Namuwongo-based Monitor Publications Limited, the publishers of Daily Monitor, is considering scrapping Sunday Monitor to stem rising costs and try to save the legendary media house from demise, reliable sources have told Bbeg Media.
Should they take this route, they will join New Vision which scrapped their Sunday edition early this year and consolidated it into what they call the “Weekend Edition.”
Although Vision Group claimed that the change was to give readers a “better experience,” the truth is the company’s economic woes coupled with their readers’ migration to digital platforms made it unsustainable for them to run a Sunday paper that hardly sold 3,000 copies countrywide.
Vision Group warned investors last week that it will post a loss for the financial year ending June 2024.
Our sources have told us that the picture at Daily Monitor is not any better. It could be gloomier. A board meeting that sat in December last year had recommended the winding up of the Sunday Monitor. However the decision was not acted upon swiftly because the company was weighing its options. However, sources said soon, Monitor could come up with a weekend edition version of its own, combining Saturday and Sunday.
At its height in the late 90s and early 2000s, Sunday Monitor used to sell at least 30,000 copies. We have been told that it now sells less than 5,000 copies on Sundays. In some sub regions like Bunyoro, sources told us the paper sells less than 100 copies, meaning that the cost of printing and transporting the paper is far higher that what it reaps from the sub region.
