Kenyans welcome second full colour daily newspaper

Nairobi – The Daily Metro is a publication of one of East Africa's leading media houses - Nation Media Group. The newspaper's tagline is: The paper that brings news to life. According to the publisher, the newspaper is expected to bring news to life. “Daily Metro will cover human interest in all its forms - including politics and business. Daily Metro comes to engage, not bore readers,” said the publisher in the launch issue.

The new publications open new advertising avenues to East African companies and others based elsewhere in the continent.

Before the entry of Nairobi Star and Daily Metro , the Daily Nation and the East African Standard were the dominant players in Kenya's newspaper industry. Other daily newspapers include: The People Daily and Kenya Times. The market is also flooded with several weekly papers with others focusing on business only.

The daily newspapers have been accused of focusing more on politics and the new additions are expected to provide a breather and an alternative to Kenyan readers.

The Nairobi Star was launched in early July 2007 with the tagline: Real Life Stories Every Day. The newspaper has a combination of human interest stories, sports, entertainment, gossip, fashion and business. It is a full colour 32 page newspaper that is published six times a week (Monday - Saturday) and retails for KSh 35.

The Daily Metro is also 32 pages, full colour and combines entertainment, gossip, fashion, sports and business news. “It is not by chance that the pictures jump at you and the headlines are eye catching,” says the publisher. The Daily Metro is 57 percent cheaper than the Nairobi Star retailing at KSh20 and is published five times a week. “This is very exciting at least I have an alternative to the hard news newspapers,” says Phillip Njuguna, a Nairobi resident.

Nation Media was publishing a weekly newspaper - The Weekly Advertiser which was free of charge. The paper is not currently in publication. It is hoped the price of newspapers will go down but the industry has to grapple with challenges like high electricity costs and poor infrastructure. There are also very few high quality newspaper printing presses in the country which makes publishing an expensive venture.

Marketers on the other hand welcome the new entrant and hope that the competition will reduce the cost of advertising. “For a long time we had no alternative apart from Nation and Standard who charge an arm and a leg for a full page advert. It is actually cheaper to advertise on a billboard for a whole month compared to advertising in either paper for one day! I hope the prices will now come down,” says Jane Onyango, a media buyer.

The telecommunications, beverage and banking sectors are among the big spenders in the country. With the forthcoming general elections to be held later this year, politicians are also expected to spend a hefty amount in media advertising to woo voters.