East African media houses have been urged to use technology and social media in order to reach greater audiences, in calls made at the International Forum on Professionalising Media through the Power of ICT, held in the Burundian capital of Bujumbura.

The two-day forum involved more than 100 participants from across the world.

Many East African newspapers have been slow to recognise the movement away from traditional newspapers and towards online news, with sources within Nation Media Group, the region's largest media group, admitting that the leadership is lagging behind its readership when it comes to digitising its content in a truly accessible way.

Fibre-optic cables landing at Mombasa and Dar-es-Salaam provide an opportunity for wide tech development in the region, and media companies are being urged to take advantage of this, as well as the growing power of social media, in order to reach a greater audience.

Reaching more people would boost flagging advertising revenues, as more East Africans take to reading news online and print advertising revenues drop.

“In this digital era the media should be at the forefront of using the power of ICT,” said Andrew Kisaka, the Principle Broadcast Engineer from the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority.

“This the only way they will reach their audience faster and at the global level. Let’s put our emphasis on opportunities and reap the benefits of digitisation.”

With the meeting designed to explore ways that media development can be furthered by ICT, Kisaka added that an expanded media could in turn increase trade, good governance and tourism for the countries in question.

As it is, more East African readers are now switching to the Internet for their news.

According to the Communications Commission of Kenya there are now some 18 million internet users in the country, of which 85% are young people spending a minimum of 70 minutes per day online, often for news.

The first signs of the effect of this on print came two years ago, when Media 24, one of the two biggest South African media houses, closed its East Africa Magazines due to dwindling advertising revenues.

In Kenya, the Kenya Times finally closed last year after advertisers decided it no longer offered good value.

“It was very systemic, even with all the measures that had been instituted to make sure that the paper stayed afloat, advertisers were still not getting convinced,” said Patrick Rono, who worked in a senior position at the paper.

“Since our only source of income was the advertisements, we knew it was a matter of time before we went under.”

This has been a phenomenon seen all over the world, with advertising revenues for print media in the United States falling by 36% between 2009 and 2011, leading to 249 title closure in that time.

Africa is set to go the same way, with a 2011 report by Africa Peer Review on the State of Media in Africa noting that by the year 2016, 90% of the advertising that used to belong to traditional media will have crossed over to online media.

African media houses therefore must adapt to the new way if they are to survive as advertisers flock to online.

“And why shouldn't they? We have over 4 million Kenyans who visit the internet in one day, who will chance on the advert, compared to even the papers that claim one million readership in a day,” said Ruth Mwano the director of Fallady Creations, a company that is aggressively marketing brands online.

“This should tell you how much the papers are in trouble as far as advertisement is concerned,” Mwano added.

Albert Rudatsimburwa, managing director of Contact FM in Rwanda, said the industry also needed to embrace the growth of social media to communicate with its audience and reach new readers. Social networks have a global reach and spread news faster than any other medium.

“The media should efficiently use the new social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube to communicate and interact with the people,” he said.

Advertising revenues could also be boosted by new media, according to Cyriaque Pare, director of information at Prime Holdings in Burkina Faso.

“What makes the world of social networking more interesting is that electronic and print publications are taking significant reaps from the interactive platforms offer. If people are able to follow your programme and the story via social media tools, they will definitely advertise with your institution," he said.