Zimbabwe online publications suffer from power shortages

ZwNwes.com

As Zimbabwe continues to face power shortages, online publications are not being spared, as most of their traffic struggle to get connectivity.

Mobile networks have been slow during loadsheding, most people also fail to get online, as their mobile phones and devices run out of battery power, with no electricity to recharge them.

According to Hootsuite’s report as at January 2019, about 1.6 million were active social media users, with indications that online news sites were key players as people search for and share news content.

One online news follower bemoaned how power supply challenges have affected his desire to get breaking news, he is an ardent follower of this publication.

An online publisher also confirmed that power shortages has affected traffic on their site, and indicated they are contemplating running their sites from another country.

“Since loadsheding hyped, there has been a slight drop in traffic on our site. People have been failing to get online as they would like, owing to either slow connectivity, or because their gadgets could have run out of battery power.

“We are currently planning to widen our coverage by establishing other sites in a number of countries where electricity is available 24/7,” said the publisher who declined to be named.

In a related matter, speaking at a content creation workshop organised by MISA Zimbabwe, held at a local hotel in Harare yesterday, participants called on publishers and content creators to maintain credibility in their productions.

It was also noted that on average Zimbabweans spend 50 minutes a day on the top six news sites, as they want to keep abreast of the developments. It has also been noted that Zimbabweans living abroad are also key consumers of online news content, as they have no access to print.

In the current digital era, it is believed that online publications are having competitive edge over the traditional print, and are set to scale even greater heights. Analysts believe for as long as online publications maintain credibility, they are set to grow bigger.