NairobiNews publication is back online. Word reaching us is that the newspaper which had launched sometime back with so much vigour and pomp is back, not that they rethought the idea of running the Nairobi Newspaper, but what we already know will explain the details.
NairobiNews was discontinued mainly because of costs of operations. The print newspaper was running into losses due to costs of distribution compared to revenues realized and projected. Initially the team heading NairobiNews were not pro-digital, and thus didn’t realize the business potential of digital publication.
NairobiNews which has already gone back live will be a fully online news outlet, same content style but no more print newspaper. This will then serve as a dipstick for the next 6-12 months that will then signal changes to other Nation Media properties. We are now aware that if the guinea pig that is NairobiNews proves to be good business then even other properties like Daily Nation will move to be majorly online news publications with print being a very tiny bit of it, or done away with altogether.
Kenyan blogs have gone in a long way to shape how news is told and the developments in blogging business among independent individuals is making media houses rethink their decisions on their investments. We have seen Radio Africa Group try to buy Ghafla in the past and upon failure to reach the amount the blog is worth, decide to poach off the staff at Ghafla and start their own rival version. How this contributes to the idea of NairobiNews coming back to business will be a speculation or a wait and see.
But is very much probable.
Developing…..
