Monday, November 7, 2022 –Hundreds of reporters and other staff members at Radio Africa may be laid off very soon.
This being a second retrenchment in its effort to cut down on costs and move to the new digital business which seems to be the new trend around the globe.
A source told Homenews.co.ke that the Waiyaki Way-based station will be laying off quite a number of its staff as the remaining move to focus on digital content creation and management.
The departments that will be affected in this current restructuring exercise include brands like the Star newspaper, Kiss Tv, Kiss 100, Classic, Radio Jambo and Mpasho digital platform.
The Group’s Head of Content, Paul Ilado, explained in a Nairobi meeting that the memo in that regard had already been served to prepare the staff on the new plans.
“Five years ago we switched to a digital-first strategy. This strategy was for us to feed our radio stations and websites first. We have tried but unfortunately it has not given us the desired results,” he said.
A source also divulged that the Media station is in top gear to allocate 60 percent of its staff to digital content as it slowly shifts from the print version.
In 2017, the station tried to adopt a digital approach, but Mr. Ilado has mentioned that their approach failed to yield much because of some shortcoming including lack of digital skill by some staff members.
Ilado admitted that the recent paywall which was introduced on the Star news website was also not bringing in as much and that the publication is still trailing the Nation.Africa, Standard and a few other online publications in the country.
“We need to do something r*****l that will see us generate revenue to pay our bills now that advertising is diminishing daily,” Ilado noted.
The aim of this move is to remain with staff who have a high digital story-telling touch.