The Standard Media Group has announced a plan to send home at least 170 employees over redundancy.
In a memo dated March 18th 2020, the Group CEO Orlando Lyomu announced that the company had no option but to align its workforce in tandem with emerging business challenges.
“I wish to notify you of the Company’s intention to declare redundant about 170 positions across the various department.
“This has been necessitated by the need to The need to realign the organization structure to be better equipped to deal with the emerging business challenges brought about by regulatory changes and difficult environment.
“Shifting trends in media consumption occasioned by technological changes in the digital environment. Efficiency arising from automation of key internal processes and outsourcing of non-core services.
“The company will ensure the process and selection criteria are fair and in compliance with the provisions of employment Act 2007, the Labour Relations Act and current CBA,” reads in part the memo.
It remains a matter of time to be able to establish which department will be most affected and the respective name of the journalists.
The group owns KTN Home, KTN News, KTN Farmers, KTN Burudani, Radio Maisha, Spice Fm, Vybez Fm, Standard Digital, Nairobian weekly paper and Standard Newspaper.
This comes months after Mediamax Limited sent home almost a similar number of employees over what it termed as a move aimed at bettering the flow of work at the company.
Senior news anchors and editors were shown the door among them Ali Mtenzi, Ahmed Bhalo, Franklin Wambugu among many others.
The media industry has been witnessing a significant decline in revenue collections following the entry of digital social apps such as Facebook and Twitter which have attracted a significant number of advertisements owing to their huge number of users.