Ringier partners with Kenyan entertainment brand Ghafla

Samuel Majani

With this partnership and relaunch, Ghafla will now also become a regional publisher aimed at providing innovative, insightful and entertaining content targeting the wider East African market, and will have footprints in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia.

Since it first launched in 2009, Ghafla has led the way in publishing up to the minute, youth-oriented entertainment news for East Africa, and become known for breaking top stories and building an active community of mobile-savvy followers across the continent.

The partnership with Ringier and relaunch consolidates Ghafla’s position as Kenya’s top entertainment news brand, as well as signals a new strategic direction in terms of expanding the editorial scope to include more politics, current affairs and international news stories, to further increase the popular platform’s followership. The redeveloped platform will also look to significantly increase its video and new media content, across all content sections and channels.

Ringier Africa and Asia CEO, Robin Lingg said Ringier is constantly reaching for new opportunities to strengthen its position as an innovative and leading publisher. “We are excited to welcome Ghafla as a new partner of our business in East Africa. (We are) seeing a lot of great potential in the product and its further growth opportunities. The inclusion of Ghafla into the Ringier family comes at an exciting time for our publishing company, as we continue to invest in building out a fast-moving, pioneering, credible and truly pan-African publishing network.”

Ringier Africa GM, Leonard Stiegeler said that Ghafla’s partnership with Ringier’s publishing arm also fits well into Ringier Africa’s overall strategy to build out leading digital businesses throughout the continent in four key verticals: content, classifieds, e-commerce and digital marketing.

“Ghafla will benefit from being part of a leading pan-African digital media group and able to tap into connections from across the continent.”

Ghafla is also expected to benefit from Ringier’s 180+ years of experience and knowledge in the media industry, to become a leading East African online news platform and media publisher as well as to bring new exciting products and offerings to its existing and new advertising clients.

Tim Kollmann, Ringier’s managing director of RADP adds: “Working with the Ghafla team, we will be setting new standards in the regional media space, offering up-to-date information at any time of the day, directly to East Africa’s media consumption tool of choice; the mobile phone.”

Commenting on the partnership, Ghafla’s founder, Samuel Majani, who will continue as co-CEO of Ghafla, notes that his mission from day one was to get news to Kenyans online. He adds, "I am very proud that Ghafla - which started in a Kenyan bedroom seven years ago - is now partnering with one of the largest African media enterprises. This partnership will give us access to international know-how and will ensure that we can learn from and apply the global expertise that the Ringier team brings with it".