The Standard Group on Friday unveiled the new faces that will be joining the news desk.The unveiling comes with the exit of Betty Kyallo who bid goodbye to the Mombasa Road media house about two weeks ago as she hosted her final show in Mombasa County.
The new team of anchors include Brenda Radido, Jessie Rodgers, Maalika Kazia and Frida Mwaka.
Neutrality begets truth, don’t miss out… Meet the new anchors joining our dedicated news team #GetTheWholeStory pic.twitter.com/7GUzMn7aST
— KTN News (@KTNNews) August 17, 2018
However Kenyans on twitter were fast enough to comment on the new group joining standard media.
Here are some of the reactions:
@MaalikaKazia Congrats on being one of the 4 new KTN anchors. I’ve just seen the ad in today’s Standard newspaper. God has really blessed you so much Maalika and I’m eagerly looking foward to seeing you on TV ? ? ? pic.twitter.com/jUcJVXtADs
— Kelly Gitahi (@kellyGitahi) August 17, 2018
KTN is unveiling new anchors next week or so. Glad they didnt poach. Room for fresh talent.
— Captain Ozwald (❤️) (@VinieO) August 12, 2018
Time to mentor fresh talent….alafu Royal media wakujie ?
— Ben♖ (@mwirigitwit) August 17, 2018
The balancing wololo, gender imbalance
— sammy ?? (@smutio) August 17, 2018
According to one of the KTN Editor , “We are not recycling old faces,” a senior editor of KTN said, but did not reveal the identities of the personalities. “These are just talented guys.”
The editor said KTN had invested in the “next generation” of TV journalists who will inject new blood in news reporting and presentation. KTN had remained inconspicuously silent as Citizen, BBC and K24 poached some of its top presenters, but it appears it was working behind the scenes to counter the losses once its rivals have danced themselves tired.
KTN has lost a number of top presenters including Yvonne Okwara and Mashirima Kapombe to Citizen TV and most recently Betty Kyalo to K24. Citizen is certainly the biggest beneficiary of the movements among local media companies after having swept the board at NTV and taken a good number from KTN. Some of the top names who have stayed the course at KTN include Linda Ogutu, Sophia Wanuna and Ben Kitili.
In its promo, KTN is changing the focus from personalities to quality of content. K24 has not been left behind. After poaching Betty Kyalo (and losing a number of journalists to BBC including flagship anchor Richard Kagoe