It is a Thursday, September 10, 2009 and I have reported for work as Senior News Reporter at my old workplace, The New Times. After six years in public relations and business development in both government and private sector. I found that the newspaper which was small when I left is now one of the best in the media industry around. It has gone daily, office space is much better, there are new rules, the number of staff is considerably big and the infrastructure is relatively better. When I joined The New Times in 2002, like majority of the staff at the time, I was young and fresh from school. The other colleagues were still pursuing their undergraduate degrees. At the time, we operated from a basement of dust coated building in Kacyiru called Petit Meridien deriving its name from the then Meridien Hotel, the current Laico Hotel. This office space was one of extremes. On a sunny day the newsroom could get extremely hot and very cold during night. Though the office was not enabling, it created a business opportunity for the lady who operated a bar in the backyard. This lady understood her market well, we did not have to pay cash, and the understanding was that you drink on credit and pay when salaries are dished on. There was no defaultin. We picked our salaries from the cashier upstairs and on exit you would find the bar owner at the door – you had to clear your debt right there. But this was not the only reason that occasioned compliance, failure to pay meant that you would be in the bad books of the lady who would take care of you for the next thirty days. So when I reported, I did not only find a newspaper that is housed in a magnificent building that enables business, new faces, different structures but also new rules. Early, in the morning a lady armed with a register is seated at the entrance and you have to write down your names, your role at the company and time you have reported for duty. The author is a journalist with The New Times.
