By John Ngirachu for Daily Nation, Kenya – March 18, 2016: Nation Media Group founder The Aga Khan has described the firm’s new printing press as a rededication to the ideals of the company he established 56 years ago.
He said with the media landscape changing rapidly because of new technology, the role of an independent media house such as the Nation Media Group, whose flagship brand is the Nation, “is more important than ever”.
“As we often do at milestone events — in our personal as well as institutional lives — we think today about our dreams of the past and our hopes for the future,” he said at the commissioning of the press at the company’s printing plant on Mombasa Road.
“Milestone moments are times for celebration and they are also times for rededication. As we commission this new press today, we are also rededicating ourselves to the ideals which gave birth to this company almost six decades ago and that have propelled it forward ever since,” he added.
The event was attended by NMG board members led by chairman Wilfred Kiboro, chief executive Joe Muganda, Editor-in-Chief Tom Mshindi, Information, Communication and Technology Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru and other guests.
The first edition of this newspaper was published on March 20, 1960, with The Aga Khan’s principal aim being to create an independent news medium that Kenyans could trust. Independence was three years away.
“Our goal was not to tell people what to think but to give them reliable information so that they could think more clearly for themselves,” said The Aga Khan.
Things have certainly changed since the last upgrade of the printing press 18 years ago.
The Aga Khan described the new press as a technological marvel. It can print 86,000 copies per hour, meaning it takes much less time to produce the thousands of copies of the Daily Nation, Taifa Leo, Business Daily and the weekly, The EastAfrican.
More at the source: Daily Nation, Kenya
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