John Osoro

8 September 2010

opinion

Nairobi — To journalists, sections 33, 34 and 35 of the Bill of Rights in the new Constitution are a great development. These sections guarantee them the freedom to seek, receive or impart information or ideas, independence of the media, and right of access to information.

Given the vibrant nature of Kenya's media, ranked third in Africa after South Africa and Nigeria, this new-found freedom is bound to unleash increased creativity and investment in the sector.

This country is blessed with a relatively large middle class. Its advertising revenue, standing at Sh20 billion within a short period of six months, is comparatively high for an African nation.

These impressive figures no doubt make Kenya the dominant advertising market in the entire East African region. This steady growth in advertising is evidenced by the fact that Kenyan firms spent Sh20 billion in 2008, and a similar amount has already been netted within six months ending in June this year.

Sadly, however, these revenues are unevenly distributed among the media. The 97 radio stations in Kenya take 52 per cent of the amount; television 31 per cent, while the print media remains with about 16 per cent of advertising revenues.

The comparatively high market share reserved for radio stations is justifiable due to its portability, cheaper transmission and programme production costs in comparison to TV, and other possibilities like use of batteries in rural areas.

Unfortunately, radio in Kenya has gradually become an instrument of leisure and not for communicating educational information on health and other matters.

Despite this immense advertising support, the belief among advertisers that light entertainment content makes the audience more receptive has compelled radio operators to allocate dwindling airtime to news bulletins, current affairs, and other serious broadcast material.

The effect of all this is obvious: Kenyans will not reap fully the benefits of sections 33, 34, and 35.The print media presents a completely different picture. In this category, two dailies,

The Daily Nation and The Standard, dominate the market, which also has over 60 magazines, only four of which have a national circulation, albeit limited.

There is a clear indication that advertisers not only want consumers to know about their products, but are increasingly targeting readers who can afford advertised products.

To demonstrate this, most advertisements go to the Daily Nation which is the newspaper that enjoys the widest circulation in Kenya. Secondly, one in-flight magazine, Msafiri, attracts the highest advertising/editorial ratio averaging at an awesome 40-44 per cent ratio.

This remarkable performance is informed by the fact that this publication presents to advertisers a middle class audience with a potential of consuming high-value goods and services.

Looking at this situation from the perspective of how these advertisement revenues translate into supporting the people's quest for high-content media, The Nation and The Standard carry adequate news reports, commentaries, features, sports alongside advertisements and entertainment.

Television stations do carry enough news, serious talk-based programmes together with entertainment content.A healthy media environment is one where resources are widely shared, enabling a larger number of newspapers and magazines to operate successfully.

Whenever struggling media-owners are finally squeezed out of the market, society loses out because our ability to accommodate divergent viewpoints is undermined.

Mr Osoro is a political analyst and media consultant