President Uhuru Kenyatta sometimes jokes about newspapers and the media and says that newspapers are only good for wrapping meat in. This is usually after they publish a story that he disagrees with and which he feels the writers have got all wrong. But the EastAfrican is the last newspaper that he, you, or any serious butcher will want to wrap meat in.
The East African is unique and consistently rich in quality content, week after week. They break many stories and often run fresh stories that don’t fit in the bigger picture till later. In essence, it’s sometimes like an enhanced blog or tweet, and they park the story there for other media and readers to take on the discussion later.
The newspaper is great for trends because they routinely write on familiar subjects or topics that matter, and that are of interest in all countries. These include mobile money, taxation, customs & trade, agribusiness, food science, immigration and sometimes politics in the sense that it impacts the economies and business prospects of the countries. In the current issue, you can read about vastly different pre-election situations in Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda. Probably a few people outside Uganda are aware that the country is going to have an election for special interest groups in which citizens will vote for their youth and older person representative in August.
They cover more than East Africa, and if a story from further in Africa has a local interest angle, such as mining in Zambia, or the impact of oil prices on Angola then its fit to run.
The EastAfrican has great in-depth pieces from well-known columnists, and from other people who are not household names but still produce great analytic pieces on budgets, politics, and economic trends. See why Yoweri Museveni, is going to give me a new iPhone.
They are maybe the only newspaper that can tackle in-depth reports. While a daily newspaper will mention highlights of a report that was published, the EastAfrican can delve deeper into it with several pieces, interviews with the authors, researchers and decision-makers involved. You see covers on many leaders, like the leadership index that compares the performances of African presidents and the African Development Bank report on the level of female director representation at corporate boards across Africa.
They also pull in a section of special interest stories from other publications like the New York Times. They translate their stories into common currencies as the writers recognize that readers may not know what a Rwanda Franc is versus a Tanzania shilling – so they provide helpful conversions to dollars to help better faster understand the impact. From a dollar base, any reader is mentally able to translate a story into their own familiar currency. They also have the regional indices so you can instantly see which are the best, or worst, performing stocks across East Africa over the last week, month, or year.
Lastly, they have unique advertisements as it’s now clear that if you’re looking for an opportunity, job, contract or specialist that cuts across borders, then The EastAfrican is the place to find it.
