Adsense

Kenyan magazines- Why do few kenyans buy them?

There has been a proliferation of Kenya magazines in the recent past as the disposable income among Kenyans increases. The magazines focus on various niche markets that users find attractive to read. However, most magazines seem to be catered towards Kenyan women. In deed, it is hard to find a local Kenyan magazine that focuses exclusively on men. One such magazine, the Adams magazine promptly closed shop as it couldn’t get the right circulation numbers to make a major impact. The other magazines that Kenyan men find attractive are published outside the country. Such international magazines mostly focus on cars, IT, phones and other tech gadgets.


Women are however adequately catered for by the local magazines. The number of magazines that cater for Kenyan women includes; Eve magazine, Drum magazine, Passion magazine, True Love, Parents magazine, and the Pregnant magazine. Such magazines usually feature Kenyan women celebrities. The celebrities are usually drawn from the media and business circles. Kenyan singers and musicians, TV and radio presenters, models, movie and drama queens are likely to be featured. However, once in a while, women academicians and scientists get featured. One of the reasons of low circulation numbers of the Kenyan magazines is the high cover price. Most of the magazines retail at a cover price of Kshs.150 and Kshs.300. This is too high a price for an average Kenyan to part with. No matter the quality of the content, many Kenyans consider such a price to be too high. About a year ago, a number of magazines in the East African Magazines (EAM) stable, were shut down. Drum magazines and True Love were however quickly brought back to light after some management interventions. Such writers as Pinky Ghelani –Raj and Clay Muganda had lost their jobs.

The other major issue has to do with the relevance of content. Since the magazines seem mostly catered for the high end market, the average person cannot identify with them. This is unlike the newspapers where one can easily identify with such magazines.

No comments:

Post a Comment