Battered by the hard economic times, Vision Group has devised a strategy of increasing its income: reporters will now be expected to look for adverts.
Our sources said management has presented the proposition as being mutually beneficial: the company’s bottom line will improve and so will the reporter’s monthly income because they will now be earning a commission.
Sources said management told reporters they will earn a commission of between 8% and 10% per advert.
Reporters, especially those with clout, have also been told that they can also help recover debts from debtors for a fee.
We are told that this new proposal applies to reporters for New Vision, Bukedde and other group newspapers. It also applies to those who work for TVs and radio stations owned by the group.
“Since reporters interact with senior people in many of the organisations they cover, management reasoned that they have rapport and are best placed to get adverts,” one of our sources, a senior manager, told Bbeg Media.
However other sources said the company wants to cut costs by assigning reporters dual roles.
We have been told that Vision Group has drastically reduced its sales/advertising departments. Many staff in these departments have been let go since the start of the year.
Sources have told us that some reporters have voiced concerns that requiring them to look for adverts will compromise their ethics and independence.
One reporter wondered: “If today I got an advert from say Uganda Revenue Authority, yet I report about it, how do you expect me to be critical and independent in my reporting?”
Traditionally media organizations have always maintained a thick wall between editorial and advertising departments, largely to preserve their editorial independence and prevent advertisers from influencing the news.
However, with many of them in economic turmoil, some struggling to pay staff, they have been forced to rethink some of the practices and throw ethics to the wind.
In Febraury, Vision Group warned shareholders and investors that they were likely to make a loss for the year ending December 2023.
Don Wanyama, the group chief exceutive officer, blamed falling circulation and reduced spending from advertisers and impact of Covid-19 for their predicament.
Since Wanyama took over as boss three years ago, the group has registered a profit once, Shs 1 billion in 2021.
We have also been told that the major reason the company was forced not to renew contracts of some of their vastly experienced journalists last year was to cut costs.
Some of them were earning upwards of Shs 10 million per month. These included: Paul Busharizi, Kalungi Kabuye, Gerald Tenywa, David Mukholi and Hillary Bainemigisha (Dr Love).
