Mediamax Network Limited has announced the launch of Kenya’s first free-sheet The People Daily that will be available with immediate effect at no charge to readers at various distribution points countrywide.
The newspaper that beats the traditional business model will potentially make the second highest paper in Kenya in an industry beset with stagnating readership and falling circulation figures in the age of online news content.
MediaMax’s People Daily is in line with its plan to grow and change the face of Kenyan media across their award winning stable of broadcast channels, online platforms and print offerings. The move will benefit advertisers and provide opportunities such as couponing and sampling in niche geographic regions.
“We are excited to bring this successful international concept of a free-sheet in Kenya that will enable Kenyans nationally have access to quality, authoritative and balanced editorial content while offering advertisers increased circulation and reader value opportunities” said Ian Fernandes, Group CEO at Mediamax.
The media house has invested heavily in the creation of a conveyed newsroom allowing all channels-traditional and online to have access to greater pool of information that they can customize according to specific medium and target audience.
“We are committed to building our editorial strength, creating true reader value and also being a strong, valuable partner to the advertising community” said Fernandes.
The vendors will be the biggest challenge to this model. There was a day The Star decided to give out its papers free of charge. However, the vendors came up with their own promotion of buy the Nation or Standard and get The Star for free. What happened eventually is that the circulation of all the newspapers increased thereby eroding the advantage a free copy would have had over the other papers.