Kenya media firms can learn a whole different lesson from ‘Charlie Hebdo’

A queue outside a newsagent in Paris on January 14, 2015 as the latest edition of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo went on sale. PHOTO | BERTRAND GUAY |

What you need to know:

  • A pesky little French magazine most people in the world had never heard of might change the journalism business forever.
  • Most immediately, every media house worth its name in the world is going to be spending more money on security.

The first issue of the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, to be published since a jihadist attack at its Paris office in which 12 people, including nine of its journalists, were killed, sold out within minutes across France on Wednesday, various media reported.

The new issue features a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed on its cover, holding a “Je Suis Charlie” (I’m Charlie) sign under the headline “All is forgiven”.

It has already angered Muslim groups in some countries that oppose depictions of Islam’s prophet and God.

The magazine printed one million copies of its “survivors issue”, with another two million to be released through the week.

Some reports indicate that even the three million will not be enough and more will have to be printed.

In an illustration of just how hot the issue is, it was reported that copies were being sold on the auction site, e-Bay, for £500 (Sh69,500).

That means a single copy of Charlie Hebdo is going for a price higher than the daily profit of a medium-size shop in Nairobi. Or put another way, if the mid-week issue of the Daily Nation increased its circulation in the fashion of Charlie Hebdo, it would sell 9.6 million copies!

Being the kind of people they are, the Charlie Hebdo folks are not pocketing the profits from the edition (how unAfrican!) They are donating the proceeds to the families of the victims of the terrorist attacks.

I was in conversation with a good East African, who is a media executive, and he was delighted. He said the Charlie Hebdo case proves that print is not dead, killed by electronic and digital media, as the doomsayers argue.

Yes, and no.

A ONE-OFF

That jump by a factor of 60 that the return issue of Charlie Hebdo witnessed is a one-off. There are too many issues and emotions riding on it and the circulation will tail off, though it will probably not drop back to 60,000. Maybe 150,000.

If the three million copies bonanza says anything, it points to how the readers of the future will consume magazines and newspapers.

In Kenya, circulation jumps of nearly 100 per cent were seen in September 2013 after the siege of the Westgate Mall by another terror group — Somalia’s Al-Shabaab.

Newspapers and magazines are becoming like our best suits or jewellery: we bring them out two or three times a year for a happy occasion (a family wedding) or sad event (a memorial or funeral service). For the rest of the year, you keep them away in the wardrobe.

Some consultancy services already work this way. They get two or three very big lucrative jobs a year, work overtime, get their fat cheque, and go on holiday.

A friend who works with a technology consultancy in Sweden tells me their company is the most extreme case of this. Not only does it sometimes end its lease on their office and start up a different complex with the next big job, but also it has at times moved to a new European country altogether.

Several armies, like Israel’s for example, work this way. Many of the soldiers are reserves who go away to do other things when there is no war with the Arabs.

MIGHT MAKE MORE MONEY

So newspapers, magazines, and even TV stations will in future not need to have armies of journalists still turning up in a low or silly news season to do little more than drink tea and eat mandazi in the office.

Up to 50 per cent of the scribes can go and teach, write books, work part-time in NGOs, while earning 30-50 per cent of their salaries.

Then when a Westgate or Charlie Hebdo event happens, they are called back to the trenches, paid 120 per cent of their salary, and then after a month, leave the newsroom again.

The bean counters in the company will have higher profits to report and the journalists themselves might make more money that way.

They will certainly be happier and grow grey or bald (for the men) less quickly because the petty-pecking environment of many newsrooms is not good for most people’s health.

The world is full of surprises. A pesky little French magazine most people in the world had never heard of might change the journalism business forever.

Most immediately, every media house worth its name in the world is going to be spending more money on security.

The author is editor of Mail & Guardian Africa (mgafrica.com). Twitter:@cobbo3