Competitive strategies adopted by mainstream daily print media firms in Kenya

Abstract

The daily print media industry has undergone a lot of changes that have affected the state of competition in the industry; issues such as liberalization, greater freedom of speech, higher literacy levels, more political intrigues and party alignment and the growing entertainment industry have increased demand for daily newspapers in Kenya to higher levels. The purpose of this research project is to study the competitive strategies practiced by major print media dailies in Kenya and to find out how they compete for greater market share presence. The sample included respondents from the leading dailies in Kenya namely "The Daily Nation, The East African Standard, the Kenya Times and the People daily. I found that there existed a high degree of competition amongst the players in this industry and the firms that enjoyed economies of scale advantage dominated the industry. The other firms had to compete on other competitive edges ': quality, content, distribution strategies, market segmentation gaps and cost focus strategies to gain market share. Social responsibility was also acknowledged by all the firms except one but their main focus tor competitive strategies was profitability and increased market share presence. The daily print firms also face common challenges that could be eased by more stringent policies from the government and the elimination of the media bill which seeks to curtail the media freedom currently enjoyed in the country. The licensing of more firms into the industry would be a positive move to level the playing ground and allow for more creativity and better quality of content in the products