 employees home. The company, in a statement, said the redundancy was caused by falling revenue and migration to digital content.