Hilary Ng’weno’s Weekly Review is the publication that has refused to die even after it folded in 1999. Its old copies litter the streets of Nairobi where vendors arrange them neatly next to inimitable international titles like the National Geographic.
Those who worked for WR under the leadership of founder Ng’weno have risen to occupy corner offices while some are respected professors, communication authorities, and sought-after content carvers.
Mutuma Mathiu, under whose leadership as Editor-in-Chief Nation Media Group is reviving the publication after 23 years, says Ng’weno picked graduates with “good qualifications” to train on the job as journalists. Ng’weno succeeded in this journalism training journey.
After the NMG ran teasers, saying the Weekly Review was returning, enthusiasts kept saying how the rebirth was a major development, praising how the publication raised the bar under HBN, as Ng’weno was well known.
However, it remains to be seen whether the publication will survive and shine against a litany of publications, some of which are presenting analyses from cover to cover having learnt the style from Weekly Review.
Knowing this too well, NMG is going for the tried and tested hands that worked for the publication. While the name and red-border design of the publication remain, these journalists are entering a cut-throat competition environment where readers are used to keeping it short and simple, used to social media din.
Some of the then WR journalists who are bouncing back with the new baby are Kwendo Opanga, Jaindi Kisero, Muiru Ngugi, Macharia Gaitho, and McOwiti O. Thomas.
Well, NMG that launched its first newspapers in 1960, knows too well the weight of generations, including that of readers and publications, and is going for a blend to push the new WR journey that Mathiu says is “an experiment” and a “journey of discovery” that “will take work to strike the right balance”.
Distributed free of charge with the Sunday Nation, the relaunch Weekly Review editor is Allan Buluku, a former Daily Nation sports editor who has been a quality editor since he returned to the so-called twin towers, the building that houses the publisher.
“Based on the impressive history of The Weekly Review, we will be as open as possible,” says Buluku, adding the paper will cover the nation’s creative nous through culture, science and business.
Muiru Ngugi, now a don, says the “cross-breed of the old and the new promises to deliver a great product.”
Ng’weno, a Harvard-trained physicist, launched Weekly Review in 1975. He died on July 7, 2021 at 83 years.
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