Daily Monitor and NTV operated under the Nation Media Group in Uganda (NMGU) are crumbling due to a prolonged financial stress caused by the year long global-novel -Covid-19 pandemic .
The media group that largely offers alternative views to the government owned The New Vision have now announced that they will be laying off a substantial number of staff at the end of this month and also change their business model to focus on digital platforms as a means of publishing and circulating news and other related content .
Tony Glencross, the Managing Director NMGU in an official communication to the NMGU staff stated that the new reality necessitates the re-engineering of NMGU in order “to accelerate our digital transformation.”
“On this journey, we intend to radically change our business model for all our media platforms (from traditional advertising to content-driven revenue with the objective of establishing leadership in the mobile/digital landscape in Uganda while exploring new revenue streams in the experiential and technology space,” he explained.
Glencross said under the circumstances, the company will have to make radical changes in its operations and change its business model from “traditional advertising to content-driven revenue.”
This, he said, will result in a reduction of our workforce effective Wednesday, March 31, 2021.”
“This is an extremely difficult decision especially in view of the prevailing circumstances and the impact it will have on those affected and their families,” Glencross’ statement reads in part.
Dwindling circulation due to the emergency of influencial on-line publishers like Ugandaupdatenews.com and the cost of printing has led to many hitherto -mainstream traditional media rethink their respective business models to stay afloat and remain competitive in the digital space .
Media experts have warned that with millions of people now receiving news on their mobile phones the future of the print media is under threat unless more innovative ways of keeping in business are adopted .
It is estimated that more than 40 employees could lose their jobs across various departments and NMG units. In Uganda, NMG runs Daily Monitor, East African NTV Uganda, Spark TV KFM, Eyanga and Ddembe FM.
Already some senior managers at the group who have been earning fat pay cheques are quietly leaving their positions rather -than being embarrassed with a sack.
