As the digital era unfolds, print media organizations are either folding or moving to digital-only. Back in the 1980s and ’90s and the early aughts, there was no industry that was more glamorous than the newspaper and magazine publishing world.
In the glory days, for instance, Condé Nast, a global mass media company largely known for publishing famous magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and GQ among others, used to gift its top editors interest-free home loans, which sources say had to be paid off within 10 years.
But with the flush days of print newspapers and magazine glossies going down the drain, so too are editors’ and correspondents’ cushy perks.
While the likes of Anna Wintour, current artistic director of Condé Nast and global editorial director of Vogue, still continue to revel in the subsidized luxe life, it is far from the norm for the new, younger crop of lead editors like Chioma Nnadi of British Vogue and Margaret Zhang of Vogue China.
Reportedly, Nast enjoys daily hair and makeup styling, a hefty clothing allowance, a driver at her disposal 24/7, a mini fridge in her office that a staffer stocks weekly with her favorite libations and snacks, all on the company tab.
Meager perks for Editors
Today, few editors remain from the ‘golden era’: only Anna Wintour of Vogue, Joseph Khan at The New York Times and the New Yorker’s David Remnick. In recent years, some of the industry’s most legendary and influential scribes have been replaced by younger — and cheaper — talent.
In 2017, when Radhika Jones was named the new editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair magazine, a subsidiary of Vogue, it was reported that she signed for a $500,000 salary, while her immediate predecessor, Graydon Carter, earned $2 million.
This was all part of a larger print industry collapse that has seen once venerable publications fold or move to digital-only. According to a 2017 report, the ad buying firm Magna predicted a print advertising decline of around 13 percent in 2018.
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This is not only happening in Western countries but across the globe, and Kenya is no exception.
News editors, reporters and correspondents are turning to desperate means of survival, including taking upside jobs such as communications and media consultancy and seeking handouts from news subjects like politicians and the corporate world.
With the print industry struggling to stay afloat, publishers are cutting back on the big names, big salaries and big extras. Print news correspondents are struggling with delayed payments, while their counterparts in broadcast continue to bask in financial glory, getting their salaries on time.
Kenya’s Media Industry
The current situation at two prominent media houses in Kenya, is a sheer manifestation of how struggling print publications treat correspondents casually, yet they handle the bulk work, especially in the counties where they trawl villages and townships for stories.
For instance, in 2022, even under financial pressure, news correspondents were said to have been given more election coverage assignments and asked to put in extra hours. Some regions do not have bureaus and transport facilities, which gets complicated when pay doesn’t come on time.
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Today, print editors, reporters, columnists and correspondents are clutching on the straw while longingly looking to the decadent days of years past.
