Digital First in Malawian Newsrooms: A Comparative Analysis

As technology continues to drive news consumers online, media organisations in Malawi are responding by providing online versions of the news through what is described as “digital first” (Robotham and Pignard-Cheynel, You Said Digital First! A Five-Dimensional Definition According to Journalists from Three Swiss Newspapers. Journalism Practice, 18 (7): 1702–1721, 2024). The media organisations rely on posting news briefs on online platforms as a way of inviting and preparing their readers for the full news article to be published in the traditional platform. This has become a survival strategy for traditional media in Malawi (Sharra, ‘Digital First’ as a Coping Measure for Malawi’s Print Newspapers. In New Journalism Ecologies in East and Southern Africa: Innovations, Participatory and Newsmaking Cultures (pp. 113–132). Springer, 2023). The aim of this chapter is to investigate how different media organisations in Malawi employ digital-first strategy. This was done by sampling four well-established media organisations, namely Nation Publications Limited (NPL), Times Group, Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), and Platform for Investigative Journalism (PIJ). Data was collected through interviews with current and former online editors of the publications. We also conducted an online ethnography on all online platforms of the sampled media organisations. The study demonstrates that the ways the four media organisations employ digital first meet all the five dimensions of the Pegged of Robotham and Pignard-Cheynel’s (You Said Digital First! A Five-Dimensional Definition According to Journalists from Three Swiss Newspapers. Journalism Practice, 18 (7): 1702–1721, 2024) digital-first strategy, namely temporality, content format, workflow, production mindset, and business strategy