In a move that has sent shockwaves through the "5" magazine-world and left many a talented writer out on a limb, Adam and Twende magazines, published by East Africa Magazines, have been discontinued.
The December/January issues of the two magazines will be the last ones to ever hit the stands.
The news was delivered to the publisher Carol Mandi (pictured) via a phone-call from the company chairman based in South Africa. "It is so sad to be the one during whose tenure you lose two very promising magazines.
It is heart-breaking to have to be the one to break the news to your unsuspecting staff, that was a very hard thing for me to do," said a clearly emotional Carol Mandi, Publisher of EAM.
The departure earlier this year of the founding editors of both Adam and Twende, Oyunga Pala and Carole Arghwings-Kodhek were the first indications that all was not well with the publications.
"These magazines were great but at the end of the day it was the bottom line that gave way. The board members met in South Africa and decided the two ventures were not showing enough traction.
We didn't see it coming but we understand it was a business decision. They haven't been bad employers, and I know they will take care of all their legal obligations to us as employees," said an employee who declined to be named.
With the resignation of Grace Makosewe as Drum stylist, the loss of Wayua Muli as editor of True Love (she is going to Cape Town to join her fiance) little seems to be well in the EAM world and this in spite of new developments such as the hiring of Pinky Ghelani as the new editor of Drum and the launch of the Move! with Julie Masiga as editor.
It seems the problem is the methodology the South Africans are employing in this market.
"What is the point of launching new magazines when you cannot hang to or keep the old ones? What is the point of a shadow editor sitting in South Africa and dictating to you, in that we-know-better-than-you way, what the Kenyan public wants to read about?" said a disgruntled former employee.
"They just never learn these South Africans do they? Kenya is not South Africa and the way things work here is very different to South Africa, and if you want to know, ask the brewers."
The December/January issues of the two magazines will be the last ones to ever hit the stands.
The news was delivered to the publisher Carol Mandi (pictured) via a phone-call from the company chairman based in South Africa. "It is so sad to be the one during whose tenure you lose two very promising magazines.
It is heart-breaking to have to be the one to break the news to your unsuspecting staff, that was a very hard thing for me to do," said a clearly emotional Carol Mandi, Publisher of EAM.
The departure earlier this year of the founding editors of both Adam and Twende, Oyunga Pala and Carole Arghwings-Kodhek were the first indications that all was not well with the publications.
"These magazines were great but at the end of the day it was the bottom line that gave way. The board members met in South Africa and decided the two ventures were not showing enough traction.
We didn't see it coming but we understand it was a business decision. They haven't been bad employers, and I know they will take care of all their legal obligations to us as employees," said an employee who declined to be named.
With the resignation of Grace Makosewe as Drum stylist, the loss of Wayua Muli as editor of True Love (she is going to Cape Town to join her fiance) little seems to be well in the EAM world and this in spite of new developments such as the hiring of Pinky Ghelani as the new editor of Drum and the launch of the Move! with Julie Masiga as editor.
It seems the problem is the methodology the South Africans are employing in this market.
"What is the point of launching new magazines when you cannot hang to or keep the old ones? What is the point of a shadow editor sitting in South Africa and dictating to you, in that we-know-better-than-you way, what the Kenyan public wants to read about?" said a disgruntled former employee.
"They just never learn these South Africans do they? Kenya is not South Africa and the way things work here is very different to South Africa, and if you want to know, ask the brewers."
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