Subscription: Here’s what Nation Media Group is offering you in return for your money

The Nation Media Group (NMG) plans to start charging for premium content published on its flagship website, Nation.Africa, soon, with readers registering from mid-August.

While most of the high-quality stories will still be accessed for free, the in-depth and unique ones will be marked as "Premium" and will require you to register before reading.

Just for registering, readers have been enjoying “Premium” content free of charge for more than a month, from August 15 to September 18, and now they will be required to pay a small fee.

The group has made it easy for all users across the globe to register and subscribe to access prime content packages going for Ksh140 a week, Ksh450 a month, and Ksh3,650 a year.

To find out what is in it for you as a reader and why you should pay to access unique and premium content, Wanja Mbuthia spoke to Joe Ageyo, the Editor-In-Chief, and he had this to say:

1.         Why is NMG asking audiences to pay for news?

The news consumption habits of our audiences have changed over time, thanks to the explosion of digital technologies. Along with this is the proliferation of information sources, many of which are, unfortunately, not accurate.

As a credible news organisation, we invest a lot of time in generating high-quality journalism and verified information for our audiences.

This inevitably, costs a lot of money and we believe that our audiences can walk this journey with us, as we seek to provide truthful information in the midst of an information space inundated with fake and inaccurate information.

In the circumstances, paid subscriptions help in ensuring the sustained production of exclusive content, in-depth analyses, investigative stories and special features for our audiences.

There will of course be free news content on our platforms, but subscription will give our readers access to unique insights and perspectives.

Further, a paywall will help us to better personalise and customise content for our audiences based on individual preference.

2.       How do you price news? How did you arrive at the proposed packages?

Pricing news and arriving at the cost of a subscription is a complex process that involves consideration of various factors.

Such factors would include value of the content in question as measured by its depth, exclusivity etc, cost of the production, fairness, prevailing economic conditions – all underpinned by information gathered from market research.

It is important to note that the pricing model will be under constant monitoring and periodic adjustments to reflect the changing market dynamics and audience preferences.

3.       What are NMG's additional value propositions to subscribers?

In addition to the primary benefits of high-quality journalism, exclusive content, and ad-free experiences, subscribers will have access to our archive material that will allow them to explore historical news, in-depth features, and analyses that may not be available to non-subscribers.

Eventually, and depending on the package, subscribers can also expect curated, personalised newsletters tailored to their individual interests.

Other benefits, again depending on the chosen package, will include access to multimedia content and personalised recommendations of articles of interest.

4.       Are you collecting data from users, and if so, how do you intend to use it?

Yes, we will collect a limited amount of data from our users. This is purely for the purposes of enabling us to provide the users with personalised content based on their individual preferences.

Such would include exclusive content, special offers and personalised newsletters. Further, data from our users also guides our teams in the development of new features, optimisation of services and identification of areas of improvement based on user feedback.

5.       What laws govern NMG's collection of reader data?

We recognise the sensitivity of data and handle the same with utmost care and transparency. Not only do we have our internal guidelines on data protection, but we also adhere to the law of the land.

First, the 2010 Constitution, under Article 31 (c) and (d), guarantees the privacy of every citizen as a fundamental right.

This right is further elaborated in the Data Protection Act of 2019, the Data Protection Regulations 2021 and other regulations under the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner.

Further, as a subscriber, you will have to give us your consent before we can keep your data.

The information we collect from you which, at the moment, is limited to your email address, will be used solely for the purposes of giving you a personalised content experience.

6.       Trends show that young people are avoiding linear media. Will reader revenue and the new propositions reverse this trend?

The new value propositions are underpinned by our new content strategy which emphasises the use of data to determine our audience preferences.

We have an immense amount of information about the content needs of our audiences, including the younger generation.

The shift towards digital platforms is largely driven by the consumption habits of young people, and we believe we have positioned ourselves correctly to not only give them the content they need but also to constantly listen to them and keep improving our content.

7.         What would you consider a successful paywall?

There are many ways of measuring the success of a paywall such as subscription growth, reduced reliance on advertising, low churn rate, high conversation rate and so on, but ultimately from a content standpoint, our greatest joy will be to know that our audiences resonate with our content and are willing to pay for it to enable us to continue producing high quality journalism.

8.         Anything else the reader ought to know?

I would like to assure our readers, viewers and other consumers of our content across our platforms that in spite of the ongoing changes and disruptions, we remain committed to our enduring goal of producing the highest quality of journalism possible.

We have done this using our world-class newspapers and broadcast platforms, and we are now doing it in the digital space as well.

We welcome constant feedback from our audiences to help us improve our content on an ongoing basis.

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