In addition to the 10-year-old Monitor (28,000 circulation), the publishing house also includes the vernacular daily Ngoma (7,000 copies) and the Monitor FM radio station. Both were started last year.

"There was already some level of media convergence to start building on," says David Ouma Balikowa, the Multimedia editor for Monitor Publications and former Editor of The Monitor. "The idea of radio as a media platform was not alien to me. Actually while working as the editor of The Monitor newspaper, I drew up the initial plan to start a radio and was part of its implementation. Media convergence has always been on my mind."

Mr Balikowa says that media convergence is not just a matter of duplicating content across different platforms; it is a question of "synergies between the newspaper and the radio (both news and advertising)."

"It is about cross-breeding content and skills to arrive at your kind of multimedia mix that works for the multiple platform," he says.

Some journalists are already familiar with the cross-media idea. "The best-rated talk show programme on our radio, ’Andrew Mwenda Live’, is done by the head of the investigations desk at the newspaper. So is sports. People want to hear the voices of the best journalists they read in papers," says Mr Balikowa.

Internet is part of the mix as well. "The newspaper refers readers to the online edition for updates and the website reminds them of the background published in the paper. Part of the multimedia plan is to create some level of interdependence. Both platforms should have direction pointers to the other in their content packaging," he says.

The Internet has requirements to fulfill as "web surfers are online all the time. This makes people insatiable for content but it also allows to update content all the time unlike the print edition which has to go to bed. The online edition does not go to bed. You have got to keep the audience busy with opinion polls, Q&A, in addition to news, debate, analysis, etc," says Mr Balikowa.

Along with the multiplication of platforms, there should be a constant focus on marketing. "Clear head journalistic missions and consistency in editorial policy must be combined with prudent and creative marketing. When government slapped an advert ban on us, prohibiting government departments and companies from advertising with us, we lost about 65 percent of our revenue. The state before privatisation controlled all big business and advertising. We fell back on a circulation drive through creative content re-engineering by targeting ’virgin’ readers, ie women, children and people in the countryside. We encouraged teachers in the countryside to write for us and edited these stories in a manner that retained their countryside humour and communicative style. Circulation went to 35,000 in the mid 90s, filling in the gap created by the advert ban because of our critical and independent stance," says Mr Balikowa.

"At an even higher level, the media group must explore ways that will market the paper and deliver it to wider audiences," he says. "I’m talking of using marketing concepts to market both content and advertising. Sitting and crying about state censorship while ignoring ways for the paper to increase circulation would be succumbing to the state. You have got to fight on both ends, on the censorship and news marketing fronts," he says.

Finally, marketing is closely linked to readership and audience. "The things that the state media avoids is often what the public wants to hear. Strong investigation on corruption, abuse of power must be reported without fear or favour. Strong and relevant analysis makes the paper influential," says Mr Balikowa.