At The Nation Media Group (NMG) creativity and innovation seems to be deficient judging from their recent products. The media group is glaringly aping what their competitors in the Standard Group have already introduced to the market.

NAIROBI NEWS

All the vendors of the Nation newspapers, which is published by NMG, were brandishing copies of the new NAIROBI NEWS newspaper which the media group unveiled to advertisers and marketers on Monday evening.

The Nairobi News newspaper as the title suggests will focus on news content in the Nairobi County and if you are a keen observer, you will not miss the similarity between the Nairobi news tabloid, whose slogan reads At The Heart Of The County and The Nairobian weekly, which was launched seven months ago by the Standard Group.

The NAIROBIAN tabloid which is published on Fridays, was well received by the city dwellers as its content seemed to bring a breath of fresh air away from the usual hard news and politics that fill up the traditional dailies. The NAIROBIAN has been enjoying quite a good readership.

Incidentally, plans by the Nation Media Group to introduce a similar publication to the STANDARD’S NAIROBIAN were leaked in May this year, however the title NMG had considered was the NAIROBI NOW. Six months down the line, the plan has been effected but under the title NAIROBI NEWS.

SPORTS TABLOID

The Standard Group also introduced the first ever Kenyan sports tabloid (GAME YETU) in the market in November Last year. According to Standard Group’s Sports Editor Mr Robin Toskinhis, the innovation of Game Yetu was driven by the popularity of the English Premier League, La Liga, French Ligue, Italian Serie A, and the local Tusker Premier League.

Game Yetu, a tabloid, aimed to tap into emotions that are generated by sport by providing coverage of all sports but particularly football.

SPORTON SENT OFF

Doing what they do best, Nation Media Group would early this year release SPORTON which was akin to GAME YETU by all means. On the launch of the two sports tabloids, the Kenya Forum readers would recall that we expressed our doubts on whether the tabloids would last (see ‘Nation and Standard launch sports newspapers, Game Yetu and Sporton’, 25 January, 2012). True to the sentiments raised, the SPORTON newspaper’s life would be short-lived and just nine months down the line, the tabloid stopped circulating.

According to a source from the Standard Group whom the Forum cannot mention since he is not authorized to speak to the media, they are aware of NMG’s trends and they always expect it. “The team at Standard Group prides in being the pace setters while the rest try to catch up, the other day we launched Kenya at 50 and they followed suit,” he said.

Kenya at 50 is a pullout that was introduced in the standard newspaper on June 1st i.e. Madaraka Day, with the aim of celebrating Kenya’s greats, history makers, stories that made headlines and much more.

Well, that’s how the market works but can’t NMG just up their game and give Kenyans something new at least for once!