Nairobi writer on Banking, Finance, Technology, and Investments
Thursday, November 30, 2006
New Nation
Friday December 1 marks the launch of a revamped Daily Nation. Hope it streches to other papers the rest of the week, not just Friday's - Monday and Wednesday could also do with a bump.
12 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Kinda reminds me of Omo.
How many times does a product have to be re-branded and re-launched?
Forgive me for my lack of marketing skills but is this what they teach in marketing?
I'm still trying to navigate through the newspaper. At least they did not change its name to something like, "The New Daily Nation" or "The New Blue Daily Nation". The re-launch must have been taken very seriously as I saw some of the most senior people at NMG on the streets holding placards. Are they copying the Standard, or is it Linus Gitahi's marketing blood at work?? It's a good one nevertheless.
My take: Yes, it rips East African and the headlines are too shy, but people usually get used to -- and start loving -- any changes. It feels lighter, so reading doesn't feel like 'work', a problem particularly with the Sunday Nation.
Rebrands in Kenya typically bump circulation 10 to 15 per cent. If you keep a third of those readers you can stem the slow decline of papers in general for a little longer.
The Daily Nation has three/four mastheads: Red for Friday, Red/Black for Saturday, Blue/Black for Sunday and Black for Monday to Thursday. The one they started with is the easy one: you may hate the others even more, but only temporarily.
its more like standard from a distance. when i asked the newspaper guy for a nation, he gave n i insisted nation, just cos of the color. from a distance, tis standard.
New CEO, new month & new look. I'd think it looks mo' like The Monitor of UG( sister paper). The business page though is a bit hazy.Listings of the NSE should have remained as they were (easier to peruse). Teething problems I hope, look forward to mo' interesting times for the media as we go to another election year!
Back in the day all the dailies were distinctively different.
Today, the Standard looks very much like Nation and I guess now that Nation has completely lost its original style its gonna look very similar to the Standard.
Unfortunately, the Standard caught up with the Nation and with the exchange of writers between the two dailies, its not surprising that they are loosing differentiation.
Ssembonge: Omo, Sunlight, Unga and almost all EABL brands. But, for a newspaper it's not that radical to change the look
Jakarumba: Thanks for the info
E-Nyce: I don't think net-strictions will change. They need to heed the call of Kenyan's in the diaspora
Ig-know-rant: The name was ok, can't tamper with that. Managers were out hawking today, but so did Standard/KTN crew about a year ago
Unyc: I love the East African and it's business reporting and regional reports. They broke the mobitelea story
propaganda: I wish they had added some more content, (fatures, columns) not just altered the font and layout. Hope the circulations pays off, but not likely as newspaper sales are stretched in terms of buying power
Anon: NSE listing were probably an error
Ssembonge: I think difference is editorail and advertising, which they perhaps do 2 or 3X the standard. The staff changes have helped the standard newspapers and NTV raise up the competitive level
Banks: New content, as well as the sharing of talent Ssembonge is talking about, is beginning to show itself. Tom Mshindi (ex-Standard CEO and a former Daily Nation editor-in-chief is writing a new column. Kwamchetsi Makokha, who was at NMG before he went to Standard, has a whole page. I'm sure we'll see more as the week rolls out.
Mitzy: Africa Online's experience with blogs put off most media houses. With the kind of traffic major news websites get, controlling the crazies and the crap they put up becomes a full-time expensive headache.
12 comments:
Kinda reminds me of Omo.
How many times does a product have to be re-branded and re-launched?
Forgive me for my lack of marketing skills but is this what they teach in marketing?
The Nation lastly rebranded/relaunched in October,2001 .
I like the design. It's clean and lean. Nice simple colors.
But- the Internet is about content, baby!
Does this new design mean more restrictions to seeing their content - supposedly exactly the same as the paper version - or less restrictions?
The online subcription is 52.4625 KSh per day, no matter which way you slice the options. More expensive than the paper?
I'm still trying to navigate through the newspaper. At least they did not change its name to something like, "The New Daily Nation" or "The New Blue Daily Nation". The re-launch must have been taken very seriously as I saw some of the most senior people at NMG on the streets holding placards. Are they copying the Standard, or is it Linus Gitahi's marketing blood at work?? It's a good one nevertheless.
It almosts looks like the East African...i like it though but not so happy with the masthead....
My take: Yes, it rips East African and the headlines are too shy, but people usually get used to -- and start loving -- any changes. It feels lighter, so reading doesn't feel like 'work', a problem particularly with the Sunday Nation.
Rebrands in Kenya typically bump circulation 10 to 15 per cent. If you keep a third of those readers you can stem the slow decline of papers in general for a little longer.
The Daily Nation has three/four mastheads: Red for Friday, Red/Black for Saturday, Blue/Black for Sunday and Black for Monday to Thursday. The one they started with is the easy one: you may hate the others even more, but only temporarily.
its more like standard from a distance. when i asked the newspaper guy for a nation, he gave n i insisted nation, just cos of the color. from a distance, tis standard.
impressive
New CEO, new month & new look. I'd think it looks mo' like The Monitor of UG( sister paper). The business page though is a bit hazy.Listings of the NSE should have remained as they were (easier to peruse). Teething problems I hope, look forward to mo' interesting times for the media as we go to another election year!
Back in the day all the dailies were distinctively different.
Today, the Standard looks very much like Nation and I guess now that Nation has completely lost its original style its gonna look very similar to the Standard.
Unfortunately, the Standard caught up with the Nation and with the exchange of writers between the two dailies, its not surprising that they are loosing differentiation.
Ssembonge: Omo, Sunlight, Unga and almost all EABL brands. But, for a newspaper it's not that radical to change the look
Jakarumba: Thanks for the info
E-Nyce: I don't think net-strictions will change. They need to heed the call of Kenyan's in the diaspora
Ig-know-rant: The name was ok, can't tamper with that. Managers were out hawking today, but so did Standard/KTN crew about a year ago
Unyc: I love the East African and it's business reporting and regional reports. They broke the mobitelea story
propaganda: I wish they had added some more content, (fatures, columns) not just altered the font and layout. Hope the circulations pays off, but not likely as newspaper sales are stretched in terms of buying power
Anon: NSE listing were probably an error
Ssembonge: I think difference is editorail and advertising, which they perhaps do 2 or 3X the standard. The staff changes have helped the standard newspapers and NTV raise up the competitive level
Banks: New content, as well as the sharing of talent Ssembonge is talking about, is beginning to show itself. Tom Mshindi (ex-Standard CEO and a former Daily Nation editor-in-chief is writing a new column. Kwamchetsi Makokha, who was at NMG before he went to Standard, has a whole page. I'm sure we'll see more as the week rolls out.
Mitzy: Africa Online's experience with blogs put off most media houses. With the kind of traffic major news websites get, controlling the crazies and the crap they put up becomes a full-time expensive headache.
are they now copying the standard. the two are very much alike. and he stocks page looks disorganised and poorly thought out. hope its a mistake
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