The Standard Group from Kenya Celebrates One Success After Another

The success story of the Kenyan media company The Standard Group Ltd. during the last two years is unparalleled. Within a very short period, it refurbished its entire organization and newspaper production. Obscure, manual processes have given way to automated, transparent processes, productivity has increased manifold, and complicated workflows have been replaced by a fully integrated workflow from start to finish. The Kenyan media company has switched completely to ppi Media’s Publishing Suite and has since scored one success after another.

Hamburg, February 16, 2016. In October 2013, The Standard Group commissioned ppi Media to install a wide range of solutions for its planning, production, ad, prepress and editorial workflows. After a period of just six months, ppi Media’s workflow had been fully implemented. The results are impressive: higher productivity, launching The Nairobian on the market, and fast-growing local journalism due to its five new regional editions. Francis Munywoki, Managing Director of Print Business & Director of Innovation, is extremely satisfied with the performance of The Standard Group: “Before deciding in favor of ppi Media’s publishing software, our workflow was lacking transparency. Frequently, we never even knew where articles came from and which media they were to be published in. We had no clear idea of what the production workflow looked like, and sometimes we didn’t even manage to publish our newspaper on time. With ppi Media, things are different.”

Success story: The Nairobian

The Standard Group has achieved outstanding success, in particular with its weekly tabloid newspaper The Nairobian. With gossip and stories on celebrities, politicians, scandals and critical opinions on state affairs and the government, the editors have hit the mood of the times. Starting with a circulation of 12,000 copies when it was first published in March 2013, the newspaper now boasts a daily circulation of 150,000 copies. The media company’s goal is to continue growing with The Nairobian in the future too, and to reach a circulation of 200,000 copies in 2016. In addition, the popular tabloid is not only to be published once on Fridays, but twice a week instead. Currently, Francis Munywoki and his colleagues are also investigating whether it would be profitable to expand sales of The Nairobian to other African countries. Even now, The Nairobian is sold outside Nairobi, for example in Uganda and Tanzania.

The Standard Group’s decision to invest in highly sophisticated publishing software for automated newspaper production has paid off. The complete story can be found in our Case Study.