In the rapidly evolving media landscape, Kenya’s Nation Media Group has recognised the urgency of newsroom transformation to stay relevant and maintain its role as a key player in journalism.

“The audiences we are dealing with are no longer monolithic,” said Editor-in-Chief Joe Ageyo, who is piloting that transformation.

The news company is no longer passive and waiting for information to be delivered, Ageyo said during the recent INMA Africa Newsroom Transformation Summit: “They can go to the next tab, they can go to the next app. They are not short of options. We can only ignore them at our peril, and therefore, listening to them is really the key to thriving.”

Thriving through transformation

In a world where news is consumed in real time, primarily on digital and mobile platforms, Nation Media Group is embracing digital storytelling, improving operational efficiencies, and redefining journalism for a new generation of consumers.

A key factor behind this shift is the changing demographic of news consumers: Younger audiences, who represent the largest share of Africa’s population, demand fast, engaging, and interactive content. They are less likely to buy newspapers or tune into scheduled television broadcasts, opting instead for on-the-go news available through social media, podcasts, and digital platforms.

“The implication of all of these trends that we are seeing is that we have to stay relevant,” he said. “The news must be digital-first because that’s where increasingly a lot of these young people are to be found. And of course, then this has to address the needs of the users across the spectrum.”

In Kenya, more than 70% of Web traffic comes through mobile phones, so having mobile-optimised content is imperative.

“Therefore you really need to have content that works with mobile,” Ageyo said. “The moment you do not have that, you lose a large chunk of that audience. And we are beginning to see that even on our own platforms.”

Appealing to Gen Z

It’s not just how the news is delivered that makes a difference; part of the transformation has meant rethinking how news is produced and presented to attract younger audiences.

Traditional reporting styles, which focus on long-form articles and in-depth analysis, are not the most effective ways to reach this demographic, Ageyo said. Instead, Nation Media Group is integrating more visual storytelling elements such as infographics, short-form videos, and interactive content that resonate with younger consumers.

It has also strategically expanded its presence across multiple channels. Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok have become key distribution channels for news, reaching audiences where they already spend their time.

“This entire TikTok-isation of content is something we are seeing,” he said, noting that younger users want to add their own opinions to content that they share. “All the different platforms have all these videos that you can keep scrolling. ... They want to post content that responds to what they have seen and also express their opinion.”

The company has taken deliberate steps to ensure its content is relevant and relatable to younger generations, Ageyo said. This includes covering issues that matter to them, such as climate change, technology, social justice, and pop culture. By creating dedicated digital desks that focus on these topics, the newsroom is positioning itself as a trusted source of information that reflects the realities and interests of today’s youth.

To enhance engagement, Nation Media Group has encouraged its journalists to experiment with different storytelling techniques, including live reporting, user-generated content, and social media threads that break down complex stories into digestible formats.

“Even with our TV reporters, we are now getting them to do these vertical videos that will run on Instagram Reels, that will be on TikTok, and even the Shorts on YouTube,” he explained. “That is proving to be very popular.”

In fact, one recent story created for television didn’t receive much attention, but when the reporter replicated the story in a vertical video format and added graphics and text, the story’s engagement level increased by 10.

“So that tell you that there is a way in which this category of our audiences consumes content,” Ageyo said. “As long as your content does not resonate with how they consume their content or where they consume it, then you are really shooting in the dark.”

Driven by data

Another crucial aspect of the transformation has been leveraging data and analytics to understand audience behaviour. This, Ageyo said, has become “front and centre of our operations” and the company also adopted the user needs model to become more audience-centric.

“This is directly related to the old theory of users and gratification, where you’re saying this content is going to do something for me,” Ageyo said.

It means that each piece of content has a job to do, and he said the framework has been helpful in thinking about our content a lot more intentionally in terms of whether it is keeping people engaged, inspired, or whether it is intended to give perspective.

“Those kinds of things have proved extremely useful in helping even our editors to think a lot differently about content,” he said.

Outcomes of the transformation

Nation Media Group has seen many positive outcomes from its newsroom transformation. In 2024, 83% of its content was digital-first, which marked a shift from previous years, and content has provided the company with a significant amount of growth.

The company has also seen its premium content grow, with more than half of its content classified as freemium. Users must register to see it, but if they have a subscription, they get certain articles for free.

“Now that is growing because then we also ramp up our capacity to generate what we are calling premium content, which is your kind of exclusive content,” Ageyo said. “This is content that has more multimedia element and some value added.”

The goal is to increase the share of premium content to about 80%.

Thanks to implementing the user needs model, Ageyo said Nation Media Group has a better understanding of its audience and can better target them to improve engagement. As a result, subscriptions have grown.

Moving into the future, he said, requires taking the view “that you either adapt or you just fade away into oblivion.” As a young, mobile-first audience reshapes the future of African media, he reminded that news media companies need to serve up “relevant, compelling content in the formats they love” whilst continuing to innovate for the future.

“That future, if you want to summarise this, it’s digital, it’s ethical, it is audience first, and I think it’s time for us to seize the moment and just see what we can do with that.”

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