The Star and People Daily in Safaricom’s digital newspapers deal

Safaricom has partnered with Radio Africa Group and Mediamax to enable customers purchase The Star and People Daily e-Papers for ten shillings per issue. This follows the unveiling of a digital portal that allows customers to use their airtime to purchase and access newspapers on the go.

“Radio Africa Group is excited to have Safaricom as our first local digital distribution partner. We look forward to offering Safaricom’s customers unique value adds with our extraordinary and exclusive breaking news and insights from The Star newspaper’s extensive countrywide network of award-winning journalists and analysts,” said Patrick Quarco, chief executive officer, Radio Africa Group adding that customers will get a fifty percent special discount on the newspaper to mark the launch.  In the same vein, Ken Ngaruiya, the acting chief executive officer, Mediamax, said that the platform will significantly increase the reach of People Daily. “Indeed, more Kenyans will get informed and entertained at the comfort of their mobile phones,” Ngaruiya observed.  

According to Peter Ndegwa, the chief executive officer of Safaricom, the telco is using technology to enable Kenyans access news. “We are continuously working with partners to enrich the portal with more publications so that we have something for everyone,” Ndegwa said.

The partnership with Radio Africa Group (The Star) and Mediamax (People Daily) brings the number of media partners to four with all leading publications now available on the portal. The other two include Nation Media Group (Daily Nation, Business Daily, Saturday and Sunday Nation) and The Standard Group (The Standard, Saturday and Sunday Standard as well as The Nairobian).

The ten shillings price per newspaper includes data usage. This initiative is part of Safaricom’s goal of enabling more businesses harness the power of the internet to meet the needs of their customers.