Nation Media Group Purge: List of Journalist fired by NMG

Nation Media Group Purge: List of Journalist fired by NMG

Last week, Nation Media Group move ahead to lay off a number of journalists and commercial heads in a move it claimed was necessitated by the media house’s need to accelerate it digital transformation journey.

The move shocked many as some veteran and established journalists were booted leaving many to speculate about the future of the media house in regards to quality and well researched content.

The employee restructuring comes hot in the heels of a similar initiative by Mediamax limited that sent home more than 100 employees. Royal Media also did fire some of its staff especially within the radio division, with all the media houses in the country having requested staff to take pay cuts due to the ongoing novel Coronavirus pandemic that has ravaged almost every economy around the globe.

Some of the fired employees at Nation Media Group include:

1. Ken Mijungu (NTV News Anchor)
2. Brenda Wanga (NTV News Reporter)
3. Debarl Inea (NTV AM Live Show Host and News Anchor)
4. Sharon Baranga (Reporter)
5. Shaban Ulaya (Sports Reporter)
6. Harith Salim (Swahili Anchor),
7. Lillian Kiarie (Business Reporter)
8. Silas Apollo (News Reporter)
9. Francis Munywoki (Nation Newspaper Division Managing Director)
10. David Aduda (Partnerships and Projects Manager/Education Editor
11. Ng’ang’a Mbugua (Business Daily Managing Editor)
12. Francis Wanyonyi (Daily Nation News Editor)
13. Mark Agutu (Editions Edito
14. Julius Sigei (Agriculture Editor)
15. Gabriel Chege (IT)
16. Veronica Chirchir (HR)
17. Joe Mbuthia (Output Editor)
18. Martin Mwangi (Deputy Chief Sub Editor)
19. Henry Gekonde (Revise Editor)
20. Nancy Ogutu (Nation Digital)
21. Peter Choge (Nation Digital)
22. Momanyi Maosa (Online Department)
23. George Omondi (Section Editor Business Daily)
24. Jeremiah Kiplagat (Eldoret Regional Editor)
25. Alex Shikami (Senior Internal Auditor)

In April this year, Nation Media Group had slashed employee salaries in a pay reduction that ranged between 5 to 35 percent depending on individual employee gross salary. The media house had however, spared its staff earning a gross pay less than Sh 50,000 per month, a move that was lauded as caring about the financial wellbeing of the lowly paid staff.

Amid the dwindling advertising revenues, traditional media houses have been regarded as late adopters of technology having for a long time relied on advertisement and sale of newspapers as the main revenue streams. This has seen media houses fail to develop promising revenue streams in areas such as subscription services, live events and advance advertising.

The strife to acquire new revenue growth has further been stifled by insufficient alignment, weak coordination, and slower-than-desired execution. It is not until recently that media houses in Kenya partnered with Safaricom to enable its subscribers to access digital newspapers at Sh20 per issue a move that should have come earlier bearing in mind internet and mobile phone penetration in the country.