The influence of Digital advertising on performance of print media companies in Kenya

Abstract

The rise of digital advertising has had a huge impact on traditional print media. Schlosser et al. (1999) defined digital advertising as “any form of commercial content available on the Internet that is designed by businesses to inform consumers about a product or service”. The purpose of the study was to determine the influence of digital advertising on performance of print media in Kenya. The research design employed in this study was a descriptive cross sectional survey design. The target population of this study was all the staff in the advertising department of all the four print media companies in Kenya (Nation Media, Standard Group, MediaMax and Radio Africa). The study used an interview guide for data collection. The study used content analysis for data presentation. The study established that digital advertising significantly affected print media revenues given that most people are moving away from the traditional methods of buying printed newspapers to reading news online, which generated significant revenues for the print media companies, digital advertising uptake by the print media companies was affected by social-cultural, economic and legal factors and that the high cost of acquiring the digital facilities and lack of adequate IT infrastructure in the country were barriers to adoption of digital advertising. The study concludes that digital advertising will have a huge impact on the performance of the print media companies in the next 5 years and that the digital platform is likely to be the next frontier for business competition. The study recommends that the management of the print media companies should increase their investment in digital platforms so as to be in a position to take full advantage of the digital advertising potential.