Kenyan Digital Media Subscriptions Are NOT Dead — They Just Need A Better Pitch!
I love consuming news media in all of its myriad forms whether its newspapers, magazines, radio, tv, podcasts, websites, mobile apps, etc. However, as media has become increasingly digital, and fragmented, consumers have evolved to have shorter attention spans, thanks to the TikTokification of everything. Also, as we move towards ever larger population segments of Millennials, GenZers and soon GenAlphas, there is a massive conundrum for the global media industrial complex.
The very obvious reality is that digital media has increasingly become where consumers spend their limited attentive time. However, concurrently, the same young(er) consumers, unlike old school Boomers and GenXers (like yours truly) who voraciously consumed traditional media before the advent of the Internet, as we know it, are both unwilling and uninterested in paying for digital subscriptions to media of any kind, unless its truly exceptional, contextually relevant, and affordable (read: free) to them.
That being said, if you look at where media consumption is today in Kenya, it took the biggest hit when the COVID-19 pandemic first manifested almost 5 years ago and social distancing measures meant that traditional media like newspapers became not only dangerous to consume due to the risk of virus being passed on, but the stay at home mandates also meant that everyone essentially became digitally transformed as they worked, played, prayed, and socialized online 24X7x365.
A few years ago, ‘pre-COVID’ as we say these days, we made a conscious decision at my business to stop subscribing to newspapers when it became clear that only two people in the office actually read them — me looking for tenders and seeing which brands or businesses were spending on marketing and our office driver who spent a disproportionate amount of time analyzing football betting odds! Initially, as a seasoned GenXer, I thought I would die from this transition but somehow its become my now ‘not so new normal’ as I consume almost all media online.
When the majority of Kenyan news media platforms went digital at scale during and after the pandemic, many introduced what I consider to be excessive digital paywalls to their content. Its actually quite ridiculous since you can’t even get a sniff of their best content without paying for a daily, weekly, monthly or annual subscription. Honestly, I do really appreciate high quality journalism but in many instances it just doesn’t feel worth the rates being charged at a time when many media businesses in Kenya are on the verge of collapse.
This all brings me to the point of this post. Last week, or the week before, I got this very attractive emailed offer to sign-up for a year long subscription to the New York Times, one of the most digitally successful media businesses in the world. It was only US$ 10.00, for EVERYTHING, as you can see in the attached image. It was a no-brainer, I signed up, then and there. I now get a deluge of content on email, pinging me to consume the latest and best New York Times content for a very affordable price. I am happy, if not overwhelmed by the sheer number of emails I get everyday for almost every possible kind of media asset that is in the purview of the New York Times.
So, from this perspective, it got me thinking that if a media business puts forward a really good subscription offer to actually get people to sign-up without even thinking twice because the content is great and the price works too, then every media business should do it, too. This is especially important in markets like Kenya and Africa where print media is in massive decline, even as radio and TV remain popular. Media businesses need to look at the bigger picture and consider doing what the New York Times is doing — giving exceptional value at a really affordable price, even if it’s initially a loss leader, for long(er)-term digital subscription success.
