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Renewing its vow to innovate

Iréne-Mari van der Walt

Namibia Media Holdings (NMH) is the largest media house in Namibia which acts as an umbrella to three daily newspapers. NMH publishes the Namibian Sun, Allgemeine Zeitung and Republikein newspapers daily. Within the the past few years, the company has ballooned to offer shows, events, marketing expertise, digital solutions and a commercial printer under different brands that form part of the NMH family.

The oldest of the NMH brands, the German daily newspaper Allgemeine Zeitung, was founded in 1916 and is the only German-language newspaper on the African continent. Currently Frank Steffen is at the helm of this newspaper as well as managing the Tourismus publication which, as the name suggests, is built around Namibian tourism. Tourismus has since sprouted an accompanying show under the same name.

NMH (then Democratic Media Holdings or DMH) acquired the Allgemeine Zeitung in 1991. That same year, the company also acquired Die Republikein (now just Republikein) which is the daily Afrikaans newspaper under the umbrella. This publication first came off the press in 1977 under the legendary Dirk Mudge.

Republikein was the forerunner in NMH’s creation of shows as it was the first publication to start producing a complimentary news talk show, ‘Kletskompas’, in 2019.

Since the inception of ‘Kletskompas’, Namibia Media Events (NME) and NME Studios have made it possible for the media giant to regularly produce 26 shows as well as consistent live broadcasts which are available for enjoyment on NMH’s online streaming platform, oneuptwo.com.

Available for viewing on oneuptwo.com is NMH’s breakfast show, ‘Africa Good Morning’, which keeps viewers updated on the latest news from all over SADC, and ‘Brave Namibia’, which aims to give Namibians the platform to tell their own stories, as well as ‘Active Kids’, meant to keep the little ones entertained – to name but a few.

The creation of shows as well as the establishment of a marketing solutions brand, Synergi, is but one small piece of NMH’s future plans.

“For the last six years NMH has transformed the media landscape to make room for the new media environment and to serve our diverse readers and followers via several platforms. NMH’s reach has never been this big and we are continuously growing to meet this demand.

“We as a team at NMH had to transform skills to equip our staff to successfully execute these functions to be able to serve or communities with up-to-date, real-time reporting all over Namibia,” says NMH marketing manager Hennie Geldenhuys, noting the shift from the name Democratic Media Holdings to Namibia Media Holdings.

The name change was brought about to reflect the company’s commitment to the nation it serves and renew its vow to innovate.

As a sign of loyalty to Namibia, NMH not only uplifts readers but has created the ‘My Zone’ brand aimed specifically at the youth. This came of the NMH School Newspaper Project, which exposes young Namibians to the media industry at high-school level and equips them to be successful in a media career through practical experience.