47 years of vending newspapers

Peter Kayima, 62, wipes beads of sweat off his forehead under the mid-morning heat. He pants and gasps for breath as he retreats to a tree shade on the road side in Masaka Town.
He has just been running after a prospective customer in a sleek Land Cruiser with tinted windscreens for almost 100 metres.

With a pile of newspapers tucked firmly between his chest and arm, he peers inside different cars that snake a large section of Elgin Street, one of his areas of operation.

For Kayima, a typical day starts at about 6am with drop-offs of newspapers to various offices and shops in Masaka Town, where he returns later to pick his payment.

At around 8am he heads to the streets where he makes more sales of newspapers before he retires between 11 and midday.
“I have educated all my children from this business,” he tells me as we sit down to chat about his business of vending newspaper.

In Masaka Town, Kayima needs no introduction. Many people associate him with newspapers vending and they speak of him as a trustworthy man who respects his clients.

“I have worked with many young people who have disappeared with agents’ money,” he says with a faint smile cutting across his wrinkled face. Kayima was born in 1955 in Mizinga village, Buwunga Sub-county in Masaka District.

His, is a childhood that knew so little of school having started vending newspapers at just 14 years. According to Kayima, the inspiration to enter newspaer vending was drawn from a one Kabanda who was his father’s neighbour in Mizinga village.

“I started in 1969. By then there were only two newspaper agents in Masaka Town - Bagwanyi and Pataka,” he says as he takes me down his almost five decades’ journey of newspaper vending.

“During that time, a copy of a newspaper used to cost about 40 cents. The vendor would earn about 8 cents from the proceeds,” he says.

At the time, Kayima says, there were only five newspapers including the government-owned Uganda Argus, Taifa Empya, Munno, a Catholic Church-run Luganda newspaper and Mukulembeze also a Luganda newspaper and sister newspaper paper to UPC’s The People.

“There were other newspapers printed outside Uganda such Taifa Leo, Baraza, Daily Nation and Sunday Nation, but sold in Uganda,” he says.

Other publications, such as magazines including Joy, Film Trust and Play Boy, were also available. However, according to Kayima, the newspaper business suffered setbacks after the overthrow of the Obote-led government in 1971 by Idi Amin.

“Apart from Uganda Argus which rebranded to become Voice of Uganda during the Idi Amin regime, other newspapers remained passive while others were abolished,” he says. For instance, he says, Munno was mostly sold in Catholic Church founded businesses with a few copies sent in the open market.

In other words, Voice of Uganda gained more prominence as the only source of news which heavily affected the business of vending newspapers. However, after toppling Amin in 1979, according to Kayima, there was a recognisable resurrection of most newspapers as well as establishing new ones such as Saba Saba and Sekanyolya. The Voice of Uganda once again went through a rebranding to Uganda Times.

Kayima has lived through all this history and seen almost each of these newspapers first as they hit the streets. For instance he narrates of the events that led to the rebranding of Uganda Times in 1986 to New Vision.

New Vision, he says, has changed names four times. He was also available to vend the first copy of The Monitor in 1992, which is now Daily Monitor.

Challenges
However, this has not been without challenges, especially with the coming of technology that he says has affected newspaper sales across the industry.
Through the years the newspaper business has faced challenges from radio and TV stations, but Kayima says the coming of social media and online publications has presented new challenges.

“Business is getting hard because of radios, TVs and social media. Newspapers must research and sell exclusive news. Breaking news and events are not newspaper material anymore,” he says.

However, he is cognizant of new innovations such as investigative and special projects stories and a variety of products that are cushioning the newspaper industry even as he admits that this is yet to be maximised.

“Writers are bringing up new innovations that readers cannot find on social media or radio,” he says.

A vendor, according to Kayima, earns an average of Shs220 as commission from every copy of a sold newspaper. The average price of a newspaper is Shs2,000. However, at Shs250, he says Daily Monitor gives the highest commission.

On a good day, Kayima says, he earns about Shs10,000 as commission and on a bad one it can be anything below Shs5,000.

Titbits
For 47 years, there is basically little Kayima has not seen.
He has been in the newspaper industry and has seen the highs and lows of the media industry, especially in print media.
At least, according to Kayima, the industry is facing challenges from new technology, especially online publication and social media.

However, he is cognizant of innovations that newspapers have come up with to stay relevant.
Newspapers are exploring new avenues such investigations, special projects and new market driven products.