Wednesday,
November 28, 2012 - Former KTN chief
news anchor Anne Kiguta has become the talk of town not mainly because of
defecting from the now lucrative media house The Standard Group but due to the
reasons behind her leaving.
Below is
the leaked email that has caused her defection:
Brief; Status of Anchors: KTN has the best anchors in the market, but they cannot
effectively compete with the rest. Why do I say the best? They are well
rounded. Any KTN anchor can more than just read a script. They are
editors, reporters, good interviewers etc. If there is breaking news
roughly half of the anchors can handle it as well as do live events. KTN
Anchors are overworked and exhausted. And worse still is the perception war-
that anchoring of itself is not a job, you need to do more than that.
Top media houses the world over
see anchoring a special job for highly skilled practitioners. It is enough to
be an anchor, host news, do interviews, live events and represent the station.
The latter is the biggest role, one we cannot take off like other staff. But
here it is not enough. And because it is not enough- our anchors are at real
risk of being a jack of all trades and master of none.
Both our flagship bulletins KTN
Leo and KTN Prime are too crowded with anchors for the audience to identify
with a team. Several anchors have been gifted position that clearly had nothing
to do with their competencies. Four anchors, two male and two female are enough
for the prime bulletins. It is crucial to reorganize the team and give the
audience brands they can trust and identify with. In light of the new additions
to the team, this must be done quickly to ensure the audience can identify with
the anchors before the election.
It is my recommendation that we
seize the opportunity provided by the festive season to introduce our new anchors
to the audience as people will be at home watching. We should also do promos
for the new look KTN Leo and KTN Prime teams.
We should also revise all our
bulletins across the day to strengthen them. Traditionally our lost
opportunities are on Sunrise, KTN Live at 1 and the 4pm Kiswahili bulletin.
Our in ability to offer
competitive salaries and packages is a disadvantage. Anchors are the face of
the station and are under constant judgment by the audience. If anchors cannot
afford to look the part, you will lose the audience in the first ten seconds.
Anchors wardrobe and make up allowance is low- 250k a year, when a decent suit
costs 9 or 10k. In
the beginning of the year, the allowance for anchors was essentially revoked.
They had to pay the entire amount.
The company can get into
barters with stylists, fashion retailers and makeup artists to help meet this
cost. Straight Up and the Mid Morning have this facility but prime time has
been consistently denied. We must also appreciate Anchors need various
concessions. They should not be expected to report with the frequency of
reporters. KTN lost various reporters and never replaced them and put anchors
in their place. This is wrong. In the so called ‘free time’ anchors should be
reading wires, newspapers, articles, books, watch news channels, have
discussions with producers and assignment editors on the bulletin. They cannot
store up a wealth of knowledge on current affairs if they are running from one
assignment to the next. They need time to look good. This is 60 percent of the
entire presentation in this climate. They need an entertainment
allowance. Many times they have to socialize with clients and other
stakeholders on behalf of the company.
All our anchors need to undergo
intensive training for the elections. This should be done with a coach or
analyst who can brief them on the key actors, issues, constituencies, parties
etc. to watch for in the election. Anchors should also by now be given some
idea of what specific role they will play in the election i.e studio anchor,
panel interviews etc. This will help them prep. It is possible to even now
develop content (graphics etc) that will be used in the event of dead air.
These could be figures and issues in key constituencies, counties etc.
OTHER CHALLENGES: Production: This remains the single biggest impediment to our delivery.
KTN lost its top two directors (Linda and Yola) to the competition and they
were never replaced. Kibisu is the only experienced idiod left. Winnie who was
hired early this year is yet to realize her potential. All the other trainee
directors were upgrade to senior directors inspite of their inability. Xavier
is by far the weakest and yet he continues to direct Sunrise, 1pm and live
event.s Chemjor is habitually disorganized and runs prime bulletins.
Confusion on the part of the director is to blame for many things including mic
leaks, dead air and general disorganization of the bulletin and anchors looking
dim. Unfortunately whenever this complaint has been raised, the response has
been anchors are arrogant. This, because we demand professionalism.
The gallery remains one of the
most in disciplined part of this business. VT operators, graphics and tx crew
are busy watching football games, telle-novellas, citizen tv and facebooking
when we are live on air. They are busy telling stories instead of listening to
the director. They play catch up and we are caught pants down.
Two autocues in studio are
failing and are yet to be replaced yet we have been complaining about them for
more than a year. The answer is they are on the high seas. Anchors can barely
see the autocue, worse still there is only one good operator Masete. If
you don’t have him on air, you’re doomed.
Management: This dates back to historical injustices. Anchors challenges are
seen as the cries of spoilt brats, nothing urgent. This is the most
disheartening and fatal problem of them all. When we fail to realize that
television business, whatever it is, is show business then we’ve lost it.
Audience reasons for watching tv have changed. The driver used to be news, now
it is entertainment. Even news is entertainment. It is important to bear in
mind the psychological needs of this peculiar people called anchors. They are
part of the performance arts. They bear the harshest criticism directed to the
station that touches on more than content. It gets personal. No one else takes
the bullets for a station than its anchors. Management must realize aside from
the hours, the emotional and psychological pressure anchors are under. They
work later hours than anyone else. Even if your day ends at 10pm today, an
anchors day doesn’t ever end. Wherever they are, they are the face of this
business. Please give them the support they need and watch them flourish.
The
Kenyan DAILY POST
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