There was no Kenyan template for lifestyle publishing in the midst of a violent political crisis, and Adam Magazine was actually at its most interesting in early 2008. In her weekly column for the (Nairobi) Star, Andrea discusses why reverting to plain vanilla men’s mag format missed the point – and the market.
My eyebrows arched when I read the opening lines to this article in the New York Times a couple of weeks ago: ‘Sub-Saharan Africa does not bring to mind an image of a woman with perfectly manicured nails flipping through glossy magazines in search of the latest handbag or celebrity haircut.’ Say what? Where did the author spend time when in sub-Saharan Africa?
Certainly, if you attach yourself to Angelina Jolie and Bono, then you will probably be stuck in badly manicured refugee camp situations. But Africa is a big place, a continent, in fact. And if you hang around, say, Nairobi for a bit, there is absolutely nothing unexpected about this, neither about the perfectly pedicured nails nor about the glossy magazines. I should know. I regularly have my nails done whilst reading glossy magazines.
Thankfully the rest of the article went on to be more sensible, discussing the growing market for local glossy magazines in some African economies. And since Kenya is one of the most exciting media markets on the continent, I felt sad to learn a few days ago that East African Magazines have decided to suspend two of their titles, Adam and Twende.
Of course 2009 had been a difficult year for everyone, including the publishing industry, with its hangover from the even worse 2008 combination of the post-election crisis and the global economic crisis, and strung along by a bloated, unfocused government (because dodging the ICC, moaning about Passats and launching pretend presidential campaigns hardly count as focus in my books).
Advertising revenues are squeezed and readers have less money to spend on extras, all of which must make it difficult to keep a lifestyle publication going.
Ironically, though, I was most intrigued by Adam relatively early when the economy was truly challenging: Adam magazine was launched in October 2007, the heady days of the election campaigns, and we all know how that turned out. But by early 2008, when Kenya was balancing on the edge of what looked like a Cote d’Ivoire scenario, the magazine was probably at its most interesting: In that environment, pages of cars, football, and ladies in various states of undress, even as some form of escapism, would just not have cut it against the raw tensions in the country.
There was no Kenyan template for lifestyle publishing in the midst of a violent political crisis, and such exceptional circumstances created more space for thought-provoking content than you would have normally anticipated in a men’s lifestyle magazine. It was an almost old-school throw-back to Playboy magazine and its mixture of nudity and quality writing.
But once politics settled, the magazine content gradually reverted to formula. The last editions in particular seemed cookie-cutter men’s mag stuff. By that time, several of the people I spoke to felt that the influence of the South African shareholders had kicked in fully – and that this was not a good thing: Rather than bring their production and industry experience to Kenya to nurture Kenyan talent and ideas, they became more restrictive as the uncertain environment stabilised. The market didn’t thank them for it: The publication, launched into a violent political crisis, was quietly killed off when things had reached an uneasy normality again.
I feel it is shortsighted to overlook the business potential in this uneasy normality: Not just the fact that Adam had a considerable female readership indicated that there is demand for a publication that addresses a younger audience and steps in the space between the often soporific reams of daily newspaper commentary and, on the other side, the shallow coverage of the tiny local celebrity pool.
Kenya has a positively buzzing media industry with lots of talent and potential, and I see two wider issues here: Quality is often a problem, and while international investment could be useful to improve this, the Adam story shows that this is not necessarily easy. Secondly, around the globe, media houses struggle with revenue generation as content moves from print to online publishing.
In Kenya, this transition to digital content may be slightly different: Massively improved internet connectivity will widen the audience for this publishing platform. Kenya already has a very active online community and whilst there are many unrealistic expectations about quick money to be made in online publishing, I expect that some focused ventures will soon crystallize that break the mold of the grannies in the market, Nation and Standard. A European investor in digital ventures told me that he was surprised by how comparatively high online advertising revenues are in Kenya. So who will take a punchier successor to Adam online?
Republished with kind permission from the (Nairobi) Star
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