A date with a Monitor Editor

Ali Balunywa in Kampala, Uganda

The Monitor is Uganda’s other second daily newspaper. It is an independent daily founded by a group of journalists. Currently, it is owned by East Africa’s biggest media house, The Nation Group of Companies that publishes the biggest circulating newspaper in East Africa. It also owns radios and televisions in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

My first date at the Monitor was with Mr. Fred Masiga, an associate editor, Business. He joined the Monitor in the year 2001. In addition to having a Bachelors degree in Mass Communication, he also holds a Masters of Business Administration degree. 

Fred’s typical day at the Monitor is as follows:

5.30 AM: Wake up

6.45 AM: Drive to office

At the office go through the BBC, New York Times, Financial Times, Manchester Evening News, Reuters and other news websites. 

7.30 AM: Peruse through the day’s local newspapers and also the Monitor to                        identify any errors. He also carefully scrutinizes the nearest competitor,                The New Vision for any news that the Monitor could have missed

8.30 AM: Attend an editorial meeting that lasts approximately 30 minutes

9.00 – 11.00 AM: Assign journalists work, give briefings, make phone calls, sub available stories for pages that go to bed early and generally supervise the ongoing work.

11.00 AM: Attend the editors meeting which carries out a postmortem of the day’s paper and also check the docket drawn by the news editor from the early morning meeting chaired by the managing editor.

12.00 Noon – 3.00 PM: Start receiving stories from reporters; receive draft copy of the designed paper as subbing and passing pages is being continuously done

3.30 PM: Attend editors meeting for 30 minutes to decide what story should lead and passing of pages is agreed.

7.00 PM: Gather at the desk of the chief subeditor to agree on the headlines

8.00 PM: Leave for home.

Fred says some days he can attend up to 10 meetings and on others go out to meet a source or follow up a story. He works for not less than 12 hours everyday, 6 days a week. Monday is his only day off. 

On New Media use, Fred claims the computer is now an integral part of the media business. Typing and sending stories, email, the intranet, researching and many other wonders of the computer have made things easier for print journalists. He quoted for me the incident of the terrorists attacks on Hotels in Mumbai when he used the Voice Over the Internet Protocol (VOIP) with an Indian colleague to get instant updates of story as it was unfolding. Further still, the Monitor is in the process of upgrading its system to enable the journalists to blog.

Fred also praises mobile telephony. To emphasize its importance, the company provides official mobile phones and credit to most journalists. In turn these phones are supposed to be on 24/7. The phones usually have added services like the SMS, MMS, camera, Internet and recording.