WE HAVE COME A LONG WAY

On March 19^th the New Vision in commemoration of its 33^rd birthday reproduced the inaugural edition.

The grainy, black and white production launched a multimedia empire that now straddles the industry like a colossus.

In its first year the it had revenues of sh9.13m and made a loss of sh9m. The company has seen better years but last year it registered revenues of sh90.6b and a profit of sh2.3b.

The anecdotes of the companies’ first days would leave jaws on the floor with amazement at how difficult it was to put out the eight-page first edition.

These days the presses not only turn out the 40-plus page New Vision but also the Luganda daily Luganda daily. On three other days Orumuri, Etop and Rupiny are published alongside the two dailies.

It would be interesting to go back in time to put the media house’s humble beginnings in context.

It was just under three months after the NRM had taken over power in January. Some people didn’t give the new government until the end of the year before it in turn would be turned out. There was still a sense of insecurity in the air. Days were kept short and the night life – clear, bitter and served out of a small glass, served as you sat on a rickety bench, was concentrated around people’s homes.

The New Vision’s whole print run was carried to town on the head of a single porter. The Taxis on Jinja road were an infrequent occurrence and the company did not have a vehicle to its name. And maybe couldn’t afford the fair for the porter?

The newspaper’s sh300 cover price could not have stayed that way for long with inflation raging at 240 percent, meaning prices were doubling every three months.

The paper sold a paltry 17,000 copies all year, that is less than the daily sales of the New Vision or Bukedde today.

But then again who was buying?

The population was a third of its current size. GDP was a paltry $3.9b. Today GDP stands at about $25b.

Not unlike today the buying public was concentrated around Kampala. The difference is that then there were no readers outside Kampala. Copies of the newspaper that would one day boast was the leading daily trickled up country along the bus and taxi routes, not always whole, often as wrapping for everything from meat to underclothing...

Besides it was near impossible to have national coverage of the newspaper as it was a nightmare getting around on the 1,500km of roads, a number that was unchanged since 1971. They were so badly riddled with the portholes that normal traffic rules did not apply as drivers weaved left and right to choose the more benign porthole that their car could tolerate.

As if the distribution issues weren’t a challenge almost half the economy was operating in the non-monetary economy, basically that people were battering goods and services rather than using cash for payment. It is unlikely though that the New Vision would accept eggs in exchange for a copy – eggs don’t lend themselves to the rules of double entry.  I wonder how much an egg cost?

It was nice to see the commissioning of the 183 MW Isimba dam last week. With one stroke we turned on three times the amount of power that we were capable of generating in 1986. No surprise then that apart from the printers unable to read the Russian manuals for the presses, the frequent power outages were such that it took more than a week to produce the two sheet paper.

But then again electricity demands were not that high. The only need for power in the newsroom then was for the bulbs. The typewriters were all manual and even the tea was brewed in a tin kettle on a sigiri behind the printer. Oh yes. The presses run on power.

You know what they say about work expanding to fill the hours, the same can be said for appliances multiplying to take advantage of the new power generated. So now we have PCs, TVs, mobile phones, electric kettles, fridges and even the lighting – fluorescent tubes, are many multiples of the handful of dim bulbs that attempted to light the newsroom.

Of course their downsides to this growth of the New Vision in tandem with the economy. In 1986 the workers of the new vision lived in places like Mbuya, Kololo, Naguru and Ntinda. They needed to because they either walked or rode bicycles to worker.

There were no cars in the car park and the surrounding streets were so empty, it is not hard to imagine tumbleweed rolled down the street, helped along by the wind, unhindered by cars to break its progress. Now the company’s pool cars and staff have filled the car park and flowed out into the street, dominating Industrial Area’s first and third streets. Mostly second hand Japanese types. Maybe in another 30 years we will have brand new European sedans in their place.

As a result, the New Vision worker is no longer lean and dark from continuous exposure to the elements but soft and light from travelling while seated in their cars or from riding in the taxis or bodas to and from work.

We have come a long way at the New Vision and as a country and the good old days weren’t all that.