Citizen Digital the most popular online news site in Kenya - Reuters Report

Citizen Digital has been recognised by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism as Kenya's most popular online news platform.

This follows an online survey conducted by the institute on mainly English-speaking, online news users in Kenya making it the second year in a row that Citizen Digital has topped the survey.

The respondents were drawn from a pool of young, affluent and educated Kenyan aged between 18 and 50.

According to the report, 58 percent of respondents visited the Citizen Digital platform in 2022, with 46 percent frequenting the news site at least three days a week.

Opera News came in second in the list with 53 percent of participants turning to the platform for news in the period under review. 32 percent of these visited the site at least thrice per week.

Nation Online, KTN News (including KTN Home) and Kenyans rounded off the top 5 with a 48, 40 and 28 percent share respectively. Approximately 19 percent of the survey's answerers likewise listened in to Radio Citizen Online within the same period.

"Most news media continue to struggle in an unforgiving winner-takes-most online environment, where the bulk of audience attention and advertising spending goes to digital platforms, and where many new voices – ranging from creators and influencers to activists and politicians – are carving out their own place, competing head-on with journalists for attention," Prof. Rasmus Kleis Nielsen Director, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) said in the report.

In terms of traditional media, Citizen TV is the most tuned in local TV station at 72 percent with KTN News (55pc) , Daily Nation (54pc), NTV (41 pc) and the Standard (41pc) taking the top five slots. 31 percent of all respondents likewise listened to Citizen Radio as per the survey with 17 percent tuning in at least 3 days a week.

KTN News was likewise identified by respondents as being the most trusted source of news in the country at 85 percent, followed by Daily Nation (85pc), NTV (84pc), The Standard (82pc) and Citizen TV (82pc).

The report also notes that Facebook and WhatsApp are still among the most popular social media platforms. However, TikTok has been growing in popularity, especially during the COVID-19 lockdown when people would share funny or exciting updates or events in their neighbourhood.