Nation Media Group

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The Nation Media Group is the dominant media company in Kenya. Headquartered in the capital, Nairobi, in the Nation Center Building, this organization established in 1960 publishes a few newspapers, the most important one being the Daily Nation.

Apart from Daily Nation, the Nation Media Group owns a television station NTV - Kenya, a radio station Easy FM-Kenya and other newspapers including the weekly EastAfrican, the swahili language daily Taifa Leo and the Ugandan daily Monitor.

The Nation Media Group is an independent media house that strives to influence public and government opinion in order to promote good governance. Our philosophy is defined by a set of policy guidelines and objectives which obligate it to operate independently of government, religious, political or other vested interests. The primary objective is to deliver world class journalism to its readers and audiences and deliver value to its shareholders. The group is publicly quoted on the Nairobi Stock Exchange, where it is among the top 10 blue chip companies. Its shareholding is 45% AKFED and the rest local (Kenyan individuals and institutional shareholding.

History

The Nation Media Group (NMG) was founded by His Highness the Aga Khan a few years before Kenya attained independence. In his words, “It all started with Taifa in 1958. Then, Taifa was a small Kiswahili weekly newspaper and Kenya was a relatively small British colony. Both were destined to grow, Kenya as a strong and prosperous nation in independent Africa and Taifa as a news medium which would in the ensuing years multiply its readership to become the widest read vernacular newspaper in East Africa . Taifa was swiftly followed by the English language Nation, again, in several editions, both daily and weekly.”

The Daily Nation took its place on the newsstands on October 3, 1960 promising to "do our utmost to help Kenya and the other East African territories make the perilous transition to African majority rule and full independence as peacefully and constructively as possible." the difficult environment into which the newspaper was launching into was pointedly captured in an editorial cartoon in the first issue of the paper. ‘He’s a cute fellow isn’t he but will he behave?’ asked the caption under the cartoon. The drawing, by pioneer cartoonist Hennessy, depicted a new born baby in a cot labeled the nation. Standing around the cot was a multiracial group of gentlemen making this comment.

Over the years, The Nation Media Group has expanded from a single newspaper group to one of the Multi media powerhouses in East and Central Africa, with a strong presence in both print and electronic media as well as the Internet, attracting a regular audience unparalleled in the region.

Achievements

• www.nationmedia.com was declared the best website in the country, 2006, by the Public relations society of Kenya.

• On the financial front, the Group’s performance over the years has been outstanding In December 2005 NMG hit the 1 billion profit mark.

Organizational structure

Nation Newspapers Division

The Division has many English as well as Kiswahili titles most notably; Daily Nation, Sunday Nation, Taifa leo, Taifa Jumapili and The East African.

In order to have a regional reach, the group launched the up market, business-oriented weekly, The East African, in 1994. This authoritative new title has won a loyal readership in Uganda and Tanzania as well as Kenya.

They also recently launched a regional weekly, the Coast Express targeting the coast community. The division has continued to roll out successful new products including Smart Company which comes free with the Tuesday paper and Money, a pull out in the Thursday paper.

Following the immense success of the Smart Company and Money, the division now plans to roll out a business newspaper to meet the needs of the growing market for business and financial news and information.

Nation Broadcasting Division Although the Nation Media Group has had a newspaper division for more than four decades, its broadcasting division, comprising NTV Television and Easy Fm radio is still young. Besides giving news, the electronic division has a growing entertainment component, with music, movies, comedies and talk shows. The granting of licences and frequencies to the Group has enabled it to roll out television and radio services to cover the major towns such as Mombasa, (Kisumu), Nakuru, Eldoret, Nyeri and Meru. The expansion to cover most of the country is still on course.

www.nationmedia.com The internet and ICT have created new challenges and opportunities in the way journalists collect, analyze, produce and disseminate information and news. The physical geographical boundries, the economic north-south divide and time zones are no longer relevant as the journalist addresses an expanded international audience. This audience is also much more discerning, interactive, varied, impatient, and unpredictable. They demand timely news that fit their unique preferences. Time to audience has also been reduced from days (newspaper and TV) to the speed of the internet.

NMG has developed a one – stop website that gives our audience access to all our print and broadcasting media in our areas of operation. We also have profiles of the internet, visitors information on citizenship, residency, age group, income bracket and education and news preferences.

The website also offers easier navigation and more interactivity. We have made it easier for readers to communicate with us and among themselves by having the following interactive features on our websites:

• Comment on an article At the bottom of every article we give readers the opportunity to give us their comment on the article/topic • Opinion polls In each section we have a daily or weekly poll question. Readers select from the option we provide and can see the poll results immediately online. • Discussion forum If readers want to discuss a topic in depth with other readers, they can access our discussion forum • Email a friend Readers can email articles to their friends directly from the website. They will receive the full story and links back to our website. • Obituaries online Readers can email their condolences to the bereaved from our website or share the news with their friends or family using online tools. • News updates Readers receive breaking news as it unfolds. • Archives Readers can search for articles published in previous editions of the Nation.

Nation Marketing and Publishing Ltd (NM&P) Distributes various international titles such as the Economist, Times, Newsweek and Fortune magazines. It also produces a local free sheet, The Weekly Advertiser within the capital city of Nairobi. NM&P also publishes the Nation Business Directory, which is now available online.

Nation Carriers Ltd. The (Nation Media Group) runs its own transport company, the Nation Carriers Limited, which has a well-maintained fleet to distribute its products around the country. Nation Courier, a subsidiary, now has an international link after signing up with TNT Worldwide Express to deliver mail and packages outside of the country.

Monitor Publications Ltd, Uganda The Nation Media Group acquired the Monitor publications and radio station in 2001. Headquartered in Kampala, Uganda, The Monitor which is Uganda’s only independent daily, was started in 1992 and has grown from a basement operation to a multimedia consortium with offices across the country. Besides the daily and Sunday Monitor papers, Monitor Publications Ltd runs an FM radio station, 93.3 KFM-Kampala.

(Mwananchi Communications Ltd) - Tanzania In 2002, the Nation Media Group got shareholding in Mwananchi Communications Limited (MCL) of Tanzania. MCL publishes the Kiswahili papers Mwananchi, Mwananchi Wiki Hii and Mwana Spoti.

MCL launched an English daily, (The Citizen) on September 15, 2004 and this publication will tap into the English-speaking corporate sector by giving the same editorial standards that makes NMG no 1 in the region.

East African Magazines Nation Media Group has formed a joint venture company with Media24 Magazines, a leading publisher of printed material based in South Africa. Formed in 2004, East Africa Magazines Ltd (EAM) will be producing two Media24 titles - Drum and True Love, under licence with plans to develop and grow the East African magazine market. Media24 Ltd, the newspaper, magazine, printing and distribution subsidiary of Naspers, publishes more than 30 magazines and over 60 newspapers in South Africa many of them market leaders which the subsidiary of NMG, Nation Marketing & Publishing will be distributing.

Long term strategy

From being the leading media house in East and Central Africa Our vision now is to be the Media of Africa for Africa. Our aim is to get into 10-12 African countries within the next decade. The Nation Media Group has the potential to be among the top 5 big players on the continent by 2015.

Corporate Social Responsibility As a company, our CSR activities fall under 4 main themes: Environment, education, Health and Arts and Culture.

1. The Environment The Nation Aberdare Forest Fund, now in its fourth year, recently hit the 18 million shillings mark. The money is being used to fence off the Aberdare Forest, one of the most important catchment areas in Kenya’s fast disappearing forest landscape. So far 236 kilometers out of the total 350km have been completed. When the project is fully done, it will be the longest conservation fence in East and Central Africa.

Even more important, NMG has through its media platforms managed to sustain interest in conservation issues and it has been a boon not only for the Aberdares but also for the conservation movement in general.

2. Health Through a partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), [[Kenya Commercial Bank], Safaricom, Gina Din), Red Sky and the Ministry of Health-Kenya, we have raised Kshs30 million (about US$400,000) to buy 60,000 long-lasting treated nets for the thousands of families at risk of contracting malaria in North Eastern Province-Kenya.

We have also been involved in a major campaign to eradicate trachoma in the Kajiado district of Rift Valley Province. As the official media sponsor, we have contributed immensely to raising awareness of the disease in the region and mobilising much needed funds. Amref Kenya, the body responsible for managing the funds, is confident that the money and new level of awareness will help eradicate trachoma in Kajiado.

3. Education Our television news anchors visited Starehe boys center in 2005 to mentor the students. The result of this meeting is that NMG a scholarship for one boy for four years beginning in 2006. This lucky boy is Abdisalam Shafat. A needy student from Mangu, Longorio E. Cephas was already enjoying NMG sponsorship. Not to leave the girls behind, Qabale Adan from Starehe girls center is also enjoying NMG support. These 3 students come from the marginalized districts of Eastern, North Eastern and North Rift Valley Provinces. In future, The Group is also considering sponsoring other bright but needy students from each of the 8 provinces in Kenya.

We are also sponsoring a female journalist for a masters program in communication through the association of media women in Kenya (AMWIK).

Junior Achievement Junior Achievement, our flagship education programme, has been a very fulfilling experience. The Mentors-on-call project, in which we are one of the key participants, has enabled many of our staff to contribute directly in moulding Kenya's future leaders.

Computers for Schools Kenya We believe that basic computer knowledge is a prerequisite to any meaningful vocation and that no society can develop unless it invests in information and communications technology. That's why we support the Computers for Schools Kenya, a non-governmental organisation dedicated to the development of e-competent young Kenyans through the provision of refurbished computers and auxiliary services to public secondary schools and related learning institutions and community access centres.

4. Arts and Culture NMG believes in nurturing local talent as a way of preserving our heritage and promoting economic well-being among local artists, many of whom have been languishing in poverty in spite of their talent. This explains our support for Kenyan music and local productions like The Beat, Wingu la Moto Red Korner and Uhondo, which are shown on NTV-Kenya.

We also help nurture talent at school level by supporting the annual Kenya National Drama Festivals, which we have been supporting for the last 5 years.

Disaster Response In addition to our core areas of support, we also assist in projects when an emergency arises.

Save a Life Initiative Under the Save-a-life campaign banner, NMG partnered with the Standard Chartered Bank and East African Breweries Ltd to mobilise Kenyans to help the hunger stricken, in 2004.

At that time, It was billed the most successful campaign of the year, raising Kshs25 million in cash and a further Kshs75 million worth of foodstuffs. An estimated 75,000 people benefited directly from the kitty. Late last year, the partners to the Save-a-life fund revived the fund by injecting 3.7million shillings when it emerged that more than 3.5 million Kenyans in some 32 districts were in danger of starvation due to prolonged drought and massive crop failure. Through our media outlets, we have rallied all Kenyans of goodwill to support the hunger stricken by making cash/food donations. The fund is currently looking in to sustainable solutions for the recurring drought in Kenya.

Marsabit Emergency Relief Appeal The Marsabit Emergency Relief Appeal, which we launched jointly with other partners in the Media Owners Association, the Kenya Red Cross Society and the Kenya Government, helped raise some Kshs12 million to assist the more than 6,000 people victims of ethnic violence, which left 94 people dead and hundreds more injured in a section of eastern Kenya. Food, clothing and other requirements were donated by the public, government and private companies.

Company initiatives

East Africa's Most Respected Company's Awards PricewaterhouseCoopers carries out a survey that is based on the same principles as the Financial Times Survey carried out in the UK. This survey is unique in that it is the CEO's themselves who peer review their colleagues to determine who among them deserves the title of honour. It recognises corporate excellence in various categories.

The survey puts the companies in different categories -- financial services, manufacturing, agriculture, services, hotels and tourism and telecommunications and ICT. There are also country awards Kenya, (Uganda), (Tanzania) and an overall (East African) winner.

International Press Institute This year Kenya hosted the International Press Institute (IPI) annual Congress and 54th General Assembly. IPI is a global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists dedicated to the furtherance and safeguarding of press freedom, promotion of the free flow of news and information and the improvement of the practices of journalism.

The Nairobi congress, held in May, was officially opened by President (Mwai Kibaki). IPI's current chairman is Mr Wilfred D. Kiboro, the Group CEO of the Nation Media Group.

The congress, which was also addressed by President (Paul Kagame) of Rwanda and H.H. The Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the Ismaili community worldwide, focused on a variety of issues including: Africa's development: • Attracting investment • Press freedom issues in Africa • Reporting Africa • Terrorism and civil liberties • Kenya: Hopes and Challenges, Vision and Reality.