Social media has drastically changed how the audience is consuming Nation Media Group’s content, as well as how advertisers are connecting.

James Sogoti, general manager/commercial at the Kenyan media company, told attendees at this week’s INMA Africa Media Revenue Summit that the mandate from the CEO is to organise the business model around audiences, not departments.

The commercial lens is shifting every day, with new revenue streams being added. “We’ve got to change our lens as media houses and start seeing the media space that we are in,” he said.

Revenue streams

Out of the eight revenue streams at Nation Media Group, Sogoti focused on three to discuss in detail:

1. Media as an event organiser

For many years, Nation Media Group did not have an event strategy of any kind. Today, they produce more than 30 events annually.

“A lot of journalism is thriving in that space,” Sogoti said. “We are able to harness content. Advertisers are engaging with the platform, and that nexus is an ecosystem that is generating new avenues and new revenues.”

2. Media as an educator

Educating and informing is the original foundation of news media, but organisations can take this a notch higher by participating in the education. This means engaging and partnering with different communities and facilitating discussions around different thematic areas.

“NGOs used to dominate community conversations,” Sogoti said. “Today, we will sit with the NGOs, have discussions with the community, document that without our platforms, and co-create solutions within our platforms.”

3. Media as a marketplace

“This is where we can collaborate and get e-commerce conversations going on but also collaborate with established e-commerce players,” Sogoti explained. 

Nation Media has audiences those e-commerce players want to reach, and partnerships between the two make sense and generate revenue.

Sectors deepen advertising strategy

This diversification means Nation Media also has to change how it is organised to address the changing market in new ways and stay relevant. This means having a deeper understanding of the various segments its advertisers are interested in.

To address this, Nation has reorganised its teams into 12 broad sectors. Of these, the top four are:

• Financial.

• Development (NGOs).

• Government organisations.

• Health.

Nation Media focuses on creating content and solutions that speak to those specific sectors, Sogoti said: “This has given us an edge to face the market differently, and gives us the opportunity of creating and enhancing real value.”

Partnerships for new revenues

Co-creating avenues of revenue with various collaborations has given Nation Media leverage within certain sectors: 

• Sports: Commercial partnership for sports production and airing, such as golf and rugby.

• Training: Digital training, executive media exposure, Artificial Intelligence, and special groups/sectors.

• Upscale events: Nation Media’s regional events, major collaborative events, client-partner sponsored events.

• Communication consultancy: Media communications consulting, special platforms such as NTV Business Round Up.

Reshaping revenues

Another area Nation Media has been revamping is the audience revenue model, using audience intelligence mapping, bucket targeting, and upskilling to deliver better experiences to knowledgeable customers.

This has resulted in a growth of audience revenue in the triple digits. 

“Audiences are willing to pay for content,” Sogoti said.

To do so, audiences are demanding relevant and timely content served with an accessible and valuable user experience.

“While we now have content in different verticals, bundling these solutions has now become the better way,” he said.

Bundled subscription offers include the e-paper, Web site, e-mail, newsletters, and podcasts. This provides an enriched experience, which Sogoti said the company is still building and enhancing. 

This strategic shift to audience-centric monetisation has included:

• Using first-party data to move from selling inventory to selling audiences by segment (business, sports, lifestyle, etc.) to improve precision, measurability, and ROI.

• The alignment of commercial insights into editorial strategy, along with branded commercial content studios, improves the value proposition for the brands and audience, as well as monetisation.

• Introduction of subscription packages with product diversification that offers incremental revenue and positions this paid audience as loyal, premium consumers.

• Evolving roles and skillsets of the team, such as the addition of a commercial content studio lead and audience insight lead, to aid in personalisation.

Content commercial collaboration

Telling stories — such as how African society is being challenged — that drive journalistic value as well as create commercial value is key. Nation Media is focused on elevating lives across Africa through storytelling that resonates, informs, and inspires action with these goals:

• Creating impact: Content that positively influences society and drives meaningful audience engagement.

• Premium content: Reframing stories through societal prisms that align editorial value with commercial opportunity.

• Solving for Africa: Transforming the continent’s challenges into opportunities that serve the audience and partners.

Philanthropy

One facet of this is instilling a purpose-driven impact through individual giving, foundations, and institutional funding that invest in progressive, Africa-wide partnerships to drive meaningful societal change through innovative content models.

The philanthropic initiative includes:

• Institutional-funded programmes that address governance, healthcare, education, and sustainable development across East Africa.

• Solution journalism in the form of a hybrid content-commercial model that tackles societal challenges while creating sustainable revenue streams.

• Africa-funded programmes of progressive content initiatives that celebrate local innovation and drive continental narratives.

“This is an emerging opportunity,” Sogoti said. “I think it is a place that we could learn from each other to drive bigger discussions in that space.”

The way forward

Sogoti concluded by discussing the key areas National Media Group is focusing on moving forward:

• Events: This remains a key opportunity that gives an edge to Nation Media. Events are targeted to various regional sectors and executed with partnerships.

• Multimedia solutions: Offers conversion experience and digital-first audience engagement and retention.

• Leadership: Building a leadership team that anticipates change and designing a structure that builds new capabilities.

• Premium content: Paid subscriptions and new products provide new revenue opportunities and culture that will develop over time.

• Audience engagement: Using strong data-driven insights and research.

These diversified revenue streams and initiatives have provided Nation Media with a fresh lens on the media landscape in Kenya and a path forward. 

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