Building Our Cathedral - Nation.Africa Achieves 50K Subscribers

When I was younger, before brand building and Arsenal FC consumed my heart, I was an avid reader of poetry. "Cathedral Builders" by John Ormond from his collection John Ormond: Collected Poems was one that never really resonated with me. I found it quite out of reach for my everyday campus life or I just did not apply myself. Up until I joined the paywall and monetization workstream to launch the first media subscriptions paywall in sub-Saharan Africa. Mutuma Mathiu uses this phrase often...that we are like cathedral builders. Those builders did not know that neither they nor their sons would ever see their completed work....but they kept building...stout hearts, full of promise.

Nation.Africa is my cathedral. Our cathedral. Our entire workstreams' cathedral. I and so many others here at the Nation Media Group. Had anyone told me a few years ago that I'd be working in media, more so during these tumultuous times, I'd have possibly laughed in their face. This is one of those articles that I had planned to write at the end of 2021. As fate, sweat and smarts would have it, I am absolutely delighted to announce that Nation.Africa has achieved a significant milestone - 50,000 paying subscribers. This is part of our cathedral. A cathedral built day and night by a team so large but so very fast & nimble at the same time.

Frankly, this journey started way before my arrival here at Nation Media Group. Its been close to 3 years of strategy and planning, a brand refresh, tech build + development and roll out. We are nowhere near perfect but our continuous learning culture and a superior collaboration between Editorial, Tech, Innovation, Customer Experience, External Affairs & Marketing, Audio, Broadcasting, People, and Risk teams are the engine that keeps us going. We started off with what I call a test launch on New Years Day. (Also who does this on New Years' Day though?!!! My holidays were full of paywall agendas, not nyamachoma breaks). With zero subscribers and to now have 50,000 paying digital subscribers from all corners of the world is no small thing. Asante sana (thank you) for choosing us.

So why a paywall? I get this question a lot! To start with we dialed back to our mission, to ensure independent journalism powered by our consumers...you. This is our only incentive to reconnect with our customers. The media industry's survival now and in the future is to create sustainable and scalable digital models that are relevant in their customers' lives. Are we 100% perfect, no. Are we working tirelessly to keep improving, hell yes!! Our vision is to be the pan African digital media brand where we tell Africa's stories. No one knows Africa like we do. We take back our power to share Africa's thoughts, dreams, experiences, challenges, and her peoples' hopes and aspirations. We've started out here and are increasingly building our capacity to meet this goal in the next few years.

I'd like to share some personal lessons I have learned that might help someone who finds themselves smack in the middle of a transformative journey and has to find ways to keep going:

1. Data is king. But actionable insights from that data are the Game of Thrones kingdom. Immerse yourself in all the data available to you and your organization. Trend it. Look for dips, changes in. behavior, ask questions, find problems and solve them. Who is buying? What are they buying and why? How often? What's the churn? What drives the churn? Keep an eye on all these moving data and pick out actionable insights as you move.
2. Assume you know nothing and start learning. Coming in with a mindset that you know will burn and limit you. Aside from my digital skillset acquired from my past roles, nothing would have prepared me for the media category especially the jungle of paywalls. I've had to sign up to numerous webinars, content creators, publisher experiences to learn how others do it, what worked and what failed. Sign up for courses on Udemy, Coursera, Linkedin...refresh your skills. The person you were at the start of the project should be a distant memory from your new self today and after. Not learning puts you and your teammates at risk of slowing them down or worse.
3. Attend meetings - even when they do not always make sense. Raise your hand and ask. It may be a stupid question to some but a nugget to others or open up a new point of view you may not have seen.
4. Be dependable. In any squad or team, be dependable. Show up. Be counted. Stand up. To build a cathedral, you cannot do it while sitting on the fence or only coming to work when you feel like it.
5. A/B test, retest if need be, analyze & implement.
6. Celebrate the small and large wins. Sometimes it's a yahoo laugh on a Zoom call or a fist pump on Whatsapp or a team lunch or cake cutting. Just celebrate the wins. The world is tough, don't be too tough to forget what you have achieved individually and collectively.
7. Have a great support system (at work and at home). Those whom you can lean on when the long nights/days make little sense or when you just need a different point/opinion or a fresh approach. They will keep you sane.

As I close, I would like to say thank you to all the teams who work tirelessly to build Nation.Africa. I doubt we can all fit here but I see you. We see you. Keep going. Keep pushing. Keep breaking. Keep building.

You are the Nation. We Are The Nation.

PS: I am a seller....and this is the best way to finish. Subscribe to nation.africa today at nation.africa/subscribe for as little as 750KES for an annual subscription. Give it a ride and let us know what you think. #EmpowerAfrica