New Vision’s Digital Revolution

Ali Balunywa in Kampala, Uganda

Robert Kabushenga is the Chief Executive Officer of the New Vision Group of Companies. The New Vision Group is the biggest multimedia house in Uganda. It publishes 8 newspapers and 5 magazines. It owns 3 FM radio stations and a television network. (www.newvision.co.ug). 

I spoke to Robert in his offices at the New Vision headquarters in industrial area in Kampala at the end of May 2009. The appointment was made towards the end of my research on the impact of the digital culture on the print media in Uganda 

Robert was very passionate while speaking about the new media. He actually congratulated me on my choice of research. According to him, the media’s operational aspect of content generation is to share information, acquire physical networks and have the ability to store data. With this, the possibility of real time access to what is happening elsewhere is possible 

To Robert, the New Media has helped the New Vision to leap frog literally from manual to digital technologies in a short time. The technology revolution has closed the digital gap in the last 10 years. The new vision’s digital use is now at the same level as Europe or America. The speed might not be the same in terms of infrastructure, but the tools are similar. He gave an example of owning cars everywhere, but the West has good roads, yet the south has poor ones 

In terms of efficiency and convenience of operations, the new media has gone a long way in ameliorating working conditions at the New Vision, according to Robert. Regarding hardware, he talked of how the computers and mobile phones had eased communications especially in this part of the world.

He added that the development of the digital camera had made sharing, transmitting and taking photographs easy. Before, the photo developing and printing process was constrained by use of films and long time taken to get the end product, which had to be scanned and fed into the newspaper layout process. 

The new Media has also made it possible for the media houses to be truly multimedia. There is so much content generated, but most of it goes unused because there is not enough space to use it all. With new media, the capacity to absorb all content is increased many times over. 

Robert added that the new media has had a liberating impact on the media in Uganda and has also freed innovation. Business has for example shifted from being only a newspaper to a multimedia house, which includes online and hand held devices for delivering content. 

To facilitate this shift, the price of the computer has come down nearly one-third the cost of a typewriter. This has had a big impact on gathering, processing and producing news content. For journalism it has also had a positive impact on the financial side of investing in the media.  This is manifested in the way, the New Vision shares were oversubscribed when they floated them on the local bourse.

Meetings dominate Robert’s typical day. This is the culture of the New Vision and in this part of the world. Decision-making is consensual. All management must own a decision in order to effectively execute their duties. To Robert, the best way to coordinate different facets of group professionals to get the best content outcome is through meetings. 

Competition is rife among the different sections of the group. The finance, editorial, marketing and broadcasting sections have all to be well coordinated to produce their products without clashing. 

Robert like all other senior staff is on call 24/7. He starts his day quite early and finishes late. By 8.00am he is in office, at 12.30 goes home to have lunch with the family and returns by 2.00pm. He leaves office art around 8.00pm. 

The administrative work of the New Vision is accomplished using new media. Foe example, all company records are now in soft form. Minutes in meetings are typed on a laptop as the meeting is proceeding and are circulated immediately after the meeting. Even those who fail to attend the meeting are instantly updated on what transpired. 

More information is shared in advance to ease decision-making and to make contributions to meetings more informative. New Media has made the processing and distribution of information in advance much easier. Even if people are unavailable physically, they continue being involved in decision-making. 

All the group’s financial transactions are now made online. With or without bank signatories’ physical presence payments can be made despite the inaptness of the bandwidth. Still however, the New Vision has the largest bandwidth in Uganda. And hopefully, this national problem will be sorted out before the end of the year with the completion of the undersea cables. 

Mobile money technology has also made payments much easier. People in the rural areas who wish to advertise or distributors remitting money to the New Vision can use mobile money to pay the New Vision. Advertisers too can send their adverts by mobile telephone texts or SMS. 

New Vision can also make payment to its contributors, writers and correspondents in the rural areas using the same system. Mobile money is a money transfer service being operated by the two biggest mobile telephone companies, MTN and Zain. 

In spite of New Vision being the leader in ICT use in the media industry, it was with great regret that face book; twitter and you tube were disconnected. They used to slow up the whole system and make the journalists lazy to do their work and instead waste time on those social networking sites. 

In the spirit of embracing the new media, all senior staff at the New Vision was provided with a company Blackberry telephone handset. Middle level management staff is also furnished with a company telephone and credit. All these people are supposed to be in touch 24 /7. Breaking news can be coordinated as it is happening by telephone or email.

The New Vision is investing in new technologies to remain the leading innovative media in Uganda. The online newspaper edition is currently being revamped. All editorial staff will be encouraged to blog once the website is refurbished. All the regional papers will have a presence online in the local dialects.

In conclusion, the New Vision wishes to do it the Rupert Murdoch way of having a strong presence on every media platform in Uganda. No wonder Robert and Rupert rhyme!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oketch Bitek, not Okot B’tek!

Ali Balunywa in Gulu, Uganda

When Oketch Bitek told me his name, I automatically assumed that I heard Okot B’tek the famous poet and novelist. However, he explained to me that he was no relative of the poet. Oketch is a freelance journalist with the New Vision.

The New Vision newspaper is a member of the New Vision Group of companies and it is the biggest multimedia house in Uganda. It publishes 8 newspapers and 5 magazines. It owns 3 FM radio stations and a television network. (www.newvision.co.ug) 

Oketch is a university graduate. He is in possession of a Bachelor of Arts degree in education. After school he first worked with the Monitor newspaper as the Northern Bureau chief. He was also a reporter for the Central Broadcasting Services FM Radio and at the same time a researcher for international television stations.

Oketch arrives at the office every, day at 8.30 am. He asks his boss if there is any pending assignment. If not, he goes through the book to establish if there is any unaccomplished task or invitation to a function or event.

He also checks the Internet for any pending invitation or local issue. He then peruses through the local papers to see if there is any issue that they overlooked or to get tips for new stories.

After writing his articles, Oketch types them using the office computer and sends them to the bureau chief, who sends it to Kampala if found okay.

On the new media technology, Oketch confirmed that he uses the computer for Internet, email, spell checking, retouching photos and reading other newspapers. He however admitted that he does not use the search engines, chatting or social networking sites nor does he blog. 

Oketch uses the mobile phone for communication, receiving assignments, texting and reporting. He owns a laptop, which he uses to write his stories and send them to the editors or/ and bureau chief. He also listens to FM radios to get story tips.

 

 

Corresponding for New Vision

Ali Balunywa in Gulu, Uganda

Cornelius Lubangakene is a freelance journalist with the New Vision in Gulu, Northern Uganda. The New Vision newspaper is a member of the New Vision Group of companies and it is the biggest multimedia house in Uganda. It publishes 8 newspapers and 5 magazines. It owns 3 FM radio stations and a television network. (www.newvision.co.ug).

Cornelius arrives at office every day at 8.30am. He attends a brief editorial meeting where tips are shared and assignments given. Invitations for functions are also allocated to different journalists. Cornelius then listens to the radio to get more news tips. He also goes out to the police station or the court or market in search of news.

He uses motorcycle taxis or boda boda as they are locally called. He always carries with him a notebook, camera, mobile phone and pen. After getting his stories, he returns to the office, types them on computer, downloads photos and mails it to Kampala.

He regards the computer as his main new media tool. He uses it for typing stories, spell checking, email, Google, Gmail and chatting to source stories. He however doesn’t use any social networking sites. The mobile phone is the second best tool to use in news gathering and reporting. It is used for receiving assignments, texting and interviewing sources.

Cornelius also uses the radios for sourcing news tips. 

Rural Journalists Using ICT

Ali Balunywa in Mbarara, Uganda

The New Vision Mbarara bureau chief is called Deus Ruhangariyo. The New Vision Group is the biggest multimedia house in Uganda. It publishes 8 newspapers and 5 magazines. It owns 3 FM radio stations and a television network. (www.newvision.co.ug). Deus is a holder of A Bachelors degree in Social Sciences and various certificates in Journalism.

Deus’ typical day finds him at the office at 7.30 am. He first peruses the daily papers checking on the regional stories to establish what was run. He then starts compiling the line up of stories for Orumuri, New Vision’s sister newspaper published in the local Kinyankore language.

At 9.00 am, he chairs the editorial meeting which is attended by his deputies and journalists. During the meeting, they share tips and assign journalists work for the day.

In the afternoon, he calls stringers and correspondents from the outlying districts to coordinate stories that came out from other papers or to follow up assignments. He advises on what angles to take and what details to look for.

On Mondays, Deus chairs the operations committee meetings, which involves all heads of department. An assessment of the previous week’s work is made and a time frame of what is to be done in the new week is made. There is always a secretary who takes minutes and later shares them with headquarters via email.

On Wednesdays a planning meeting for the Orumuri newspaper sits. The meeting looks at the product, reviews the product on the market and brainstorms on the challenges faced while doing it. Possible solutions are also provided. Forecasts of what to include in the next issue is also made.

After all correspondents have filed their stories, an editorial meeting is held to select stories to be used in the paper. Subeditors have the mandate of deciding which stories to be carried on specific pages for example; a page runs on average 10 stories without adverts. It is also important to incorporate stories from outlets, which have high news sales returns.

After laying the pages the subeditors submit them to the bureau chief. He checks the flow in stories, cross checks facts, libel, defamation and grammar. If there is no problem he okays the pages, which are PDF-ed and sent to prepress to ready it for printing.

ICT use

The computer is the most used technology today. All stories from the outlying districts are received via email. The Internet is used to gather foreign news and Google for background information. Digital photos are fed into the computer, digitally edited using Adobe Photoshop software and integrated in the story using QuarkXPress programme. Previously, the PdFs used to be physically taken to Kampala for printing on a floppy or CD, now however, it is different. The PDFs are sent by email instantly.

Deus has 3 email addresses; the New vision mail, Yahoo and Gmail. He however doesn’t chat or use any social networking site. He is part of the Closed Mobile Group, which makes free calls within the group.

Finally he uses the FM radio to get news tips and to advertise headlines for a new paper.

American Journalist Reporting for Vision

Ali Balunywa in Kampala, Uganda

Rebecca Jane Harshbarger is an American journalist who freelances at the New Vision newspaper. She has a BA in African Studies, a Masters in Journalism and specialist in print and web reporting, podcasting and blogging. Last summer she was an intern at the New Vision for 10 weeks and since March this year became a freelance reporter. 

The New Vision Group is the biggest multimedia house in Uganda. It publishes 8 newspapers and 5 magazines. It owns 3 FM radio stations and a television network. (www.newvision.co.ug)

Rebecca is a freelance journalist at the Saturday and Sunday Vision’s business desks. Usually her editor gives her a story idea and she follows it up in the field. She has many contacts in the field that supply her information. Her contacts are based in companies, the stock exchange and other sectors of the economy.

Rebecca reads a lot, watches television and asks her contacts many questions to expand her information base. She has also written several articles outside her expertise like:

-       Recovery centre in Gulu for sexual violence survivors

-       Men and fitness

-       Wetlands

-       Youth offenders

On a normal day, Rebecca takes notes as she chases a story. She also uses a tape recorder, reads a lot and makes many follow-up phone calls. She later types in her story and sends it to the editor. She has not yet had a story rejected, but sometimes she re writes it.

On her use of new media tools, Rebecca admitted that they assist her a lot during her day-to-day beat.  She always has a digital camera with her to take pictures for her stories.

She uses the Google search engine a lot for research and beefing up stories. She also uses BBC, Washington Times, The Independent and other news websites for background information.

Face book is her best Social Networking Site. She has over 300 contacts in East Africa. It helps her for interviews, consultations, searches expert contacts for comments on current subjects for example if she is looking for a comment from the man on the street, she just asks her contacts. She is also a member of Twitter and LinkedIn.

Within the editorial the internal network: the intranet is used for communication and editing and correcting stories. The mobile phone is also another communication gadget that is used for both internal and external communication. Texting is more convenient for Rebecca, than calling. She also claimed she liked the way Ugandans use text messages for communication. Sometimes, journalists receive text storylines and set time to talk.

Rebecca’s blogs are ugandabeatslivejournal.com and ugandabeatswordpress.com. She uses them for searching and story ideas. She uses her computer at home to video podcasts. It helps her to get in touch with international news and to download American programmes. In the morning or late at night I sometimes log onto the New Vision system because then it is not to busy and can be quite fast. 

I have 3 email addresses, which I never close. I check on them from time to time, I never log out. I receive news stories, press releases and contact information through my email addresses.