OF MEDIA REPORTING ABOUT MISFORTUNES OF FELLOW MEDIA OUTLETS

For a long time, there had been an unwritten rule within Kenya's mainstream media, about not reporting the not so rosy internal affairs of any media house. But nowadays, tribulations of one media company are no longer a no-go zone. And sadly, beneath the veneer of projected sympathy, the coverage at times borders on rejoicing about a rival's misfortunes.

Job losses in the media industry are an emotive subject, hence perhaps the justifiable need to highlight this issue as public interest.

The press after all, routinely provides copious coverage of reorganization, resizing or restrategizing decisions, both in public and private entities, which result in redundancies.

But in so doing, there's little room to speculate that a media house could not be neutral in its coverage, although some vested interests in the downfall of particular establishments, cannot be entirely ruled out.

Some other factors, however, come into play, when it comes to one media house reporting about the goings-on in another outlet, possibly a direct competitor.

Should the struggles of one media company be viewed as an opportunity to shore up ratings or perceived superiority by its rivals?

I sincerely hope this is not, has never been, and will never be the case.

In the end factually, what goes around comes around.

Think of the manner in which one evening, a TV station stretched its coverage of the alleged disbandment of the Kenyan presidential press team.

The same channel was 'forced' to report news of it's own parent company's 'massive' layoffs, barely 24 hour later.

I should know a little bit more about these situations.

Sometimes back, on a very rare occurrence, I was sitting in the interview panel that was recruiting reporters for a then yet to be launched TV station, which has now just been closed down.

One of the applicants had unilaterally left previous employment, and I sought to know why.

"Are you a quitter?" I self-assuredly enquired, proud to be a direct hitter.

The very next day, I was handing in my resignation letter!

The Almighty has a way of humbling us...and we should be grateful it does not entail eating grass like Nebuchadnezzar.

WHY AUDIENCE IS KING AND CONTENT IS QUEEN

Three years ago, I had the opportunity of being listened to by the CEO of a leading media house in Kenya. I tried to impress on him the need to venture into Internet service provision, to bundle it with TV content. Well, not much came out of the meeting. But the country's largest mobile service operator is now diversifying into TV content provision.

I had been especially concerned by the possibility of mobile service providers venturing into streaming television content and leveraging on their wide subscriber bases.

My argument then was that to remain competitive, the media firm had to invest in Internet-based real time audience participation and feedback platforms, now even more relevant with the switch to digital TV.

Even then, it was clear that the audience was getting more assertive in choosing what to watch and when to view, whichever content.

In the discussion, I pointed out the usefulness of venturing, (like in more developed countries), into the realm of video on demand, pay per view and red button capabilities. 

More certainly had to be done, than simply uploading content on Youtube, or a media company's websites and linking the same to social media networks, to widen access and open new revenue streams.

From broadcasting to narrowcasting

Indeed, it's increasingly becoming imperative for media houses to open up interactive channels that would enable listeners, viewers and readers to customize content to suit individual tastes or needs.

In other words, broadcasting to a mass audience has gradually been giving way to 'narrowcasting' to a segmented audience. So enabling the audience to choose what suits who, in what format and which time, has been a game changer.

Subsequently, a mobile telephony enterprise, already boasting millions of subscribers plus a successful money transfer platform, and already reaping profits from data services, will have a competitive advantage, when it seeks out the traditional TV audiences.

It is highly probable that soon, Kenyans might stop tuning into TV stations, to catch their favourite programmes at 'dictated times', because the same could be downloaded on demand, even if an amount is to be charged for accessing premium content.

And that is why the audience is now king and the content is queen!

HEADLINE-STORY MISMATCH OF THE TENSE KIND

Behold! The past and future tense shall become one. And the present tense will not be happy. This flight of fancy became a reality, courtesy of an 'ingenuous' page-one story, in a leading Kenyan daily. The headline-story mismatch rears its ugly head yet again.

The headline alludes to an event that supposedly has already happened, that is, 'Governors sworn in...' A reader's expectations therefore, is to find details in the body of the story, about how the swearing in of the governors 'went down' or rather an account of the swearing in ceremony.

But alas! What does the first paragraph state: 'All governors-elect and their deputies will be sworn into office today...' So which is which?

Was there a swearing in ceremony, or was there going to be a swearing in ceremony? And while at it, are the said governors and governors-elect one and the same thing?

This, dear class, is another classic example of a headline-story disconnect.