Ratio Magazine :: The Inside Track to East Africa’s Economies - News Analysis: Magazines are Dead, Long Live Magazines

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News Analysis: Magazines are Dead, Long Live Magazines

Friday, 30 April 2010

It was, Government of Kenya Spokesman and Golden Dreams CEO Dr. Alfred Mutua said, an ambition that he first pursued 20 years ago – but its realisation was the product of three weeks: On Wednesday, 28 April 2010, he and his team launched a new lifestyle magazine called Passion for Life at a well attended function. The short production time was presumably driven by the intention to jump into the gap in the Kenya’s publishing market that opened when South-African owned East African Magazines, a subsidiary of Naspers, were shut down abruptly, which eliminated several lifestyle titles from the market.

Passion magazine appears to have attracted sound advertising support for a start up, and it was all paid for, Dr Mutua was keen to add. In his launch presentation, he placed much emphasis on the ‘homegrown’ content, but the first issue has a distinct more-of-the-same character, with the standard mixture of celebrities, fashion, parenting, lifestyle that mirrored both the magazines just closed as well as the pullout sections of the dailies, adding little in either depth or style. However, in contrast to the EAM products, Passion starts out with a website, too, so the dimension of an online presence has been given some thought.

Three weeks production time is short and so the magazine may yet grow into a more distinct identity, but this first contender for the gap left by EAM appears unlikely to shake up the magazine market. Practically at the same time as Passion magazine was launched, Carol Mandi, who had edited True Love under the EAM umbrella, announced that she had acquired the rights for True Love. If EAM parents Naspers did not see the business case for a range of magazines anymore, local entrepreneurs clearly disagree, as evidenced by the quick reactions to EAM’s closure. With a better understanding of the local readership and a lower cost structure, they clearly have the potential to replace EAM’s products. However, the Passion format shows the danger of lapsing back into mediocrity – if the South African parent company ended up imposing content that had little resonance in this market, the latest contender has not yet offered a more substantial alternative, ‘homegrown’ label or not.

Oyunga Pala, the founding editor of Adam, a men’s lifestyle magazine, thinks that lifestyle publishing in Kenya needs a leap on content quality to prosper: ‘The investment has to be in content generation. For the Kenyan magazine market to thrive, we need to build a base of writers who can consistently generate quality content, and also focus on attracting talent that will generate proper content.’

Passion, True Love – Round Two?

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Passion
written by Imende Benjamin, May 20, 2010

Thank you for a good article. However, apart from developing new talents, we also need to exploit other talents by encouraging new writers. We have many good writers who are not given opportunities to showcase their talents.

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