KTN News has been closed down. The Standard Media Group owned channel was closed this week. The decision was arrived after the management realized that it wasn’t making profits.
KTN News was merged with KTN original to become one station. More than 100 workers were sacked. The station had not paid workers for 6 months, prompting most of them to go slow.
The main reason KTN News was closed is that it has not been getting government advertisements for 2 years. Initially, it was mainly benefiting from government adverts. But Ruto’s government denied them adverts. The management was not innovative enough to look for new sources of revenue. As a result, they were unable to pay employees.
KTN like other media houses, is facing stiff competition from independent content creators and social media. Most companies opt to advertise on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook where the advertising costs are low. Instead of paying a company like Standard Media Group Ksh 10 million, they will spend Ksh 2 million on social media.
Last week, Standard Media Group announced that they would retrench over 300 workers. Majority of them are working for KTN News. The media house is struggling to remain afloat and it’s a matter of time that it closes down completely.
