They Paved Paradise and Put Up a…YouTube Link?

You wait for a bus for ages, and then suddenly two come at the same time. I had successfully (and happily) avoided speaking about newsroom issues in the near-decade since I left, but yet here we are with two essays in the same week on the matter. The first, from earlier in the week, was a reflection on journalism versus advertising, and the inevitable tension between the two parts of the media industry which must coexist (largely) unhappily in the same household. That essay was prompted by Teddy Muthusi’s piece on LinkedIn, although in the writing, I ended up with a much wider reflection.

Although that article was largely to do with the clash between fifth floor (television journalism) and second floor (advertising), I hinted at the brooding antipathy between print and television journalists, with a disdain borne of the belief that print journalists were out there in the trenches doing ‘real’ reporting, while television journalists cared more about looks and fluff. I have my theories about this, among which is my take that the two formats yield different kinds of journalism, and I said as much.

The virtual ink was not even dry on my essay, when the big guns decided to weigh in. Bernard Mwinzi is one of the more storied editors in the newer generation of newspaper editors. Mhariri wa kizazi kipya, in the best tradition of his antecedents. This latter generation of editors includes the likes of Mutuma Mathiu, Pamela Sittoni, Sara Bakata, and Joe Mbuthia, who are perhaps a half-beat older; as well as his true contemporaries such as Allan Olingo, Munyao Mutinda and the late, great Washington Akumu. They were charged with bringing newspapers into a new era, in which attention spans were beginning to be eroded. An era in which commercial and political considerations meant that the days of fat balance sheets were rapidly coming to an end. At the same time, there was a realisation that new technologies¾which meant new ways of consuming news and with new expectations from audiences¾would change the economics and consumption patterns of news, perhaps forever. Mwinzi was one of the drivers of this evolution, pioneering new beats and newspaper sections such as health and science reporting.

Bernard Mwinzi’s credentials, then, are impeccable. But he has a significant bee up his bonnet. His contention is with the ‘silent revolution’ in Kenyan newsrooms. He is a more elegant writer than I am, so I will let him describe it: ‘[the revolution] has seen print journalists lose their say and stake (and steak, as well) as their broadcast colleagues take over. This trend, which I like to refer to as ‘The Rise of Broadcast Hegemony’, has not only reshaped news priorities, but also led to an internal newsroom culture that accidentally marginalises print editors and reporters, treating them as relics of a fading era rather than custodians of depth and nuance.’ To Mwinzi, this is a tragedy. Not only to the journalists of the print medium, but to the very essence of news: ‘depth is sacrificed to soundbites’. This has led to a deterioration in ‘quality, tone and form[,] when the hierarchy values celebrity over depth. Serious journalism is pushed to the fringes; that’s what happens, as this signals not just a personnel change, but also an editorial philosophy shift that… excuse me as I look for the right words… that privileges spectacle over scrutiny.’

These are serious charges. The barbarians are no longer at the gate¾they have made themselves comfortable on mzee’s favourite sofa. Not only that, they sold off all the family china and are in the process of selling off the venerable estate in order to put up apartments.

I know where Mwinzi is coming from, and all my sympathies are with him. Unfortunately, though, he is chasing a lost cause. Even worse, he has conflated two issues to end up with a very grave accusation. It is an old trope, as I had said – that there is something inherently noble and serious about print journalism, while broadcast journalism is lighthearted and flippant. The difference between a hearty meal, full of serious macronutrients and all the vitamins the alphabet can contain; and the contents of a child’s fantasy lunch bag, packed full of crisps and biscuits and lollipops.

It is easy to dispel that indictment. There are television journalists who put out long-form, in-depth pieces. We had already mentioned John Allan Namu and Purity Mwambia in the last essay. You can add Dennis Onsarigo, and Mohammed (‘Jicho Pevu’) Ali in the pantheon of investigative television journalists. But it is not just in the investigative format where outstanding television journalists ply their trade. Zeynab Wandati (who worked with both Mwinzi and I) transformed the coverage of agriculture, and is now doing the same with environment and sustainability reporting. Julians Amboko is unparalleled in business, economics and finance. On radio, Eric Latiff, Ndu Okoh and many others are the anti-fluff – responsible for yanking morning radio from puerile nonsense and into an agenda-setting, policy-influencing set of interviews and dialogues. The list is long, and I will lose a few friendships for not mentioning all the names.

But the denunciation of the unbearable lightness of broadcast journalism is not where Mwinzi’s true pain is. It is in the fact that the leadership of newsrooms seems to have moved inexorably across to the broadcast side. In NMG terms, fifth floor has taken over third floor, and brought its viewpoint and its ethos to infect the entire journalistic enterprise. Senior and middle-level editorial appointments are now in the firm grasp of people who have honed their craft in front of microphones and cameras, and not typewriters and keyboards. This leads, in his estimation, to a poorer product, that ‘values style over substance, entertainment over enlightenment’.

Again, let us dissect this. Prima facie, it is true – broadcast journalists have taken over. Joe Ageyo now leads the entire Nation Media Group newsroom, walking in the steps of legends such as the Georges (Githii and Mbuguss), and the Joes (Kadhi and Rodrigues). But more apposite is the pantheon that begins with Wangethi Mwangi, Joe Odindo, Tom Mshindi and Mutuma Mathiu. They are the men (and yes, NMG Editors-in-Chief and Editorial Directors have only been men) who were at the helm at the onset of the broadcast and digital revolutions. This latter cast has had to figure out how to staff a newsroom, equip it and configure it to gather and deliver news even as the ground is shifting at a speed and trajectory everyone barely understands.

Again, a little history. At the turn of the century, Nation Printers and Publishers Limited transformed into the Nation Media Group (after finally receiving its radio and television licences which the Moi government had sat on for years). The question was how to integrate this new format with the venerable print operation. After a desultory attempt, the simple answer was not to. For the better part of a decade, it was much simpler to poach a few journalists from the competition (especially the well-established KTN) and to grow its own new talent for the broadcast side. KTN, on its part, was going through its own ructions. After investors bought both the station and the Standard Newspapers, a clumsy attempt was made to merge them operationally, but this was also largely abandoned.

But new demands and new trends could not allow this stasis to continue. The luxury of entirely separate newsgathering operations, staffed separately and with almost entirely independent back-end processes, was far too expensive and inefficient. Even ordinary news stories, where reporters were travelling a kilometre up the road from Kimathi Street to the Serena to cover a press conference, would see two different vehicles disgorging reporters who had come from the very same building. The television (and occasional radio) chaps trotting out of the Isuzu D-Max double-cab pick-ups, and print reporters from Toyota Corollas. The bean counters were watching, and the bean counters were unhappy.

Thus came ‘convergence’, the most overpromising, most under-delivering strategy attempted by media houses in the past decade. The premise was a simple one. For that press conference at the Serena, there would be one vehicle, and one set of reporters ,or even just a solitary journo. That reporter was expected to file a quick story for online publication (complete with raw video), then in short order, write a few paragraphs for the website, then file a video story for television, while crafting a more intricate set of paragraphs for the next day’s newspapers, and perhaps a longer video story for the evening news. In Kiswahili and English. It was overwhelming. And did not work. Print reporters protested at being made to exercise unused journalistic muscles. Even worse, being made to think about how they looked on camera, not just about the output of their word processors. Television journalists were used to scripting short, punchy sentences. Always on the lookout for the perfect soundbite and the most apt picture to go with the story. Thinking of b-roll and ‘estab’ shots. Now they were being asked to churn out 600-word pieces, when their instincts were leading them elsewhere. Worse was that this effort was being led by denizens of the print newsroom from decades past. Their model of convergence was having print journalists appearing in talk shows to discuss their stories in that morning’s papers.

Quietly, though, a few journalists had brought their news consumption patterns to their news gathering jobs. Larry Madowo was producing business stories, an entertainment programme, and a column in the Daily Nation, as well as a regular appearance on Nation FM. Zeynab was filing for television (with the internationally award-winning ‘Food Friday’, which brought the story of agriculture and food to the forefront), as well as for the Daily Nation and the East African. Alex Mwangi, in between his stories for NTV, would bring his enthusiasm about Formula One to the sports pages of the Daily Nation. Oliver Mathenge’s and James Smart’s fingers were in all the pies – experimenting with online models, radio, television and print. Even I had a column in the Business Daily, was filing for the East African, along with my day job of putting out PM Live, the NTV Business Agenda, the Africa Business Agenda, and the evening news bulletin. All this while I was dipping my toes into radio and creating one of the first podcasts in Kenya. The problem was that the company had not yet oriented itself to our efforts and our output. Most of our efforts were the result of ‘private’ arrangements. Speaking quietly to editors (I would stop by Sara’s and Pamela’s and John Kamau’s desks every so often, while also discussing column ideas with Diana Mwango and Rhoda Orengo). Newsrooms (including the Standard one) were not configured for multimedia journalism and journalists, despite their protestations and exhortations.

The newsrooms have been reconfiguring and retooling ever since, with greater and lesser degrees of success. Convergence as a strategy has been refined, and the new generations of journalists who have debuted in newsrooms know that they must produce across platforms. The training and equipping are proceeding fitfully in this direction.

So where does that leave Mwinzi’s lamentation? This essay is already far too long, but we have not even properly explored the demand side of the equation (forgive me, but I now work with economists, and that is how they talk). A few more dozen words on this, and we will bring this thing home.

Quick question: when is the last time you bought a newspaper with your own money? The answers will range from ‘a very long time ago’ to ‘what is a newspaper?’. Forking over sixty or a hundred shillings for warmed-over news is a painful way to spend your money. Even as newsrooms have realised this, and they have gotten more analytical in their news (what they call ‘Day Two journalism’ in their lingo). But even this is not stemming the tide. Circulation continues to collapse, with present sales a minuscule fraction of what they were even a decade ago. Younger audiences do not have a newspaper-reading habit, even with increasing content aimed at them (entire sections of exam-prep material). But what is alarming is that what was supposed to replace it – television viewing, is also having its crisis of confidence. Again, younger audiences (and some older ones) have not developed (or have dropped) a habit of stopping everything at seven o’clock and nine o’clock in order to watch the news. Our generation may be the last to gorge on political news (one might call it political porn if one were uncharitable). We assume that political engagement requires hours of watching television news and a nose buried in a newspaper, but last year’s cohort of political actors organised, shared information, and put out their opinions purely online.

The demands of audiences have also changed. Increasingly, the ‘breaking news’ chyron on television is going the way of the special edition newspaper, rushed out of the printing press after a major occurrence. People are mainlining news from the source, drinking directly from the river. In a world where the newsmakers – whether politicians, or celebrities, or corporations – run their own information operations, the place of a reporter telling their audiences what is going on is becoming antiquated. But there is still a place for explaining an increasingly chaotic and confusing world. As a matter of fact, it is a requirement in order to navigate it successfully. Even as the aforementioned politicians, celebrities and corporations push out their slick content, someone must peek behind the curtain when necessary and reveal the rot underneath (if you’ll forgive the mixed metaphors). Where Mwinzi and I perhaps disagree is the form that peeking and revelation will take. It will no longer be a screaming headline at the helm of a 2000-word story. It may have to be a series of 2-minute explainer videos hyperlinked to documents, images and graphics. Maybe my generation and his are too old to learn the new ways of doing things, but the things must be done.

In short, the new way of doing things is the antithesis of an essay such as this one. My response will be read by people peering over their bifocals and progressive lenses, while the alphabet generations will simply say tl;dr. We can condemn them, or we can learn from them and adapt.

So even as Mwinzi protests television editors taking over the newsrooms, it may just be an ultimately pointless argument, with this change representing the final throes of an entirely dying regime. It will not matter whether a print journalist is Editor-in-Chief, or a television journalist, in a world in which Editors-in-Chief are irrelevant.

I have mentioned Bernard Mwinzi’s name far too many times. He and I must sit over a cup of coffee or a beer. With a copy of the Daily Nation between us, for old times’ sake.