Nation Media Group (NMG) is set to undertake another round of staff layoffs as tough economic times continue to plague Kenyan media.
According to highly placed sources at the Kimathi Street-based media company, as of the morning of Friday, June 7, senior management was locked in an online meeting with staff. The meeting mainly revolved around breaking the bad news for the umpteenth time that the company has made the hard decision to let employees go; including some who have been serving at the Twin Towers for years.
Highly placed sources who spoke to Kenyans.co.ke on condition of anonymity revealed that the layoffs are imminent with those affected set to be let go on Friday, June 14.
Kenyans.co.ke has authoritatively learned that the NMG's Human Resources department has kept the list of employees set to be axed under wraps. By the time of publishing this article, no staffer had been formally informed that they are going to be cut loose.
It is expected that letters will be issued to individual employees next week after top bosses hold meetings with departmental heads.
Reports indicate that the journalists who work at NTV and the print division i.e. Daily Nation, will be among those affected by the exercise.
Our sources further revealed that during the tense meeting on Friday morning, senior managers took turns to explain the decision to send employees packing. All of them were at pains to justify why the company has resorted to redundancies once again after several layoffs failed to set the company on the right trajectory.
According to insiders, the company noted that the decision was informed by the low revenue. NMG, like all other media houses in the country, is struggling to generate revenue like it used to. The much-touted paywall strategy which the media stable was banking on to recover has not yielded the desired results leaving the bosses in limbo.
Conversely, at the same meeting, staff also voiced their concerns over the radical programming changes made by the company.
In particular, different staffers asked why the broadcast division has been the biggest casualty of the strategy overhaul. Managers were put on the spot to explain why the prime-time news has been gutted by reducing the minutes which the bulletin runs.
"The company says it will avail experts to offer psychological support to affected staff, the company has also agreed to extend medical cover for the affected until the end of the year," sources revealed.
In recent years, NMG has been making changes to their products and programming as it seeks to align itself with the fast-changing digital landscape.
The integration, coupled with the hard economic times, has seen seasoned journalists like Dennis Okari and Mark Masai let go.
