Standard Group Limited (SGL) on Wednesday confirmed the worst fears of most journalists at the company after it announced that it will retrench more than 100 employees at the firm from January 2023.

The Kenyan legacy media company made the unsettling announcement during a staff meeting held at its Mombasa Road-based offices as it struggles to stay afloat revenue-wise.

This comes amid reports that SGL had not paid its staff members, including journalists, their salaries for the past two months raising queries on its financial status and leaving many employees deeply demoralised.

During the Wednesday staff meeting, Standard Group Limited CEO Orlando Lyomu said the media house had no choice but to retrench employees and slash salaries from January 2023 due to dwindling revenues.

SGL, which runs The Standard newspaper, tv stations KTN and KTN News as well as radio stations Radio Maisha and Vybes Radio, recently directed journalists to work from home.

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Standard Group Center. PHOTO/COURTESY

Sources have told Swala Nyeti that this comes two weeks after an ugly scuffle broke out between the CEO and Chief Finance Officer Joseph Kiruri at the Standard Offices on Mombasa Road that saw the latter resign from the company.

The struggling media house on September 30 announced its plans to lay off more than 200 employees but the golden handshake implications of such a move on the firm hampered.

Sources have intimated that Lyomu also indicated that SGL’s new strategy to leverage the global digital disruption of the newsroom informed the decision to send many into inflation.

Orlando Lyomu. PHOTO/COURTESY

He added that the media linked to the Moi family is adopting a leaner and more efficient business model to recover from adverse effects of the pandemic and economic turmoil.

SGL posted a pre-tax loss of Sh434.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2020 but cut this to Sh22 million for the same period last year as it grapples with huge loan repayments.

The media house has been bleeding its top talents over its financial woes with KTN senior news editor Ben Kitili quitting to join NTV to become its current Managing Editor.

KTN News top anchor Akisa Wandera left for BBC in February 2022 and her colleague Lindah Oguttu exited in November 2021 to head the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) Transition Committee secretariat following disbandment of FKF by former Sports CS Amina Mohamed.