A shake-up in Monitor’s editorial leadership was justified as the most important step to a digital first strategy. We pointed out at the time that Monitor faced an uphill battle since all its content was online, while most of Jumia’s users were most likely web-savvy – the type of people who might prefer reading a newspaper online instead of buying a physical copy.Įven then, the website’s quiet subordination seems to run counter to recent changes at the newspaper. Read More: Decoding the Daily Monitor and Jumia Food partnership Monitor would use Jumia’s platforms – a food ordering website and app – to circulate its flagship newspaper, while Jumia gets promotion on Monitor’s platforms in return. At the end of September, Monitor and Jumia Food announced a partnership in which the two companies would capitalise on the other’s strengths.
It is the second move taken by the newspaper in as many months to increase circulation. Print ad space happens to be much more lucrative than online adverts, a market the newspaper seems to be in command of its website is the most visited Ugandan web property, according to the analytics website Alexa. An increase in print circulation means will make the newspaper more attractive to advertisers who will place more ads. Still, the newspaper’s executives want more. It regained the position after a drop in sales of Bukedde, the Luganda language tabloid published by Vision Group. The figures place Monitor second after New Vision. That is 741 copies less than it did in the first quarter, and 693 copies less than in the corresponding period last year. The newspaper sold an average of 19,052 copies from Monday to Friday in the second quarter of this year, according to figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. But checking Monitor’s Twitter timeline, we found updates of lead stories that were never published on the homepage being sent out a few days later.ĭigging around, on Twitter, we found this exchange with Tabu Butagira, a managing editor at Monitor, which confirmed our suspicion.Įxclusives in print r, unfortunately, not uploaded promptly. Initially, we thought there was a problem with Monitor’s website when we first noticed, two weeks ago, that it was not updated as regularly as before. The decision, which has not been announced, was made on the fly. Some companies no longer bought the newspaper since they could read it from the website. Publishing everything online had hit sales hard, he said, giving as an example the decline in corporate subscriptions. But for some time now only a few articles are published, while “premium content” is delayed, usually for more than a day.Ĭharles Odoobo-Bichachi, Monitor’s top editor, said they are targeting more newspaper sales with the strategy. It has always been that the Monitor website publishes all articles in the next day’s paper soon after midnight. The move, according to editors at the daily, is intended to prop up print sales. In some cases, the content has been delayed for more than a week. Photo: Uganda Business Newsįor the last two or so weeks, the Daily Monitor has been delaying online publication of some of its print newspaper articles. Some of the stories in the newspaper were missing from the website, and have still not been published.
The two pictures were taken at the same time. A print copy of Saturday Monitor on the stand, and a screenshot of the newspaper’s website.