How Nation Media Group drives growth, trust, and innovation using content verticals

Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, Nation Media Group (NMG) is the largest independent media house in East Africa, with titles such as Daily Nation, The EastAfrican, and Daily Monitor across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda.

"Africa is a continent that is full of tapestry," said Monicah Waceke Ndung'u, Chief Corporate Affairs and Partnerships Officer - and NMG's focus areas reflect that reality.

Speaking at WAN-IFRA's World News Media Congress, she said that NMG's vision is "to be the media of Africa for Africa."

Moreover, "our mission is to positively influence society," she said, and this ambition also drives the media group's efforts around new products.

NMG was originally "set up as a print business" Ndung'u said, but the media house has since expanded to include TV, print, broadcast and digital. Today, it reaches more than 64 million online users every month, including 7.5 on its own sites.

'The Gen Z effect'

The publisher's mission and digital strategy are deeply informed by Africa's demographic reality. With an average age of just 19, the continent is home to an audience that is "mobile-first, authentic" and that influences societal trends more broadly.

"They interact with content, they are trendsetters, and they are influencing other generations in how they consume media," she said.

Specifically, the young generation is having a significant impact on the overall digital media ecosystem, a phenomenon that the publisher has dubbed the "Gen Z effect."

Considering this, and reflecting the rise of mis- and disinformation online, NMG has worked with FT Strategies on defining its North Star objective: "Transform into Africa's most trusted and innovative content platform."

Six content pillars

Cutting across NMG's strategy are six content verticals, or thematic areas that guide coverage, product development and events. Ndung'u underlined that these areas are based on the topics that their audiences most engage with, and the verticals shape everything from investigative journalism to youth columns.

For example, the Health vertical, one of NMG's main content pillars, not only drives regular coverage but influences the company's Health Summit event, which beyond the live gathering also generates stories for print, podcasts, TV, radio, webinars, and digital platforms.

In addition to news content, NMG has invested in opinion leaders with a youth connection. Hanifa Adan, their columnist for Daily Nation who became a prominent newsfluencer during last year's Gen Z protests in Nairobi, is a case in point.

Her debut columns performed very well, validating the publisher's strategy to bring in people Ndung'u called "the person of the 'now'."

Digital growth: Building and unbundling

NMG's digital strategy focuses on strengthening its own platforms while leveraging third-party channels to reach wider audiences, Ndung'u said.

This approach includes "unbundling," or creating stand-alone subscription products for the types of non-news content that were traditionally included in the print paper.

Projects such as MwanaClick app, created by NMG's Tanzanian subsidiary, is one example of this. A digital kiosk that brings together several publications, the app was recognised as the "Best Innovative Digital Project" at WAN-IFRA's Digital Media Awards Africa 2025, showing how niche products can be used for new revenues.

Ndung'u emphasised the link between high-quality, in-depth content and monetisation: "One of the key things we've seen is, when you focus on depth, then it converts to people who pay for that content," she said.

Accordingly, the publisher's editorial strategy includes solutions-oriented journalism and investigative pieces on topics such as white collar crime. It also uses open-source investigations as a key driver for subscriptions.

Events offer 'direct connection' with audience

Events are another major growth area for NMG, and the publisher has created events that fall under every key content vertical. These are a "quick way for us to have a direct connection with our audience," Ndung'u said.

Events are not important just for the in-person aspect of the gatherings: they generate content across platforms and deepen ties with sponsors, advertisers and funding partners.

For example, the Health Summit serves all these purposes while reinforcing the value of NMG's health coverage on various platforms. These include podcasts, which Ndung'u described as "a big play" for NMG, and the company's podcast portfolio also sits across all its key content pillars.

Decision making with data and 'interlopers'

During the Q&A session that followed, Ndung'u expanded on NMG's approach to decision-making. She defined it as "data-informed, but not necessarily -guided," specifying that having data is important but "that gut feel still exists to great extent, you cannot eliminate that fully."

She added that the company actively involves "interlopers" - product people and other profiles from outside the traditional newsroom structure - in its planning.

"It's a two-way street, where these 'interlopers' are helping the journalists, but also the journalists are contributing to how that product is being created and how it becomes sustainable from a monetisation point of view," she said.

Naturally, there will always be missteps when developing new products, with some initiatives producing underwhelming results.

For Ndung'u, "it's not really about the mistake you make" - rather, the question is "how quickly you move."

"The time between when you discover 'this is not going to work,' and then changing that, it often takes too much time," especially within a big organisation, she said.

Facing the printless future

One of NMG's main challenges for the future relates to an industry-wide reality: "There's many of us who are still depending on print," Ndung'u said.

"I think the biggest challenge … is just that continuous courage to say, 'You know what? This is going down, so we need to refocus our energy on something else'," she said, specifying that the publisher has not yet set a date for switching off its print papers.

Her closing message was clear. "As we look at platforms, as we look at audiences, and as we look at across what we can do to drive business sustainability, our biggest bet remains how we can remain trusted, relevant, provide depth and context - regardless of vertical platforms or tool."

Teemu Henriksson

Research Editor

[email protected]