The EastAfrican: Rich Content for the Savvy Reader

One of the phrases that comes to mind when we think of newspapers is, “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” The phrase has been made famous in books as well as films and has its origins in the early days of newspapers when a publisher would not only publish the normal daily newspaper but would publish an extra if a story broke after the regular paper had already been printed. The newsboys would then shout, “Extra! Extra!” to call attention to a breaking story.

In the world of social media and increasing globalization, we no longer need to wait for extras to be printed to know what’s big news in the world around us. We have become a society that not only consumes the news, but simultaneously reports it. This means that a lot of the time, we move from one news item to the next without having enough time to engage with it. There is also a quick turnaround from our journalists which sometimes leads to lack of depth in reporting.

The EastAfrican, is therefore a breath of fresh air as far as newspapers go. The fact that it’s a weekly means there is enough time to follow the big stories and then expound on them in a nuanced manner. The EastAfrican is more than a business newspaper, carrying diverse segments such as News, Outlook, Magazine, Opinion, Business and Markets.

The June 13 to 19 2015 issue has some very interesting stories. The beauty of being a newspaper that covers the East African region is that there is comparison in what is happening in the member countries. One of the big stories in Kenya has been the budget, with a lot of reporting and analyzing being given to it. The EastAfrican goes a step further by comparing the budget allocations for Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, which all had their budgets unveiled the same week. News stories cover the first 20 pages of the newspaper.

Another interesting article is an opinion piece by Charles Onyango-Obbo on The Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) deal. He explores the feasibility of the deal amidst layers of bureaucracy in African governments. The magazine section of the newspaper features a story on the deteriorating state of Kenya’s historical sites at the Coast. The magazine section also features a short story by various writers with Shem Mukalo’s A Scene Straight from a Horror Movie featured this week.

The newspaper also features interesting articles on tech and innovation under the outlook section, with digital migration in Tanzania and Rwanda a leading story. The markets section covers the performance of the East African currencies, exchange rates and government treasury bonds issued.

All in all, The EastAfrican is a newspaper filled with rich diverse content and is definitely the paper of choice for the savvy East African reader.